Milestones

By Melissa August, Harriet Barovick, ELIZABETH L. BLAND, Kathleen Kingsbury, Clayton Neuman, Julie Norwell, Logan Orlando

CONVICTION UPHELD. Of MARTHA STEWART, 64, homemaking CEO who had pursued the appeal of her 2004 conviction for lying about why she sold ImClone stock that fell in price soon after her trade; despite having completed her jail sentence for the crime; by a federal judge; in New York City.

ABANDONED. By TOM DELAY, 58, his bid to remain House majority leader, amid a series of congressional scandals and calls by fellow Republicans for him to step down (see page 30).

IDENTIFIED. The body of BARRY COWSILL, 51, bass player for the hugely popular 1960s family pop group the Cowsills, who inspired TV's The Partridge Family, who disappeared in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and was found on Dec. 28 on the Chartres Street wharf in New Orleans. With their good looks and bouncy harmonies, the Cowsills--including Barry's brothers Bill, Bob, John and Paul, sister Susan and mother Barbara--charted eight pop singles from 1967 to '69, with their biggest hits, Hair and The Rain, the Park and Other Things, both reaching No. 2.

DIED. SHEIK MAKTOUM BIN RASHID AL-MAKTOUM, 62, pragmatic, business-minded Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and emir of Dubai who oversaw his city-state's transformation from a minor trading post to a modern metropolis; of a suspected heart attack; in Australia. With brothers Mohammed--who succeeds him as emir--and Hamdan, the avid thoroughbred fan founded Godolphin, one of horse racing's most winning stables.

DIED. LOU RAWLS, 72, Grammy-winning singer who performed doo-wop with high school pal Sam Cooke before recording a long list of soulful tunes for broader audiences in genres from jazz to gospel; of lung and brain cancer; in Los Angeles. Making more than 50 albums over 40 years, the man who Frank Sinatra said had the "silkiest chops in the singing game" topped the charts with R&B tunes (Love Is a Hurtin' Thing), pre-rap monologues (Tobacco Road) and, during the height of the 1970s disco craze, the rich, sophisticated "Philadelphia sound" typified on his signature megahit, You'll Never Find (Another Love Like Mine).

DIED. YAO WENYUAN, 74, the last surviving member of China's Gang of Four, the ring of radical Maoists--led by Mao Zedong's wife Jiang Qing--who directed the jailings, beatings and purges of legions of perceived enemies during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and '70s; of diabetes; in a location undisclosed by Chinese officials. Arrested a month after Mao's death, Yao spent 20 years in jail before being released in 1996.

DIED. OFELIA FOX, 82, manager and "first lady" of Havana's famed Tropicana nightclub during its 1950s heyday, when regulars included Marlon Brando and Joan Crawford; in Burbank, Calif. With its casino, showgirls and lavish stage shows, the club was a renowned hot spot before Castro took it over in 1959.

Died. FRANK WILKINSON, 91, anti-poverty Los Angeles public-housing official turned civil rights activist, and one of the last two people in the U.S. to be jailed for refusing to answer the question, Are you a communist?; in Los Angeles. In the early '50s, at a hearing for an innovative low-income, racially integrated housing project--one viewed with suspicion by the city's business leaders--an official asked for a list of his affiliations. After refusing to answer, and later doing the same before the House Un-American Activities Committee, he was fired, spent nine months in jail and later co-founded the pro-dissent First Amendment Foundation.

DIED. HEINRICH HARRER, 93, Austrian adventurer and ex-Nazi whose 1953 memoir, Seven Years in Tibet, was the basis for the 1997 film, in which he was played by Brad Pitt; in Vienna. A onetime SS member who later renounced Nazism, Harrer was a skilled alpinist. In 1938 he took part in the first ascent of the Eiger north face in Switzerland. The next year, he embarked on a Himalayan expedition that led to his stay in Tibet, during which he became a teacher, adviser and friend to the Dalai Lama.

26 YEARS AGO IN TIME The Abramoff scandal is only the latest example of dubious money sources greasing politicians' palms. In 1980, the Abscam controversy spotlighted CONGRESSIONAL CORRUPTION.

"Everybody was laughing at what was happening. It was like guys coming out of the bush, saying, 'Hey, give me some of the money.' They'd pay one guy and the next day five guys would be calling them, guys they didn't know. The tapes are hilarious." So said a former federal prosecutor last week, but on Capitol Hill no one shared the amusement. Too many of "the guys" were members of Congress, and "the tapes" were both video and audio, catching the sight and sound of them accepting money to perform special favors ... [T]he FBI had lured the lawmakers into the focus of hidden television cameras in the most sensational undercover operation it had ever conducted. When the FBI sting ended, its supervisors alleged that the ... money had attracted one U.S. Senator, seven members of the House and two dozen state and local officials. --TIME, Feb. 18, 1980

>Read the entire article at time.com/years