Milestones

By Melissa August, Harriet Barovick, ELIZABETH L. BLAND, Julie Norwell, Logan E. Orlando

NOMINATED. ANDREW VON ESCHENBACH, 64, as George W. Bush's third Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner; in Washington. The promotion of Von Eschenbach, who has been acting FDA chief since the resignation of Lester Crawford last September, promptly stalled over the controversy surrounding Plan B, the "morning after" pill. A urology surgeon who has led the National Cancer Institute since 2002 (he now plans to retire from that job), Von Eschenbach enters a long-simmering battle. The Bush Administration has so far delayed a decision on whether to approve the emergency contraceptive pill for over-the-counter use despite a green light from FDA scientists. Critics, including Democratic Senators Patty Murray and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who last week vowed to put a hold on his nomination pending an FDA decision, say the agency is compromising science to appease conservatives.

DIED. ANN CALVELLO, 76, fiery Roller Derby Queen and a reigning icon of the American sport cum spectacle since the 1940s; in Burlingame, Calif. Cast as a villain who relished boos from the crowd, she reached her zenith in the '60s as a star of San Francisco's famed Bay City Bombers. With purple, green and polka-dot hair, tattoos and a flair for elbow-throwing, the Meanest Mama on Skates endured 12 broken noses and numerous cracked ribs competing over seven decades.

DIED. LENNART MERI, 76, witty, charismatic first President of independent Estonia after its 1991 split from the Soviet Union; in Tallinn. A survivor of a Soviet labor camp, he pushed free-market policies and established close ties with the U.S. during his two terms as President.

DIED. MAUREEN STAPLETON, 80, brilliant, adamantly unglamorous actress who, despite an utterly unpretentious style--"The main thing is to keep the audience awake," she said of her craft--won awards and critical raves for astute, rich performances over her 60-year career; in Lenox, Mass. She got her break in 1951 as a passionate Italian-American widow in Tennessee Williams' The Rose Tattoo, for which she won a Tony. Later she created roles in Neil Simon plays like Plaza Suite and won an Oscar for her portrayal of anarchist Emma Goldman in the 1981 film Reds.

DIED. G. WILLIAM MILLER, 81, indefatigably optimistic Federal Reserve Chairman, then Treasury Secretary, during the Carter Administration who battled inflation and engineered the 1979 government bailout that saved carmaker Chrysler from bankruptcy; in Washington.

DIED. ROBERT BAKER, 84, food scientist credited with inventing the chicken nugget; in North Lansing, N.Y. He revolutionized the poultry industry by developing ways of separating and binding together chicken meat, then making it stick to its breading--innovations that spawned such snacks as dinosaur-shaped nuggets and chicken ham.

DIED. OLEG CASSINI, 92, Paris-born designer who convinced Jacqueline Kennedy she should have one chief couturier, then went on to create the elegant dresses and pillbox hats that made her the most stylish, most copied First Lady in U.S. history; on Long Island, N.Y. After dressing Marilyn Monroe and onetime fiance Grace Kelly in Hollywood, the pioneer "celebrity designer" set up shop in New York City in the '50s and launched still popular trends such as A-line dresses and men's colored shirts before taking the White House position in 1961. His motto: "Be mobile at all times."

DIED. RAY MEYER, 92, avuncular basketball coach who led DePaul University to 724 wins from 1942 to '84; in Wheeling, Ill. The Hall of Famer's prize pupil was 6-ft. 10-in. George Mikan, who, under Meyer's tutelage in the '40s, morphed into basketball's first great "big man."