Milestones

HIRED

Marvin Ellison, as president and future CEO of JCPenney. He joins the company from Home Depot and will move into the CEO role in August 2015, succeeding Myron E. Ullman III.

ANNOUNCED

By Lockheed Martin, that fusion reactors small enough to fit onto the back of a truck will be available in a decade. Fusion has been the energy industry’s white whale for generations, with breakthroughs often elusive.

DIED

Jan Hooks, 57, actor and comedian best known for her work on Saturday Night Live, where she impersonated figures like Sinead O’Connor and Ivana Trump.

WON

The Nobel Prizes in Literature and Economics, by two Frenchmen: Patrick Modiano, a novelist whose stories are often set during World War II, and Jean Tirole, whose theories examine how to regulate monopolies.

UPHELD

The California ban on foie gras, by the U.S. Supreme Court. The state had deemed inhumane the process of force-feeding ducks and geese to fatten their livers.

ANNOUNCED

That HBO will launch a stand-alone streaming service in 2015, in hopes of attracting new viewers who don’t subscribe to cable television.