Milestones

DROPPED

The U.S. unemployment rate, to 5.8%, its lowest level since July 2008. Wages continue to stagnate, however, and the long-term-unemployment rate remains high.

WON

By Republican Dan Sullivan, the election in Alaska for U.S. Senate. Sullivan defeated Democratic incumbent Mark Begich in a close race called after the GOP had already won the Senate.

DIED

Bahamian pastor and author Myles Munroe, 60, in a plane crash that also killed his wife and the seven other people onboard.

DIED

John Doar, 92, civil rights lawyer who put Ku Klux Klansmen behind bars and helped protect black student James Meredith as the University of Mississippi introduced integration.

DEMOTED

By the Vatican, American Cardinal Raymond Burke, from Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal to Patron of the Order of Malta, a largely symbolic role. He had spoken out against Pope Francis.

DIED

Rapper Henry “Big Bank Hank” Jackson, 58, of the Sugarhill Gang. The group’s breakout hit, “Rapper’s Delight,” was the first rap song to make Billboard’s Top 40.