Milestones

DIED

Stuart Hall, 82, British social theorist, author and academic. Hall is widely considered the founder of the scholarly field of cultural studies.

DIED

Bob Casale, 61, guitarist and founding member of new-wave band Devo, which released its first album in 1978 and had a hit single two years later with “Whip It.”

DIED

Mavis Gallant, 91, acclaimed Canadian short-story writer whose works, molded by a childhood marked by upheaval, appeared in the New Yorker and elsewhere over a half century.

RELEASED

By hip-hop group De La Soul, their entire catalog for free download. Partly because of copyright issues related to sampling, the group’s songs are not typically available from online vendors.

DIED

Chad Kellogg, 42, elite mountain climber who helped pioneer a new form, speed climbing, that emphasizes fast ascent. Kellogg died after being struck by a falling rock.

DIED

Jamie Coots, 42, snake-handling preacher featured on Snake Salvation; he died soon after being bitten by a rattlesnake during a service at his Middlesboro, Ky., church.