Milestones

DIED

Sam Berns, 17, Massachusetts high-schooler whose struggle with progeria, an extremely rare genetic disorder that causes rapid premature aging, was chronicled in the HBO documentary Life According to Sam.

ACQUIRED

By Suntory Holdings of Japan, Beam Inc., producer of Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark bourbons, for $13.6 billion, making the company the world’s third largest liquor producer.

DIED

Larry Speakes, 74, acting White House press secretary for six years after his boss, James Brady, was seriously wounded during the 1981 attempt on Ronald Reagan’s life.

DIED

Franklin McCain, 74, one of the Greensboro Four who helped inspire the sit-ins of the civil rights movement after he and three friends sat at a whites-only lunch counter in North Carolina in 1960.

CAPTURED

By Gracie Gold, the U.S. Figure Skating Championships title, ensuring the 18-year-old an opportunity to compete at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

DIED

Amiri Baraka, 79, African-American poet, playwright and activist. As LeRoi Jones, he won fame for his 1964 play Dutchman but later faced repeated claims of anti-Semitism.

This appears in the January 27, 2014 issue of TIME.

Contact us at letters@time.com.