Milestones

DIED

W. Watts Biggers, 85, a co-creator of the 1960s animated cartoon Underdog. The show, about a basset hound turned superhero who spoke in rhyming couplets, ran from 1964 until 1973.

CHOSEN

Chesty, a 9-week-old English bulldog, as the next mascot of the U.S. Marine Corps. He is named after Lieut. General Lewis “Chesty” Puller (1898–1971), one of the most decorated officers in the history of the Marines.

REVERSED

The decision, by the producers of Maker’s Mark whiskey, to water down the Kentucky bourbon, after a backlash by consumers against their plan to reduce its alcohol content from 90 to 84 proof.

RETIRED

General John Allen, commander of allied forces in Afghanistan from July 2011 to February 2013; Allen had been tapped as the next Supreme Allied Commander Europe but retired to care for his ailing wife.

STOLEN

$50 million worth of diamonds, in a heist at the Brussels airport; the thieves, apparently disguised as policemen, stormed a plane bound for Switzerland and took the jewels without firing a shot.

DIED

Jake McNiece, 93, a leader of the Filthy 13, an incorrigible but skilled group of paratroopers who parachuted behind German lines and destroyed a key bridge during the 1944 D-Day invasion.