Milestones

GRANTED. THE FIRST LICENSE for a privately built rocket to take passengers on suborbital spaceflights; by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA); in Washington, D.C. The space-launch license, which was given to a California company headed by aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan, represents “a big step” toward space tourism, said FAA spokesman Henry Price. Rutan’s craft, dubbed SpaceShipOne, was successfully tested on Dec. 17 last year. It reaches high altitudes slung beneath the belly of White Knight, an ungainly jet aircraft, before being launched into space. The craft is competing for the $10 million “X Prize” for the first private team to send three humans to an altitude of 100 kilometers twice within two weeks. “If we are successful, our program will mark the beginning of a renaissance for manned space flight,” said Rutan, who also designed the aircraft that in 1986 completed the first nonstop flight around the earth without refueling.

KILLED. HAMSIRAJI SALI, a leader of the extremist Islamic group Abu Sayyaf, and five fellow militants in a shootout with government troops; on the island of Basilan in the southern Philippines. In 2002 the U.S. indicted Sali in connection with the 2001 kidnapping of three Americans, two of whom died in captivity, and offered a $5 million reward for his capture. Sali’s death marked the latest victory for the Philippine government in its recent crackdown on the extremist group. Earlier this month, police arrested six alleged Abu Sayyaf members and seized 50 kilograms of explosives, which authorities said were earmarked for bombings in Manila.

CONFIRMED. WRECKAGE OF A LOCKHEED LIGHTNING P-38 submerged in coastal waters near Marseilles, France, as the aircraft flown by French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry when he vanished during a solo spy mission in World War II; in Marseilles. The fate of Saint-Exupéry, a well-known pilot and writer of the best-selling books Wind, Sand and Stars and The Little Prince, has been one of aviation’s great mysteries since he disappeared on July 31, 1944, after being sent to observe German troop movements. A serial number found on a fragment of the underwater wreck confirmed the plane was Saint-Exupéry’s.

DIED. PIERRE KOENIG, 78, pioneering California architect who shocked suburbia with Modernist glass-and-steel frame homes; in Los Angeles. His cantilevered Case Study House No. 22, below, remains one of the most photographed residences in the world and has been featured frequently in films, advertisements and TV shows. A San Francisco native, Koenig graced southern California with more than 40 eye-popping Modernist homes, including his own magnificent, multilevel Brentwood abode.

DIED. TIMOTHY THE TORTOISE, approximately 160, British navy mascot who in 1854 witnessed the bombing of Sebastopol during the Crimean War aboard H.M.S. Queen and later served in the East Indies and China; at Powderham Castle, England. The five-kilogram veteran enjoyed a lengthy, if largely uneventful, retirement in the Earl of Devon’s garden, although an ill-fated mating attempt in 1926 revealed that he was, in fact, a she. Timothy will be buried with full honors in the castle grounds. —By Austin Ramzy

10 Years Ago In TIME So far, the world has done little to stop the ethnic cleansing of black Africans in western Sudan by Arab militias, a pogrom that allegedly has the support of the Sudanese government. An estimated 10,000 villagers have already been murdered. In May 1994, as genocide swept across Rwanda, TIME explored the inadequacy of the global response to a crisis that would ultimately claim 800,000 lives.

No one is calling for direct intervention … However troubled they might be by the scale and ferocity of the slaughter, Western nations have offered little more than emotional expressions of sympathy for the victims. The American appetite for such missions, even in cases of dire human need, has been dulled by experiences like Somalia. “Lesson No. 1,” President Clinton said last week, “is, Don’t go into one of these things and say, maybe we’ll be done in a month because it’s a humanitarian crisis.” His reluctance mirrors the public’s: a TIME/CNN poll last week showed that only 34% of respondents favored doing something to quell the violence, while 51% opposed any action. —TIME, May 16, 1994

Numbers

$2.4 million Amount won by Guadalupe Lopez, 58, while playing $1 slots at a casino in Atlantic City

$29 million Estimated income in 2003 of Lopez’s daughter, actress Jennifer Lopez

9,500 years Estimated age of the remains of a kitten found in a tomb in Cyprus. Experts believe it is one of the oldest known pet cats

$1.9 million Damages claimed by airlines and the Dāsseldorf airport after a Croatian woman made a bomb threat to avoid taking a vacation with her boyfriend

64,000 Number of passengers the bomb scare left stranded for hours

25,000 Number of hand grenades discovered by Bangladeshi authorities as part of a record haul of smuggled arms. The destination of the cache, which included 150 rocket launchers and 1,200 rifles, hasn’t been confirmed

$50 million Amount allocated by the U.S. Congress for the creation of an indoor rain forest in Coralville, Iowa

$84 million Amount Congress has allocated since 9/11 for antiterrorism measures in New York City