Milestones Mar. 21, 2005

RECOVERING. BILL CLINTON, 58, from a four-hour operation to remove fluid and scar tissue from his left chest cavity, a rare complication from his quadruple bypass last fall; at a hospital in New York City, where he will remain for up to 10 days.

CAPTURED. BRIAN NICHOLS, 33, rape defendant accused of killing the judge presiding over his trial; by police, after a massive, 26-hour manhunt; in Atlanta. Nichols allegedly wrestled a gun from a sheriff’s deputy at the Fulton County Courthouse and fatally shot Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, a stenographer and another deputy. Nichols then stole a series of cars–allegedly killing an off-duty federal customs agent in the process–before a woman tipped off police that he had been holding her hostage in her apartment.

KILLED. ASLAN MASKHADOV, 53, separatist leader elected President of the Chechen Republic in 1997, during a brief period of self-rule; by Russian special forces, who cornered him in a bunker and bombed it when he refused to surrender; in Tolstoy-Yurt, Chechnya. After the slaying of this relative moderate, who was open to negotiation with the Russian government, rebels vowed to carry on an Islamic holy war to wrench the region from Russian control.

DIED. BART ROSS, 57, out-of-work electrician who admitted in a suicide note found in his minivan that he was responsible for the murders of the mother and husband of U.S. District Court Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow two weeks ago; by a self-inflicted gunshot after police pulled him over for a broken taillight; in West Allis, Wis. Lefkow last year dismissed Ross’s rambling lawsuit seeking damages from the government for his pain and disfigurement from cancer treatments. His murder confession was corroborated by DNA evidence.

DIED. GLENN DAVIS, 80, Heisman Trophy–winning halfback whose speediness helped Army nab three consecutive championships in the ’40s; in La Quinta, Calif. Known as “Mr. Outside,” he teamed with fullback Doc Blanchard, a.k.a. “Mr. Inside,” to create one of college football’s most dazzling backfields. Davis’ career rushing average of 8.26 yds. per carry is still the NCAA RECORD.

DIED. TERESA WRIGHT, 86, Hollywood actress who achieved the as-yet-unduplicated feat of winning an Oscar nomination for each of her first three films; in New Haven, Conn. After making her screen debut as Bette Davis’ daughter in 1941’s The Little Foxes, she played Lou Gehrig’s wife in The Pride of the Yankees and won an Oscar for her role as Greer Garson’s daughter-in-law in Mrs. Miniver. Her wholesome but refined screen presence graced some of the best films of the ’40s, including Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt and William Wyler’s The Best Years of Our Lives. Still, she was fired by her benefactor, Samuel Goldwyn, for refusing to don swimsuits for publicity photos. “I’m just not the glamour type,” she said.

DIED. MORRIS ENGEL, 86, filmmaker whose 1953 Little Fugitive–a $30,000, documentary-style tale of a boy who runs away because he mistakenly believes he has killed his brother–brought him an Oscar nomination, international acclaim and credit from such directors as François Truffaut and John Cassavetes for influencing the emerging indie-film movement; in New York City.

DIED. HANS BETHE, 98, last of the scientific titans who helped devise the atom bomb for the U.S. government’s top-secret Manhattan Project; in Ithaca, N.Y. Before heading the theoretical-physics division at Los Alamos, the brilliant, unpretentious refugee from Nazi Germany took on an age-old mystery, the question of precisely how the sun and stars keep burning, and solved it in six weeks. Later a vocal proponent of disarmament, he criticized Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars plan in the 1980s, saying, “We need to try to understand the other fellow and try to come to some agreement about the common danger. That is what’s been forgotten.”

By Melissa August, Harriet Barovick, Elizabeth L. Bland, Jeninne Lee-St. John and Julie Rawe