Milestones

DIED French tennis player Mathieu Montcourt, 24, who was ranked 119th in the world, had just begun a six-week suspension–for betting on matches in which he did not play–when he was found dead July 7 in Paris. The cause of death was not immediately known.

A renowned modernist painter, Tyeb Mehta, 84, made history at a 2005 auction when his Mahisasura, which depicts a goddess defeating a demon, sold for nearly $1.6 million, the highest sum ever paid for the work of a living Indian artist.

Mollie Sugden, 86, was already a familiar face on British television, but her role as salesclerk Betty Slocombe on the 1970s BBC comedy Are You Being Served? made her a star in the U.K. In the ’90s, she gained popularity in the U.S. when reruns aired on PBS.

As publisher of the now defunct Philadelphia Bulletin, Robert E.L. Taylor, 96, oversaw what was one of the country’s largest evening newspapers. In 1963 he was briefly jailed for refusing to reveal sources for a corruption story–an early test case in the battle over journalists’ rights.

ANNOUNCED In an incursion into Microsoft’s territory, Google revealed plans to release an operating system designed for PCs in 2010. The news came the same day the company removed the “beta” label from its Gmail application, which debuted in 2004.

MOVING ON After 39 years of counting down pop songs for adoring radio audiences, broadcaster Casey Kasem, 77, switched off his microphone on July 4.