Milestones: Feb. 25, 1985

DIED. Ben Abruzzo, 54, ballooning adventurer who braved sub-zero temperatures, raging storms and “cold sinks” in historic first balloon crossings of both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans; in the crash of a twin-engine Cessna 421 plane; in Albuquerque. With fellow New Mexico Businessmen Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman, Real Estate Developer Abruzzo flew the helium-filled Double Eagle II on a six-day journey from a Maine meadow to a French wheatfield in 1978. Three years later, with Newman and two others, he took off in Double Eagle V from Nagashima, Japan, and crash-landed in Northern California after a four-day flight.