Milestones Jul. 15, 1996

PLEADED GUILTY. WILSON PICKETT, 55, rhythm-and-blues singer; to being under the influence of cocaine; in Hackensack, New Jersey. Police arrested Pickett in April after a yelling, bleeding woman ran from his home.

SENTENCED. LYLE MENENDEZ, 28, and ERIK MENENDEZ, 26, to life in prison without parole; for the 1989 murder of their wealthy parents; in Los Angeles.

HOSPITALIZED. CARL SAGAN, 61, Cornell University astronomer of Cosmos TV fame; for possible myelodysplasia, which can lead to leukemia; in Seattle.

HOSPITALIZED. JOHN CHANCELLOR, 68, veteran TV journalist and former NBC News anchor; for undisclosed reasons; in Princeton, New Jersey.

DIED. STEVE TESICH, 53, Yugoslav-born Oscar-winning screenwriter of the 1979 film Breaking Away; of a heart attack; in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Tesich’s works, which often dealt with social issues of his adopted U.S., included the plays The Carpenters and Division Street and the films Eyewitness and The World According to Garp.

DIED. PAMELA MASON, 80, actress and 1960s TV-talk-show host; in Beverly Hills, California. Her marriage to actor James Mason ended in a highly publicized 1964 divorce.

DIED. WILLIAM CAHILL, 84, the moderate, environment-minded G.O.P. Governor of New Jersey who brought football’s New York Giants to his state; in Haddonfield, New Jersey.

DIED. DANIEL TERRA, 85, founder of American art museums in Chicago and Giverny, France; in Washington. Terra was Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign-finance chairman.

DIED. DAVID MCCAMPBELL, 86, Medal of Honor naval aviation ace and commander famous for shooting down 34 Japanese planes during World War II; in Riviera Beach, Florida. His Air Group 15 shot down hundreds more.