Milestones

DIED. SABURO IENAGA, 89, Japanese historian nominated for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize who devoted more than 50 years of his life to campaigning against the watering down of Japan’s wartime atrocities in school textbooks; in Tokyo. Ienaga’s crusade began in 1965 when he sued the government for rejecting his revised edition of A New History of Japan. Detailing the darker side of the country’s past, including the Rape of Nanjing and experiments on POWs, the book was criticized by the Ministry of Education for being “too gloomy on the whole.” The Supreme Court finally approved it in 1997.

AWARDED. JOHN MILLS, 94, British actor who, during a 70-year-long career, has appeared in over 120 movies; the prestigious British Academy of Film and Television Arts Fellowship for his “outstanding contribution to world cinema”; in London. Mills won an Oscar in 1971 for his performance in Ryan’s Daughter, and was knighted five years later for his service to film. Previous winners of the Fellowship award include Charlie Chaplin, Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg.

RESIGNED. YUKIO HATOYAMA, 55, president of the Democratic Party of Japanthe country’s largest opposition partyand grandson of former Prime Minister Ichiro Hatoyama; in Tokyo. Although Hatoyama has headed the DPJ since its inception in 1996, he has recently come under fire for the party’s high-profile internal struggles and waning popularity. His sudden downfall last week followed a botched attempt to merge with another political party.

SENTENCED. LUORANG DENGZHU AND ANGAG TASHI, two Tibetan men; to death by a Chinese court for their involvement in a spate of bomb blasts in a southwestern province bordering Tibet; in Garze Prefecture, Sichuan. Tashi, whose sentence has been suspended for two years, is an influential community leader who studied under the Dalai Lama.

RESIGNED. LORD EVANS, 61, savvy British publishing giant, as chairman of book publisher Faber and Faber after 38 years, to become a government whip in the House of Lords; in London.

DIED. EDWARD LATIMER “NED” BEACH, 84, U.S. Navy captain and author who wrote the best-selling submarine thriller Run Silent, Run Deep, which was made into a 1958 movie starring Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster; in Washington D.C. Beach was awarded 10 decorations for bravery during World War II, including the Navy Cross for his role in sinking Japanese ships close to enemy shores. In 1960 he commanded a submarine that circled the world in 84 days without surfacinga record that still stands.

DIED. NE WIN, 91, former military dictator of Burma who isolated the country and led it to economic ruin; while under house arrest in Rangoon. Ne Win ruled Burma from 1962 to 1988.

DIED. ROONE ARLEDGE, 71, visionary ABC television executive who is credited with revolutionizing news and sports coverage and creating a string of hit shows including ABC’s Wide World of Sports and Nightline; in Manhattan. Renowned for coining “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” tagline, Arledge won almost every award in the industry, including 37 Emmys and broadcasting’s most prestigious accolade: induction into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.

Numbers
23 women were attacked by a crazed monkey that went on a two-day biting spree in the Japanese town of Shimosuwa

$10,500 was the bargain amount paid at a bankruptcy auction for Enron’s “Crooked E,” a sign that used to mark the disgraced company’s headquarters; two other E’s went for $15,000 and $45,000 earlier this year

18% of Britons admitted they had done something embarrassing at office holiday parties, according to a survey by a U.K. financial services company

4% of Britons admitted that the embarrassing deed had been photocopying a body part

3.825 billion years is the age of rocks found by geologists in Qubec, Canada, the oldest mineral deposits ever discovered

1 in 6 candidates in upcoming elections in the Indian state of Gujarat face criminal charges, among them murder, rape and fraud

Omen
The U.S. Postal Service is stockpiling 1.6 million potassium iodide pills to give employees in order to protect them against thyroid cancer in the event of a nuclear attack