Born. To William Wyler, 50, Hollywood director (The Best Years of Our Lives, Mrs. Miniver); and Margaret Tallichet Wyler, 37, their fourth child, second son; in Rome. Weight: 6 Ibs. 5 oz.

Married. Gene Markey, 56, screen writer, producer (The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes); and Mrs. Lucille Wright, 55, owner of the Calumet Farm racing stables; he for the fourth time (Nos. 1, 2, 3: Joan Bennett, Hedy Lamarr, Myrna Loy), she for the second (she is the widow of Baking Powder Magnate Warren Wright); in Manhattan.

Died. John Cobb, 52, London fur broker and world's auto speed champion (394.19 m.p.h. for one mile, at Utah's Bonneville Flats in 1947); in a speedboat accident; on Scotland's Loch Ness. Trying to break the world's one-mile speedboat record (178.4 m.p.h. held by Seattle's Stanley Sayres), Cobb gunned his jet-propelled "Crusader" hydroplane to about 200 m.p.h., was roaring toward the end of the course's first measured mile when the boat began skipping erratically and, in sight of his wife and friends, exploded in a cloud of spray.

Died. David K. Niles, 62, charter New Dealer and administrative adviser to Presidents Roosevelt (1942-45) and Truman (1945-51); of cancer; in Boston. A Massachusetts-born son of Russian immigrants, Niles was brought to Washington in 1936 by Harry Hopkins, became a White House "mystery man" ("Part of my job is to keep my mouth shut"), specialized in dealing with labor and minority groups. Probably the greatest triumphs he is credited with: i) wangling $500,000 from John L. Lewis for President Roosevelt's 1936 campaign fund, and 2) helping to create the free state of Israel by persuading Truman to back the Zionists.

Died. John Washington Butler, 76, onetime Tennessee state representative who authored the state's 1925 anti-evolution bill; near Lafayette, Tenn. The Butler Bill set off the explosive "monkey trial" of Biology Teacher John Scopes and furnished a stage for the rhetorical fireworks of Prosecutor William Jennings Bryan v. Defense Attorney Clarence Darrow.

Died. Kaarlo Juho Stahlberg, 87, "the George Washington of Finland," who fought for independence from Russia, became its first President (1919-25); in Helsinki.

Died. George Santayana, 88, Spanish-born poet, novelist (The Last Puritan), philosopher (The Sense of Beauty) and onetime (1907-12) Harvard professor who resigned to live in Europe in "the detachment of contemplation"; in Rome (see P-54)-

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