Born. To Senator Strom Thurmond, 69, South Carolina's maverick senior statesman (and most prominent physical fitness fanatic), who bolted the Democrats and became a Republican, and Nancy Thurmond, 25, Miss South Carolina of 1966: their second child, first son; in Greenwood, S.C. Name: James Strom Thurmond Jr.

Married. William Harrah, 61, gambling impresario who parlayed a bingo parlor into Nevada casinos (Harrah's Reno and Lake Tahoe clubs), second in winnings only to those of Howard Hughes; and Roxana Carlson, 32, a model; he for the fifth time, she for the second; at his Lake Tahoe estate.

Divorced. Andy Griffith, 46, drawling, country-boy actor (No Time for Sergeants, A Face in the Crowd), who went on to an eight-year TV stint as the corn-bread sheriff of Mayberry on the Andy Griffith Show; and Barbara Griffith, 46; after 23 years of marriage, two children; in Santa Monica, Calif.

Died. Orlando Wilson, 72, criminologist and former Chicago police chief; of a stroke; in Poway, Calif. Wilson was dean of criminology at Berkeley when Mayor Richard Daley drafted him to reform a police department charged with corruption and inefficiency. Wilson created a special 200-man squad to crack down on police malfeasance, increased street patrols, reduced paper work and otherwise upgraded the force before retiring in 1967.

Died. Leo G. Carroll, 80, British-born actor most familiar to television audiences as the urbane banker in the Topper series and the poker-faced spy master in The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; of cancer; in Hollywood. A shy man who regarded acting as therapy for his diffidence, Carroll enjoyed steady employment in hundreds of plays (Angel Street, The Late George Apley), scores of films (Spellbound, the 1939 Wuthering Heights) and frequent TV appearances, in a career that lasted more than half a century.

Died. Harlow Shapley, 86, Harvard astronomer who proved that the earth and its solar system lay at the fringes rather than the center of the Milky Way; after a long illness; in Boulder, Colo. Shapley's study of globular star clusters and the changing luminosity of variable stars led to new means of measuring the vast distances across space and helped to disprove the belief that the earth's sun stood at the center of the universe. During the '40s and '50s he focused his gaze on earthly affairs, vehemently opposing McCarthyism, assaults on academic freedom and a foreign policy built on antiCommunism.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.