Milestones

DIED. Roy Plomley, 71, cheery host for 40 years of the BBC's weekly Desert Island Discs, a radio program famous for attracting such celebrities as Princess Margaret and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for intimate, homey chats; of a heart attack; in London. Plomley's formula was unvarying: he asked each of his 1,791 guests to select eight recordings, one book and one luxury for an indefinite stay on a desert island. Princess Margaret's picks included Rule Britannia; Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer; and Sixteen Tons sung by Tennessee Ernie Ford.