MILESTONES

ARRESTED. JIMMY CHAMBERLIN, 32, Smashing Pumpkins rock drummer; on a drug-possession charge; in New York City. Police said backup keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin, 34, died of an apparent heroin overdose in a hotel room the two had shared.

CHARGED. HARRY MORGAN, 81, deadpan TV actor of M*A*S*H fame; with bruising his wife; in Los Angeles.

RETIRING. KIRBY PUCKETT, 35, the Minnesota Twins' All-Star smiling outfielder and all-around class act; because of irreversible damage to the retina; in Minneapolis.

DIED. JOHN CHANCELLOR, 68, for four decades one of NBC News' journalistic pillars as reporter, anchor and commentator; of stomach cancer; in Princeton, New Jersey. During a wide-ranging career, Chancellor covered the 1957 Little Rock, Arkansas, school-integration crisis, served as Moscow correspondent and interviewed every U.S. President since Harry Truman. He also served briefly as Lyndon Johnson's Voice of America director. One memorable report occurred at the 1964 g.o.p. Convention: when forcibly hustled out for blocking an aisle, he signed off, "This is John Chancellor, somewhere in custody."

DIED. MELVIN BELLI, 88, flamboyant personal-injury and defense attorney dubbed the King of Torts; in San Francisco. Belli pioneered the use of "demonstrative evidence" (unveiling an artificial limb, baring a client's disfigurement) to win over juries, and took on a variety of mass-disaster cases, as well as representing televangelist Jim Bakker and Jack Ruby, the killer of Lee Harvey Oswald.

UNVEILED. Statue of the late ARTHUR ASHE, tennis and equal-rights champion; in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia. After much controversy, the bronze statue was finally placed on Monument Avenue, a city street that had honored only Confederate heroes.