MILESTONES

BORN. To TONY RANDALL, 77, TV series The Odd Couple neatnik Felix Unger, and second wife HEATHER HARLAN, 27, an actress; his first child, Julia Laurette; in New York City.

APPOINTED. FRANCIS GEORGE, 60, doctrinally conservative but socially progressive Roman Catholic prelate; as Archbishop of Chicago, by Pope John Paul II; in Vatican City. A Chicago native, George is a relative newcomer to episcopacy, having served for a year as Archbishop of Portland, Oregon, and six years as Bishop of Yakima,Washington.

DIED. LAURA NYRO, 49, intense and lyrical singer-songwriter whose free-form musical emotionalism captured for many the passions of the 1960s and 1970s; of ovarian cancer; in Danbury, Connecticut. Her unique blend of folk, soul, gospel and Broadway influenced many artists, some of whom turned her tunes into hits. A brief playlist: Wedding Bell Blues (Fifth Dimension), And When I Die (Blood, Sweat and Tears) and Stoney End (Barbra Streisand).

DIED. GERALD GAULL, 66, U.S. pediatrician, whose identification of taurine in mother's milk, an amino acid important for brain development, prompted its inclusion in baby formulas; of an aortic aneurysm; in Quito, Ecuador.

DIED. CHARLES HAYES, 79, Democratic ex-Congressman, labor organizer and civil rights leader who was toppled in 1992 by the House check scandal; in Hazel Crest, Illinois. A Martin Luther King ally in Chicago, he was instrumental in helping elect Harold Washington as the city's first black mayor.

DIED. HELENE HANFF, 80, letter-loving U.S. author, whose wry and witty 20-year correspondence with a London bookseller delighted readers on both shores when she turned it into a book, 84, Charing Cross Road; in New York City. It became a play, then a film with Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins.

DIED. GINO SANTI, 81, U.S. Air Force engineer who developed the pilot ejection system; in Dayton, Ohio. To replace the clumsy climb out of the cockpit, Santi devised a controlled explosion to propel a pilot safely away from a crippled plane.

DIED. HENRY B. HYDE, 81, artful spymaster of Operation Penny Farthing, the critical U.S. intelligence penetration of Nazi-occupied France that helped ensure the success of the Allied landings; in New York City.

DIED. JACK KENT COOKE, 84, imperious business magnate and colorful owner of the Washington Redskins football team; in Washington. A high school dropout who began as an encyclopedia salesman, Cooke built what may be a billion-dollar fortune, freewheeling his way through media properties, sports franchises and real estate. In 1971 he pioneered the closed-circuit mega-sportscast by financing the first Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier match. Fans and foes relished reading about his four tabloid-tale marriages. Approached for a book on the world's five greatest salesmen, Cooke replied, "I am not one of five anything."