MILESTONES

ARRESTED. RUTHANN ARON, 54, a Republican primary candidate for the Senate in 1994; on charges of soliciting murder; in Gaithersburg, Md. In this stranger-than-Fargo tale, Aron allegedly hired a hit man (actually an undercover cop) to do away with her husband of more than 30 years, Barry, and a lawyer who testified against her in a defamation suit she filed in 1994.

CONVICTED. ALEX KELLY, 30, high school wrestler turned Euro playboy who spent eight years on the lam; of raping a 16-year-old in 1986; in Stamford, Conn. His first trial deadlocked last November. Kelly faces up to 20 years in prison.

DIED. KAREN WETTERHAHN, 48, chemistry professor at Dartmouth College who studied how toxic metals inhibit DNA repair; of poisoning, months after two drops of the rare compound dimethylmercury spilled onto her latex gloves; in Lebanon, N.H.

DIED. LI SHUXIAN, 72, the last wife of China's last Emperor, Pu Yi, who abdicated from the Dragon Throne at age 6; of lung cancer; in Beijing. Li was a nurse at the hospital where Pu Yi received treatment while he was a prisoner of Mao's harsh "re-education" program. Of their marriage in 1962, Pu Yi wrote, "I and my bride...started our own little home, and this ordinary home was, to me, something extraordinary."

DIED. REID SHELTON, 72, powerful baritone who originated Broadway's bighearted and deep-pocketed Daddy Warbucks in Annie; following heart surgery; in Portland, Ore.

HOSPITALIZED. VLADIMIR KONSTANTINOV, 30, popular defenseman for the Detroit Red Wings, which won the National Hockey League championship on June 7; with life-threatening head injuries after a car crash; in Royal Oak, Mich. Konstantinov, who came to Detroit in 1991 from the Soviet Central Red Army club, was a passenger in a limo driven by a man whose license had been revoked.

DIED. STANLEY SCHACHTER, 75, social psychologist who found consequence in the quotidian; of colon cancer; in East Hampton, N.Y. Among his seemingly obvious notions: obese people overeat past the point of hunger; academics say "uhm" to buy time; individuals influence the stock market. He modestly called one of his theories "bubba psychology."

DIED. DIOGENES ANGELAKOS, 77, pioneering engineer at the University of California, Berkeley, whose studies of electromagnetic waves were interrupted in 1982 when a device of the Unabomber ripped apart his hand; in Berkeley.

RELEASED. ELMER ("Geronimo") PRATT, 49, feisty Black Panther who maintained throughout 27 years in prison that the FBI framed him for murder; on bail; in Santa Ana, Calif. The judge recently overturned Pratt's 1972 conviction because of revelations that the key prosecution witness had been a bureau informant.