Milestones

By Melissa August, Val Castronovo, Matthew Cooper, Ling Minhua, Lina Lofaro, Ellin Martens, Benjamin Nugent, Michele Orecklin, Julie Rawe, Sora Song, Josh Tyrangiel

APPOINTED. RUTH SIMMONS, 55, president of Smith College; to the presidency of Brown University; in Providence, R.I. The youngest of 12 in a Texas sharecropper's family, she is the first black president of an Ivy League institution.

RESIGNING. BERNARD SHAW, 60, CNN anchor who pioneered 24-hr. news coverage and was one of the Boys of Baghdad during the Gulf War; after 20 years. He will leave in February to write his autobiography.

RECOVERING. "JODIE," 3 months, conjoined twin of "Mary"; in Manchester, England. The twins were born attached at the abdomen. An operation separated them and ended the life of Mary, who depended on Jodie's heart. The parents opposed the separation but were overruled by the court.

DIED. DAVID BROWER, 88, uncompromising environmental activist; of cancer; in Berkeley, Calif. Brower helped transform the Sierra Club from a 7,000-member club into one of America's most influential environmental groups. He later founded Friends of the Earth, the League of Conservation Voters and the Earth Island Institute. He resigned in protest from the Sierra Club board several times. "The world is burning," he said, "and all I hear from them is the music of violins."

DIED. JIMMIE DAVIS, thought to be 101, the "Singing Governor" of Louisiana; in Baton Rouge. Davis, who penned, by his own estimation, more than 400 songs, including You Are My Sunshine, served as an ineffectual segregationist Governor from 1944 to '48 and 1960 to '64. "He served two terms as Governor of Louisiana and was never indicted," said former Governor Edwin W. Edwards (who was). "That's a genuine achievement."