Milestones

By Harriet Barovick, Clayton Neuman, Elisabeth Salemme

ELECTED. Cal Ripken Jr., 46, "Iron Man" of the Baltimore Orioles who played in a record 2,632 consecutive games; and Tony Gwynn, 46, a 15-time All- Star with the San Diego Padres; to baseball's Hall of Fame; by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Voters overwhelmingly rejected nominee Mark McGwire, who slugged 583 career homers and was the first man to hit 70 in a single season, but has refused to address persistent allegations of steroid use.

RESIGNED. Stanislaw Wielgus, 67, recently appointed Archbishop of Warsaw; in the wake of disclosures that he collaborated with the Sluzba Bezpieczenstwa, Poland's communist-era secret police; at a ceremony intended to mark his elevation; in Warsaw. Other clergy in the Polish church, a key backer of the pro-democracy Solidarity movement, have been linked to the S.B., but Wielgus' connection is especially painful in Warsaw, where in 1984 the S.B. infamously murdered Jerzy Popieluszko, a highly popular, anticommunist priest. With the publication of documents suggesting Wielgus had informed on clerics for years, the prelate, who maintained he never spied, conceded his "entanglement" had "damaged the church."

DIED. Iwao Takamoto, 81, Japanese-American animator who created the canine cartoon sleuth Scooby-Doo; in Los Angeles. Interned with his family in California during World War II, Takamoto first learned illustration from his fellow detainees. After the war, he apprenticed at Walt Disney Studios, where he worked on films that included Cinderella and Peter Pan. In 1961 he joined Hanna-Barbera, where he designed characters for Scooby-Doo (whose name Takamoto took from a scat line in the Frank Sinatra song Strangers in the Night) as well as for TV cartoons, including The Flintstones and The Jetsons.

DIED. Ruthanna Boris, 88, wry dancer-choreographer who in the '40s became the first American ballerina to earn top billing with the vaunted Ballet Russe; in El Cerrito, Calif. Famous for her versatility--she shone equally in Swan Lake and Frankie and Johnny--she directed pieces like 1947's Cirque de Deux, a spoof that likened ballet dancers to circus performers.

DIED. Vincent Sardi Jr., 91, savvy owner since 1947 of Sardi's, the popular New York City theater- district restaurant; in Berlin, Vt. Known as the Mayor of Broadway, he made the eatery a hospitable, clubby home not just for Broadway directors and stars,whose caricatures adorned the walls, but also for struggling actors, whom Sardi often seated near producers looking to cast shows.

DIED. Carlo Ponti, 94, producer of more than 100 movies, including the Academy Award--winning La Strada and 1965's Doctor Zhivago, and the husband of actress Sophia Loren; in Geneva. Though trained as a lawyer, the movieman clashed several times with the law in his native Italy, most famously when he tried to wed Loren, whom he had met when she was a teenage beauty contestant. The couple first attempted their marriage in 1957, but the bond was annulled because Ponti had previously been married, and divorce was not yet legal in Italy. The two successfully wed in Paris in 1966.

DIED. Momofuku Ando, 96, Japanese food executive who invented instant noodles, now a dietary staple of college students worldwide and a multibillion-dollar industry that sold 85 million packages in 2005; in Osaka. Ando was inspired to create the product--considered by many to be the country's best invention--by the long lines of people waiting to buy black-market ramen in postwar Japan. He introduced chicken ramen in 1958 and later the wildly popular Cup Noodles. Of his success he said, "Peace prevails when food suffices."