Milestones

By Amanda Bower, Val Castronovo, Randy Hartwell, Ellin Martens, Julie Rawe, Joel Stein, Chris Taylor and Josh Tyrangiel

RECOVERING. RONALD REAGAN, 89, from surgery to repair a broken right hip sustained in a fall at his home; at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif. Reagan, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, had a large metal pin and plate implanted in the hip, secured by a series of screws.

DIVORCING. KIM BASINGER, 47, blond Oscar-winning actress and former Breck girl; from ALEC BALDWIN, 42, actor, activist, eldest Baldwin brother; after a seven-year marriage, citing irreconcilable differences; in Los Angeles.

ADOPTED. By CALISTA FLOCKHART, 36, Ally McBeal star, her first child, a yet unnamed boy born in San Diego on Jan. 1.

RESIGNED. LUCIEN BOUCHARD, 62, Quebec premier who has long fought for the province's sovereignty; in Quebec. He'd been facing criticism from hard-liners.

EUTHANIZED. AFFIRMED, 26, winner of the last Triple Crown in 1978 after three stretch races with Thoroughbred rival Alydar; after suffering a host of leg ailments; in Lexington, Ky.

DIED. MILAN HLAVSA, 49, Czech rock star whose underground group, Plastic People of the Universe, rallied 1970s and '80s dissidents such as Vaclav Havel; of lung cancer; in Prague. Hlavsa named his band for Frank Zappa's song Plastic People. The 1976 arrests of band members inspired the formation of the human-rights group Charter 77 the following year.

DIED. LOWELL PERRY, 68, star football player at the University of Michigan; first post-World War II black assistant NFL coach and chairman of the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission in the Ford Administration; of cancer; in Southfield, Mich. He was also the NFL's first black broadcaster and one of the first blacks to head a major auto plant--for Chrysler in 1973.

DIED. JOHN SCHMITZ, 70, fiery former Orange County Congressman who led Southern California's right wing in the 1960s and '70s; of cancer; in Washington. In 1972 Schmitz replaced George Wallace when the presidential candidate was paralyzed by a would-be assassin. His political career effectively ended in 1982 when it was revealed that he had a pregnant mistress, a former student with whom he had already had a son. And there was further scandal. In 1997 his teacher-daughter Mary Kay LeTourneau, 35, was convicted of having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old student.

DIED. WILLIAM HEWLETT, 87, philanthropist, engineering whiz; in Palo Alto, Calif. Hewlett and fellow Stanford University student David Packard started their company in 1938 in a rented garage with $538. The firm's initial inventions: an automatic urinal flusher and a harmonica tuner. Its first success was selling sound-testing devices to Disney in 1939. HP entered the consumer market in 1972 with pocket calculators. Its growth and capital launched Silicon Valley, but Hewlett seemed prouder of HP's management style, stressing creativity and teamwork. Billionaires Hewlett and Packard rejoined the company in 1990, when they saw it had become unprofitable and stagnant--not the "HP Way." They turned the firm around while competitors remained in the red.