Milestones Feb. 12, 2007

WON. Serena Williams, 25, her third Australian Open championship and eighth Grand Slam event, in a stunning display of force that promises to reinvigorate the women's tour; in a definitive rout of No. 1--ranked Maria Sharapova in straight sets; after injuries and fashion pursuits had sidelined her for more than a year; in Melbourne. Motivated, she said, by the memory of her murdered older half sister Yetunde--whose name she invoked after every net change--Williams became the lowest-ranked woman to win a Grand Slam singles trophy in 29 years and jumped in the world rankings, from 81 to 14. Vowing to refocus her energies on tennis, she said, "I think I get the greatest satisfaction just ... proving everyone wrong. I just love that."

DIED. Dale Noyd, 73, decorated Air Force captain and longtime Air Force Academy teacher who in 1966 drew worldwide attention as a humanist and conscientious objector to one war: Vietnam; of emphysema; in Seattle. After the Air Force refused his request to resign his commission based on his belief that the war was illegal and immoral, he filed a suit against the Pentagon that the Supreme Court declined to hear. Around the same time, he was court-martialed for refusing to train a pilot destined for Vietnam, sentenced to a year in jail and dishonorably discharged.

DIED. Molly Ivins, 62, acerbic commentator, whose columns skewered the high and mighty; after a seven-year fight with breast cancer; in Austin, Texas. Ivins, who famously referred to George W. Bush as "Shrub," could write with heartfelt earnestness yet just as naturally refer to height-challenged politicians as "runts with attitudes." The three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, in a recent column on Bush's troop surge, offered what could serve as her epitaph: "Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous."

DIED. Hugo Moser, 82, neurologist and world authority on the rare disorder adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), known in part for his depiction in Lorenzo's Oil, a 1992 film detailing the struggles of parents Augusto and Michaela Odone to find treatments for their son; in Baltimore, Md. In 2005, after the Odones patented a treatment involving a blend of olive and other oils, Moser published a study showing that Lorenzo's Oil, now deemed experimental by the Food and Drug Administration, can prevent the onset of symptoms for most boys with a diagnosis of ALD.

DIED. Robert Drinan, 86, liberal Democrat from Massachusetts and the first Roman Catholic priest to become a voting member of Congress; in Washington. A staunch opponent of the Vietnam War, he was elected in 1970 (with the help of campaign aide John Kerry and the slogan "Father Knows Best"). He charmed, and sometimes cowed, colleagues with his clerical clothing--he said he had no other suits--and was the first to call for Richard Nixon's impeachment, over the U.S.'s secret bombing of Cambodia. He left politics in 1980, after Pope John Paul II ordered him to resign, citing a canon law barring priests from elective office.