Milestones

DIED Bill Powell, 56, a member of the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd who survived the 1977 plane crash that killed three of his bandmates. He played keyboards on hits such as "Free Bird," "What's Your Name" and "Sweet Home Alabama."

• In the early '80s, when HIV was still a mysterious killer in San Francisco, Martin Delaney, 63, an advocate for AIDS patients, made smuggling runs to Mexico to secure medicines said to strengthen the immune system. Delaney later founded the organization Project Inform to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS treatments.

• After teaming up with special-effects genius Ray Harryhausen in the 1950s, film producer Charles Schneer, 88, went on to create a dozen science-fiction and fantasy favorites such as Clash of the Titans and the Sinbad trilogy.

• With a 12-year career that crossed those of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, Bill Werber, 100, won a World Series title with the Cincinnati Reds in 1940. He played until 1942, fighting pain from a toe injury acquired eight years earlier from kicking a bucket in frustration.

APPOINTED On Jan. 23, after a very public two-month search, New York Governor David Paterson named Kirsten Gillibrand, 42, the state's new junior Senator (and now the country's youngest). She replaces the seat's former occupant, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

SENTENCED In the aftermath of last year's milk-contamination scandal in China--at least six children were killed and 300,000 sickened--two men, Zhang Yujun and Geng Jinping, were sentenced to death on Jan. 22 for their involvement in the affair.