Milestones

DIED A stray cat adopted by Chelsea Clinton when her father was governor of Arkansas, Socks, approximately 19, became the nation's First Feline in 1993. He had been cared for by Betty Currie, Bill Clinton's secretary, since 2001.

• Oxygen deprivation rendered him mute and quadriplegic at birth, forcing him to write with a "unicorn stick" strapped to his forehead. Yet Christopher Nolan, 43, became a literary sensation, besting authors like Ian McEwan and Seamus Heaney to capture the 1988 Whitbread Award for his autobiography, Under the Eye of the Clock.

• A successful entrepreneur who owned the NBA's Utah Jazz, Larry Miller, 64, was a larger-than-life figure in the Beehive State. After a long battle, he died of complications from diabetes.

• She faced her first bull at 13 and notched more than 750 kills during a storied career. Conchita Cintrón, 86, one of the first famous female bullfighters, is still considered among the best.

REOPENED Five years after the atrocities committed within its walls shocked the world, Abu Ghraib now touts modern amenities and humane treatment of its inmates. The renovated jail, rechristened Baghdad Central Prison, formally reopened on Feb. 21.

APPOINTED Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan, 59, was tapped by Pope Benedict XVI to be the 10th Archbishop of New York City. Known as a genial but steadfast defender of church orthodoxy, Dolan will assume the post, perhaps the most prestigious in American Catholicism, on April 15.