Milestones

DIED

His mother, poet Sylvia Plath, took her life in 1963 after a bout of depression. After battling the same illness for many years, Nicholas Hughes, 47, an Oxford-trained fisheries biologist, hanged himself at his Alaska home on March 16.

• For nearly 30 years, Morton Lachman, 90, served as a key member of comedian Bob Hope's writing troupe. Afterward, he wrote for and produced television programs including the Academy Awards, the Grammys, The Red Skelton Hour and All in the Family, for which he won an Emmy in 1978.

• With his groundbreaking 1947 book From Slavery to Freedom, John Hope Franklin, 94, bridged the gap between black history and American history, documenting how blacks and whites coexisted and how widely their experiences differed. Educated at the historically black Fisk University, Franklin earned two postgraduate degrees from Harvard and in 1995 received a Presidential Medal of Freedom and the NAACP's Spingarn Medal for his contribution to African-American history.

RESIGNED

Recently dubbed by critics the "single obstacle" to overcoming Hungary's economic problems, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, 47, resigned from his position on March 21, just three weeks after requesting bailout funds from the European Union.

WON

For the second time in a row, Japan emerged victorious at the World Baseball Classic, defeating South Korea 5-3 on March 23. The Japanese team was awarded $2.7 million and will hold the title until the next tournament, in 2013.