Milestones

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DIED Critics hailed her performance in La Vie Héroïque, a soon-to-be-released biopic, as a dramatic breakthrough for Lucy Gordon, 28. But her career ended tragically when Gordon, whose credits include a part in Spider-Man 3, was found hanged in her Paris home May 20.

Rock musician Jay Bennett, 45, joined Wilco in 1995 at the behest of the band's front man, Jeff Tweedy, and helped the group create several critically acclaimed albums, including Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in 2002. That year he left the band amid tension with Tweedy over Wilco's musical direction.

For 32 years, Wayne Allwine, 62, was the voice of Mickey Mouse. He wasn't the first to squeak Mickey's lines (Walt Disney was) or the second (that was sound-effects wizard Jimmy MacDonald). But Allwine made history in 1991 by marrying his counterpart, Russi Taylor, who still voices Minnie Mouse.

Robert Furchgott, 92, helped uncover the important medical benefits of nitric oxide, a gas that helps mediate blood pressure and flow. He won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1998.

RESIGNED Ten days after being named Oxford University's first female professor of poetry, Ruth Padel, 63, resigned, saying she'd "naively" told reporters about sexual-misconduct allegations facing Derek Walcott, her rival for the post.

SENTENCED Former U.S. Army soldier Steven Green, 24, was sentenced on May 21 to life in prison for raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killing her and three members of her family in 2006.