Milestones

DIED. ARCHIBALD COX, 92, special prosecutor whose insistence that Richard Nixon hand over tapes of Oval Office conversations for the Watergate investigation got him fired in the Saturday Night Massacre of 1973; in Brooksville, Maine. A Harvard professor who served as solicitor general under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, Cox lasted five months as chief of the investigation, which eventually led to Nixon's resignation.

DIED. FRANCES SHAND KYDD, 68, estranged mother of the late Diana, Princess of Wales; on the Isle of Seil, Scotland. The daughter of a baron and the Queen's lady-in-waiting, Shand Kydd had three girls and one boy during a 15-year marriage to Edward John Spencer. When the couple divorced in 1969, the future princess, then eight, remained with her father.

DIED. DOM MORAES, 65, Indian poet whose work drew on his childhood in Mumbai and his years of bohemian dissipation in London; in Mumbai. While an undergraduate at Oxford, Moraes became the youngest-ever winner of Britain's prestigious Hawthornden Prize for his first collection of poetry, A Beginning, which he published at age 19. Despite moving back to India in 1979, Moraes never mastered an Indian language. He recently told an interviewer: "I don't think I belong anywhere."

DIED. NICOLAI GHIAUROV, 74, Bulgarian bass whose warm, rich voice and striking stage presence carried him through almost half a century of opera stardom; in Modena, Italy. Ghiaurov made his debut in 1955 as Basilio in Rossini's The Barber of Seville, and went on to such signature roles as King Philip in Verdi's Don Carlo and the title role in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov.

DIED. TOSHIKAZU KASE, 101, pragmatic Japanese diplomat who participated in the signing of Japan's surrender to the U.S. in 1945; in Kamakura, Japan. Educated at Amherst College and Harvard University, Kase held key posts in Japan's Foreign Ministry before and during World War II. After the war he became a staunch American ally, championing the U.S.-Japan alliance and serving as Japan's first ambassador to the U.N.

DIED. WILLIAM MANCHESTER, 82, scrupulous author of thrilling narratives on military and political power, best known for his 1967 book on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, The Death of a President; in Middletown, Connecticut. Jacqueline Kennedy tried to suppress the book's publication because of the inclusion of intimate family details, but relented when Manchester removed some passages. His works also included acclaimed biographies of Douglas MacArthur and Winston Churchill.

WON. By ANHEUSER-BUSCH, the world's largest brewer; a takeover battle for control of Harbin Brewery, China's fourth-largest beermaker; in Harbin. U.S.-based Anheuser offered $717 million for 70% of Harbin's shares, beating out a hostile bid by London-based rival SABMiller. The takeover battle marked the first time foreign companies have vied for the right to acquire a publicly traded Chinese company.

EXECUTED. TRUONG VAN CAM, a.k.a. Nam Cam, 57, Vietnam's most notorious criminal godfather; by firing squad; in Ho Chi Minh City. Cam was convicted last June on charges including murder and bribery. His three-month trial exposed connections between his extensive gambling and prostitution rackets and senior Communist Party officials.