Milestones: Sep. 29, 1967

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Born. To Princess Joan of Luxembourg, 32, younger daughter of former Treasury Secretary C. Douglas Dillon, and Prince Charles, younger brother of Grand Duke Jean, monarch of the pocket principality: their first child, a daughter, prematurely and by caesarean, while Joan was visiting her parents in Manhattan. Name: Charlotte, after Charles's mother, the grand duchess.

Married. Margaret Elizabeth Rusk, 18, the Secretary of State's only daughter; and Guy Gibson Smith, 22, second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve (see THE NATION).

Died. Martin Block, 64, radio's original platter and patter man; during heart surgery; in Englewood, N.J. "It's Make-Believe Ballroom time," purled the theme song. "Put all your cares away." And millions did—to the tunes of Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Shore. For the Ballroom's affable host, the recorded performers always came alive. "Great job, Benny," Block would applaud. "You never sounded better." The make-believe began in 1935 at New York's WNEW when Block's boss told him to pad news bulletins from the Lindbergh kidnap trial with music. After that, it was all music, and he spun his records for New York stations almost until his death.

Died. Hans-Christoph Seebohm, 64, longtime (1949-66) West German Transport Minister; of a lung clot; in Bonn. As a public servant, Seebohm swiftly rebuilt and expanded Germany's war-ravaged railroads, autobahns, ports and waterways. As a politician, he was signally less successful. His incessant clamor for the return of the Sudeten-land—yielded to Hitler in 1938 and handed back to Czechoslovakia in 1945 —was a constant embarrassment to the Bonn government.

Died. George F. Ferris, 65, master builder and boss of Raymond International Inc. construction firm since 1953; of a heart attack; in Los Angeles. A specialist in the big and bold, Raymond International built the Strategic Air Command bases in Spain, the major government buildings in Brasilia, Chesapeake Bay's awesome 171-mile bridge-tunnel and, most recently, in combine with several other firms, the vast complex of airfields and harbors in Thailand and South Viet Nam.

Died. Sir John Cockcroft, 70, dean of British nuclear physicists; of a heart attack; in Cambridge, England. In 1932, Cockcroft and his research partner, E.T.S. Walton, were the first to release atomic energy by splitting the atom with proton "bullets" in a linear accelerator instead of using naturally radioactive particles, the previous technique. That breakthrough led to the development of the atom bomb anc won the partners the Nobel Prize fo Physics in 1951. By then, Sir John was director of the Harwell atomic research center, pointing Britain's nuclear capability toward peaceful applica tions, including her first nuclear-power station.