Milestones Apr. 22, 1996

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NAMED. MICKEY KANTOR, 56, U.S. Trade Representative; as Commerce Secretary; Charlene Barshefsky, 45, Kantor's deputy, was named acting Trade Representative. ALICE RIVLIN, 65, director of the Office of Management and Budget; to the Federal Reserve Board; her replacement is Franklin Raines, 47, vice chairman of the Federal National Mortgage Association; in Washington.

UNDER INVESTIGATION. MIKE TYSON, 29, boxer; for sexual assault; in Chicago. Thirteen months after serving three years for rape, Tyson was at a South Side night spot when, according to his accuser, he touched her lewdly and bit her cheek. Tyson could return to prison if he is charged.

SENTENCED. DAN ROSTENKOWSKI, 68, dethroned chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee; to 17 months in prison and $100,000, for two counts of mail fraud; in Washington. After "Rosty'' pleaded guilty, he stood outside the federal courthouse acting as if he had just been acquitted. Admitting his felonies "could technically be viewed by a jury as a violation of certain laws," an unrepentant Rostenkowski insisted, "I have served my constituents with dignity, honor and integrity."

HOSPITALIZED. PAUL TSONGAS, 55, ex-Oval Office seeker; for a bone-marrow transplant from his sister to fight infections brought on by his lymph cancer, now in remission; in Boston.

DIED. SANDY BECKER, 74, children's TV-show host; of a heart attack; in Remsenburg, N.Y. In the free-wheeling universe of early TV, Becker entertained but never patronized young viewers in programs featuring such surreal alter egos as the silent Norton Nork, and Hambone, dispenser of bizarre advice ("Cut your grass, so the ants can pass!").

DIED. BEN JOHNSON, 77, screen actor; in Mesa, Arizona. The connection that launched Johnson's career was his horse, rented out for Howard Hughes' The Outlaw. Johnson came along as a wrangler, ultimately landing supporting roles in westerns like Shane (1953) and an Oscar-winning turn in The Last Picture Show (1971).

DIED. RICHARD CONDON, 81, author; in Dallas. The movie made of his novel The Manchurian Candidate, a crazy quilt of Asian communists enmeshed with U.S. fascists, seemed fantastic at the time--until the political killing at its core was echoed in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Suddenly Condon's Freudian analysis of America as a nation of dark impulses, largely hidden from itself, was the only explanation that made sense.

DIED. LARRY LAPRISE, 83, songwriter; in Boise, Idaho. LaPrise was playing ski lodges when he co-concocted the ideal entertainment for hyperactive children and rhythm-impaired adults: The Hokey Pokey (1949), which had a nation putting various extremities in, out and about. Big-band and heavy-metal versions followed--as LaPrise was hokey-pokeyed out of a fortune. Having sold his rights for a song, he became a postal worker.