Milestones May 25, 1998

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ENGAGED. MATT LAUER, 40, hunky co-host of NBC's Today show, to model Annette Roque, 32; in Venice, Italy.

PLEADED NO CONTEST. GEORGE MICHAEL, 34, I Want Your Sex-singing pop star; to committing a "lewd act" in a public rest room; in Beverly Hills, Calif. A judge placed Michael on probation and ordered him to perform community service and undergo sexual counseling.

DIED. RONALD RIDENHOUR, 52, Vietnam vet turned investigative journalist whose dogged accusations as an ex-G.I. led to the exposure of the massacre at My Lai; of a heart attack while playing handball; in Metairie, La. Shocked by comrades' talk of the March 16, 1968, killings, Ridenhour investigated and sent a long letter to several Congressmen and President Nixon when he returned to the U.S. His account that "something rather dark and bloody" had transpired seared the nation's conscience.

DIED. KAROLJ SELES, 64, Yugoslav cartoonist who nurtured and safeguarded the phenomenal tennis talents of his daughter Monica from her early success through the 1993 stabbing that debilitated her to her dramatic 1995 comeback; of stomach cancer; in Sarasota, Fla.

DIED. MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS, 108, ever vigilant empress of the Florida Everglades, who led a half-century crusade to preserve the fabled watery wilderness; in Miami. A Wellesley College-educated New Englander, Douglas first came to Florida in 1915. She penned her classic book The Everglades: River of Grass in 1947, lyrically making the case for conserving the swath of swampland, long considered an impediment to real estate developers. She continued as the irrepressible mouthpiece for the marshes, in 1970 founding the Friends of the Everglades--dubbed Marjory's army. Her green streak was only natural, she told TIME in 1983: "It's women's business to be interested in the environment. It's an extended form of housekeeping, isn't it?"