Milestones Aug. 9, 2004

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DIED. CARMINE DE SAPIO, 95, who ruled New York politics as the last boss of Tammany Hall; in New York City. He rose through the ranks as a messenger boy for political captains and ensured that the most politically deserving, needy families received their holiday food baskets. As head of the New York organization in the 1950s, he handpicked Robert F. Wagner Jr. as mayor and W. Averell Harriman as Governor and, some said, could have named the Democratic presidential nominee. But by the late 1960s he had been denounced as authoritarian, convicted of petty bribery and defeated in local elections.