Milestones

RECOVERING. BILL CLINTON, 58, from surgery to remove scar tissue and fluid from his left chest cavity, an unusual complication from his quadruple bypass late last year; at a hospital in New York City, where he will stay for up to 10 days.

GRANTED. To CUI YU HU, 104, stranded Chinese grandmother who has been living illegally in Australia since 1996; permanent residency, after urging from the Chinese government; in Melbourne. Hu, who has been living with her adopted Japanese daughter, was caught in diplomatic limbo when her recent application to stay was refused, while no airline was willing to transport the centenarian back to her home in China’s Xinjiang province. Hu praised Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone for her compassion, saying, “She has a good heart. She will live very long.”

RETIRED. GARRY KASPAROV, 42, the world’s top-ranked chess player since winning his first championship in 1985; in Moscow. A fierce, innovative competitor, Kasparov’s victories were so numerous that his few losses were better known—like his 1997 defeat by a 1.2-ton IBM computer, Deeper Blue. “I am a man of big goals,” the Russian grand master said upon his retirement, “but I no longer see any real goal in the world of chess.” An outspoken opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kasparov said he would now spend more time focusing on politics.

OUSTED. HARRY C. STONECIPHER, 68, CEO of aerospace giant Boeing, brought back from retirement to restore the image of the company that was tainted by controversies over how it obtains defense contracts; after admitting to an extramarital affair with a female executive; in Chicago. Boeing called the affair improper conduct on the part of the married Stonecipher, a point on which the former CEO agreed. “I used poor judgment,” he said.

RESIGNED. LEE HUN JAI, 60, South Korean Finance and Economic Minister; after legislators called for his ouster over suspect real estate transactions; in Seoul. Revelations emerged in January that Lee’s wife, Jin Jin Sook, may have flouted residency laws with a 1979 purchase of land in Kwangju, south of Seoul, which she later sold for a profit of $4.6 million. Lee denied any improprieties, but said he would step down because the controversy “could burden the President and be of no help to the economy.”

ANNOUNCED. RESULTS of a computer tomographic (C.T.) scan of the remains of Egyptian ruler King Tutankhamun, which appear to rule out foul play in his early death; in Cairo. The C.T. scan, for which Tut’s body was removed from its sarcophagus for the first time since its discovery in 1922, revealed no sign of head wounds, ending speculation that a blow to the head had ended the 19-year-old King’s brief reign circa 1352 B.C. “We don’t know how the King died, but we are sure it was not murder,” said Egyptian antiquities expert Zahi Hawass. “We should not disturb the King anymore.”

DIED. TERESA WRIGHT, 86, Hollywood actress who achieved the never-duplicated feat of winning an Oscar nomination for each of her first three films; in New Haven, Connecticut. After debuting as Bette Davis’ daughter in 1941’s The Little Foxes, she played Lou Gehrig’s wife in The Pride of the Yankees and won an Oscar for her role as Greer Garson’s daughter-in-law in Mrs. Miniver. Her wholesome but refined screen presence graced some of the ’40s best movies, including Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt and William Wyler’s The Best Years of Our Lives. Still, she was fired by her benefactor Samuel Goldwyn for refusing to don swimsuits for publicity photos. “I’m just not the glamour type,” she said.

34 Years Ago in TIME
Announcing its first foreign head last week was a big step for Sony, the Japanese electronics giant that was founded and run for years by AKIO MORITA.

In 1953, a young businessman named Akio Morita made his first trip outside Japan to investigate export prospects for his struggling little electronics company. He was dismayed to find that in the sophisticated markets of the U.S. and Europe, the words Made in Japan were a mocking phrase for shoddiness. But in The Netherlands, he recalls, “I saw an agricultural country with many windmills and many bicycles, and yet it was producing goods of excellent quality and had worldwide sales power. I thought that maybe we Japanese could do it too.” Indeed, they could. A month ago, Morita took off on his 94th or 95th transpacific trip. (He has lost exact count.) This time he came as the self-assured export chief and primary owner of Sony Corp., the firm that as much as any other has made Japanese goods synonymous with high quality as well as low price. — TIME, May 10, 1971

Read the entire article at time.com/years.

Numbers
546% Increase in textile exports from China to the U.S. from January 2004 to January 2005, resulting partly from the end of trade quotas this year under World Trade Organization rules
12,200 Number of jobs lost in the American apparel and textile industries this January

11 km Estimated height of a cloud of steam and ash ejected during last week’s partial eruption of Mount St. Helens outside Longview, Washington

15 min. Recommended time for laughing per day, according to a University of Maryland study linking laughter with cardiovascular health

60 years Estimated age of a one-ton crocodile captured last week in Uganda and which authorities believe has eaten as many as 80 people over the past two decades

515 million Cases of malaria worldwide in 2002, double the number estimated by the World Health Organization, according to a Kenyan study. The study theorizes that many cases have gone uncounted in South and Southeast Asia