• U.S.

Milestones: Nov. 12, 1990

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TIME

DIED. William French Smith, 73, who served Ronald Reagan as a personal lawyer in California and then as U.S. Attorney General; of cancer; in Los Angeles. As Attorney General from 1981 to 1985, Smith championed efforts to weaken civil rights laws and antitrust enforcement. His most historic act: advocating the appointment of Sandra Day O’Connor as the first female Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

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