Milestones Apr. 3, 2000

BORN. To DEE DEE MYERS, 38, former Clinton press secretary, and husband TODD PURDUM, 40, New York Times journalist: first child, Katharine; in Los Angeles.

RESIGNED. Outgoing Taiwanese President LEE TENG-HUI, 77, as head of the Nationalist Party; after the stunning election defeat of the party’s presidential candidate to opposition politician Chen Shui-bian; in Taipei. The Nationalists’ first loss of power since Taiwan’s founding in 1949 sparked protests and calls for Lee’s departure.

AWARDED. To FREEMAN DYSON, 76, agnostic physicist-ethicist, the Templeton Prize in religion; in New York City. He won for advocating a fusion of moral values with science.

RECOVERING. TOM GREEN, 28, MTV funnyman; from testicular-cancer operations; in Los Angeles.

RECOVERING. RODNEY DANGERFIELD, 78, gets-no-respect comic; from heart-bypass surgery; in Los Angeles.

DIED. CARLO PAROLA, 79, Italian soccer star who gained international fame for the acrobatic bicycle kick he popularized in the 1940s; in Turin, Italy.

DIED. JEAN HOWARD, 89, starlet, socialite and photographer of filmdom’s glamour set from the 1930s through the 1960s; in Beverly Hills, Calif. Her pictures of the bygone era appeared in a 1989 book, Jean Howard’s Hollywood.

DIED. SPENCER HAYWARD BLAIN, 63, top banker convicted for his role in the $284 million failure of Empire Savings & Loan of Mesquite, Texas, one of the 1980s’ notorious thrift failures; of cancer complications; in Dallas.

DIED. IVAN HIRST, 84, British army engineer who retooled Volkswagen’s bombed-out factory in Wolfsburg, Germany, at World War II’s end to roll out one of the firm’s prewar prototypes, which soon became the popular Beetle; in Marsden, England. The British army ordered 20,000 for transport duty, ironically turning Hitler’s dream of a “people’s car” into a reality.