DIED. JOHN POPLE, 78, co-winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for developing a computer program that helps scientists better predict chemical reactions; in Chicago. An Englishman, Pople taught himself calculus from a discarded textbook while in high school and became the first in his family to go to college. His program is still used in a wide variety of studies, ranging from the effects of pollutants on the ozone layer to the testing of drugs for the treatment of HIV. When he was knighted last year, the self-effacing Pople said that his achievements as a scientist were not great enough to warrant the honor. "It used to be you had to get on a horse and protect the Queen," he quipped.
DIED. WILLIAM PICKERING, 93, quiet giant of the U.S. space program; in La Caada Flintridge, California. An migr from New Zealand, Pickering was part of the team that launched the U.S.'s first satellite in 1958. For 22 years, he was chief of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which during his tenure conducted America's manned missions to the Moon and sent pioneering probes to Venus and Mars.
RETIRED. LUCIANO PAVAROTTI, 68, larger-than-life star tenor; from opera; in New York. Pavarotti has canceled shows in recent years because of poor health and an unreliable voice, but he says he will participate in farewell concerts until he turns 70. Asked why he was leaving the stage, Pavarotti cited his hefty weight (130 kilograms) and a bad back. "I think it is time," he said.
RELEASED. SEOK JAE HYUN, 34, the only foreign journalist known to be imprisoned in China; in Qingdao. A South Korean freelance photographer who has worked for the New York Times, Seok was arrested in January 2003 while covering a failed attempt by North Korean defectors to flee to South Korea and Japan in fishing boats. Because of international pressure, he was freed after serving 14 months of his two-year sentence for human trafficking.
FILED. A COMPLAINT to the World Trade Organization by the U.S. accusing China of unfair trade practices; in Geneva. The complaint was the first lodged against China since it joined the international trade body in 2001. The U.S. says that tax rebates China grants to domestic semiconductor makers give them an unfair pricing advantage over foreign chipmakers exporting their products to China.
39 years ago in TIME
With cable news, cell phones and the Web, we take instant global communications for granted. But in 1965, the launch of Early Bird, an 85-lb. satellite, was a seminal event for the world and for TIME.
In an age fast growing familiar with man's race beyond the confines of his own world, Early Bird reached back toward the earth and seemed to shrink it almost to room size. All by itself, the satellite blanketed more than one-third of the globe ... In Europe and the U.S., television's showmen labored to exploit Early Bird's versatility. At their best, the programs were as moving and immediate as Houston's great surgeon Michael DeBakey repairing a human heart while fascinated doctors in Geneva looked over his shoulder. Europe watched troop movements in Santo Domingo while bullets still ricocheted across the Caribbean town ... And between the best and the worst that TV had to offer, imaginative men could pick out the promise of a dream born more than a century ago, when the first crude telegraph suggested that man might some day far outreach the limitations of his speech and hearing.
#151;TIME, May 14, 1965