Page 59 - 2000

Tony Pagano/AP

The accident gave new meaning to the phrase "life imitates art" and
Stephen King was just happy he lived to tell about it. The 52-year-old
horror novelist made his first public appearance in October after nearly
being killed in a roadside accident four months before. King was struck
from behind by a motorist as he walked along a wooded road near his
summer home in North Lovell, Maine. Thrown 14 feet into a ditch, King
suffered multiple broken bones, a collapsed lung and cuts to the head.
The driver, Bryan Smith, 42, pleaded "not guilty" to charges of
aggravated assault and driving to endanger, and was later penalized
with a six-month license suspension.

David Phillip/AP

Payne Stewart, the flamboyant professional golfer who regularly
donned knickers and a tarn o'snanter cap, was killed along with
six others in October when his Lear jet ran out of fuel and plowed
into a grassy field in South Dakota. The accident happened just
three days before the PGA Tour Championship, a tournament in
which Stewart was scheduled to participate. The news came as a
shock to fellow golfers, many of whom paid tribute to Stewart by K — MCI WorldCom Inc., the
wearing knickers during the final round of the tour championship. country's second-largest long-distance
company, announced it would purchase
Sprint Corp., the No. 3 carrier, in a deal
valued at $ 1 2 9 billion. The deal would be
the biggest corporate takeover in history.
The combined company, to be called
WorldCom, would make up about 30
percent of the $ 9 0 billion U.S. long-distance
market as a result of the merger. A short
time later, the proposed merger came under
criticism in the United States because of
concern over its impact on the long-distance
telephone and Internet access markets.
Nearly six months passed without resolution
and the merger remained on hold.
FOX's "A lly McBeal" and ABC's "The Practice" won Emmys for
[ — Houston won the rights to
best comedy series and best drama series, respectively, at the 51 st
Annual Primetime Emmy Awards in September. The shows, both the NFL's 32nd franchise, beating out Los
produced by David E. Kelly, took their place among fan favorites Angeles and its distinction as the second-
like "Frie nd s" and "E R " as television's hottest in 1999. largest TV market in the nation. Houston
businessman Bob McNair paid $ 7 0 0 million
for the expansion franchise, the highest
price ever for a sports team in the United
States. N FL owners approved the measure,
returning an N FL team to Houston just three
years after the Oilers left for Tennessee. As
What is your fa v o rite part of the expansion, which will begin with
the 2001 season, owners also voted to
television show?
realign the league.
W — A 29-year-old tomcat
named Spike was crowned the world's
oldest living cat, having reached a feline
age equivalent to 203 human years. Owner
Mo Elkington of London, England, insisted
that the 10-pound puss has lived so long
latter part of his life with new tales being added right up
because she feeds him the "healing" aloe
to his death in 1400. vera plant. Spike was officially entered in
the Guinness Book of W odd Records as the
In the mid- to late-14th Century, Europe began to rec­
oldest living cat. The world's longest-living
ognize a new sense of time with the advent of large cat died in 1998 after having lived 34
I! mechanical clocks. Measuring out equal hours in years, two months, and four hours.
town plazas and squares, these new oversized timekeep­
— The famous form­
ers became the focal point of civic activities, including
fitting, flesh-toned dress Marilyn Monroe
colorful ceremonies donned to sing "Happy Birthday, Mr.
President" to President John F. Kennedy was
sold for a whopping $ 1 .2 7 million,
smashing the record for an item of clothing
at auction. The previous record for a dress
was $2 22 ,50 0 , paid at a 1997 charity
auction for the blue velvet dress worn by
Princess Diana at a W hite House dinner
during which she danced with actor John
Travolta.