13
DIED
Jazz saxophonist and
composer Jimmy
Heath, on Jan. 19
at 93.
AGREED
By the U.S. Supreme
Court on Jan. 17,
to hear a case on a
Trump Administra-
tion rule that would
allow employers
exemptions from
providing birth
control coverage
under Obama care.
ACQUITTED
Future Forward,
one of Thailand’s
largest opposition
parties, on Jan. 21,
after a legal petition
accused it of working
against the monarchy
and having links to
the Illuminati secret
society.
REVEALED
That attempts to
lower emissions of
hydro fluorocarbon
HFC-23, a powerful
greenhouse gas,
appear to be failing,
according to a
U.K. study published
on Jan. 21.
EXPLODED
A SpaceX rocket, in
a successful test of
the abort function for
the company’s Crew
Dragon spacecraft,
on Jan. 19.
SENTENCED
Former Interpol
president and Chi-
nese police official
Meng Hongwei,
to 13.5 years in
prison for bribery, on
Jan. 21. His wife said
the case was politi-
cally motivated.
GATHERED
Delegates from
nearly 50 nations,
in Jerusalem, to
mark 75 years since
the Jan. 27, 1945,
liberation of Ausch-
witz, at the largest
global political event
in Israeli history.
Jones at work in 1974, in a script conference
for the BBC’s Monty Python’s Flying Circus
DIED
Terry Jones
Monty Python’s eclectic mind
When The OxfOrd English dictiOnary added PythOnEsquE
to its pages, Terry Jones didn’t take it as a compliment. The
mission of Monty Python, the influential comedy troupe of
which Jones was a founding member, was to be “unpredictable”
and “unquantifiable,” he said at a reunion in 2009. To be
distilled into a mere adjective meant they had “failed utterly” in
that quest. But Jones, who died on Jan. 21 at the age of 77, could
not be defined.
It was while studying at Oxford that Jones met Michael Palin;
they eventually teamed up with John Cleese, Eric Idle, Graham
Chapman and Terry Gilliam to form Monty Python. Their
groundbreaking TV show, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, com-
bined quietly uproarious sketches with rapid-fire wordplay, his-
torical jokes and Gilliam’s surreal animation. Jones helped write a
sketch about a singing, cross-dressing lumberjack, and portrayed
both a nude organist and a Cardinal in the Spanish Inquisition. As
the Pythons moved to feature films, Jones moved behind the cam-
era. He directed Monty Python’s Life of Brian while also delivering
one of the film’s funniest lines, dressed as a mother and declaring,
“He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy!”
Beyond the bounds of Pythondom, Jones wrote numerous
books, published essays against the Iraq War and drafted the
screenplay for David Bowie’s cult classic Labyrinth. He also
became a noted scholar of medieval history. Monty Python and
the Holy Grail fans may laugh at that last bit, but Jones would
probably be glad. —melissa locker
Milestones
NAMED
U.S.S.
Doris Miller
Honoring history
When The Japanese
attacked Pearl Harbor on
Dec. 7, 1941, Doris Miller’s
role in the U.S. Navy was as a
mess attendant. That didn’t
stop the 22-year-old from
helping the injured and firing
at enemy planes. The Navy
credited his heroism to an
“unidentified Negro mess-
man,” but black news papers
and rights groups found
Miller and made him the face
of a campaign to end the pol-
icy that limited African Amer-
icans to kitchen and mainte-
nance duty in the segregated
armed forces. On May 27,
1942, Miller became the
first African- American Navy
Cross recipient; days later,
the Navy, Marine Corps and
Coast Guard started enlisting
African Americans into gen-
eral service.
Miller remained a mess-
man, dying in 1943 when a
torpedo sank his ship. But his
name grew only more promi-
nent. At a Martin Luther
King Jr. Day ceremony on
Jan. 20 at Pearl Harbor, the
Navy announced a new air-
craft carrier, the first named
after an African American:
the U.S.S. Doris Miller.
—olivia B. Waxman
HUGHES: SIMON STACPOOLE—MARK LEECH SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY/GETTY IMAGES; JONES: CHRIS RIDLEY—RADIO TIMES/GETTY IMAGES; MILLER: NATIONAL ARCHIVES/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX
