Human Race

Released

The American doctor and missionary who contracted Ebola left Emory University Hospital’s isolation unit healthy and returned to their families. Dr. Kent Brantly, 33, contracted the virus in July while working for Samaritan’s Purse in a Liberian hospital where the deadly disease is rampant, as did Nancy Writebol, 58, an American missionary with SIM. Both received an experimental drug treatment for the virus, and doctors from Emory assured the public that the two aid workers posed no health risk to others.

Married

Brad Pitt, 50, and Angelina Jolie, 39, finally tied the knot on Aug. 23 in southern France. The star couple have been together for almost a decade and have six children together—three adopted and three biological. The children, ranging in age from 6 to 13, all took part in the small, private ceremony attended by family and friends at the couple’s sprawling French property. A California judge issued the marriage license and conducted the ceremony.

Died

The world’s tallest man (unofficially) died on Aug. 24 from a brain hemorrhage at age 44. Leonid Stadnyk, a Ukrainian farmer, stood 8 feet, 4 inches tall, but did not want to be famous and refused to allow Guinness World Records officials to measure him. “To me, my height is a curse, a punishment from God, not something to celebrate,” he had said. “All my life I have dreamed of being just like everyone else.” Sultan Kosen of Turkey is officially the world’s tallest man, measuring 8 feet, 3 inches in 2011.

Filed

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., was already facing a tough reelection battle, and now she’s in a legal battle. A former Landrieu challenger filed a lawsuit on Aug. 29, arguing the three-term senator doesn’t live in the state she represents. “By all measurable and legal standards, her actual domicile is her $2.5 million residence on Capitol Hill, the only home she owns,” Republican state Rep. Paul Hollis said in the complaint. Landrieu is registered to vote using her parents’ address in New Orleans, where she says she lives when not in Washington, D.C.

Resigned

Exactly one year after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos purchased The Washington Post, the paper announced the resignation of its publisher, Katharine Weymouth, a member of the Graham family that has captained the paper for 80 years. Bezos replaced her with Fred Ryan, who was one of the founders of Politico. The switch signals a change in strategies—Politico was one of the early financially successful experiments in online journalism—and perhaps ideology. Ryan was a top aide to President Ronald Reagan. The paper saw steep drops in revenue and circulation under Weymouth.

Convicted

A federal jury in Nebraska on Aug. 26 convicted the former acting Health and Human Services cybersecurity director on child pornography charges. Timothy DeFoggi, 56, was arrested in April 2013 after joining the since-closed PedoBook website, which has already had other users convicted. According to the Department of Justice, DeFoggi not only accessed and solicited child pornography but expressed interest in the violent rape and murder of children. He will face sentencing in November.