Ian Ellery Brodie, 72, a British journalist who covered most of the biggest news stories in the United States from the 1960s to the end of the 20th century, died of a stroke Thursday in Bethesda, Md.

Mr. Brodie reported on the 1968 assassinations of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and on the "hanging chads" of the 2000 presidential election.

He was a Vietnam War and Moscow correspondent, publisher of a small-town newspaper in California, and author of a book on sailing. He traveled to China ahead of President Richard M. Nixon, infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan, and scooped the competition.

Mr. Brodie retired in 2001 after suffering a stroke.

- Washington Post