Milestones

Ten years ago: Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg asked President Reagan to withdraw his nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, citing the clamor over Ginsburg’s admission that he had smoked marijuana on occasion.

Five years ago: Former Czechoslovak leader Alexander Dubcek, whose failed attempt to loosen the Communist grip on his country became known as the Prague Spring, died at age 70.

One year ago: The U.S. liquor industry voted to drop its decades-old voluntary ban on broadcast advertising. Thousands of Communists marched through Moscow to mark the 79th anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution. NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor blasted off on a mission to map the Red Planet.