Milestones

Ten years ago: A group calling itself the “Organization of the Oppressed on Earth” claimed responsibility for the kidnapping in Lebanon of U.S. Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins. Higgins was later slain by his captors.

Five years ago: President Clinton’s economic plan won praise from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. The president, visiting Hyde Park, N.Y., suggested the United States might have to consider a national sales tax “not too long in the future,” then said he’d meant in 10 years or so.

One year ago: Deng Xiaoping, the last of China’s major Communist revolutionaries, died.