Milestones

Ten years ago: The Palestine National Council, the legislative body of the PLO, proclaimed the establishment of an independent Palestinian state at the close of a four-day conference in Algiers.

Five years ago: A judge in Mineola, N.Y., sentenced Joey Buttafuoco to six months in jail for the statutory rape of Amy Fisher, who is serving a prison sentence for shooting and wounding Buttafuoco’s wife, Mary Jo.

One year ago: A day after moving to halt the import of modified assault weapons, President Clinton defended the action in his weekly radio address, saying such weapons did nothing but “inspire fear and wreak deadly havoc on our streets.”