Milestones

Ten years ago: The Soviet Congress elected Mikhail S. Gorbachev to the country’s new, powerful presidency, a day after creating the post. The United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France, and West and East Germany held their first formal meeting on reunifying the German states.

Five years ago: American astronaut Norman Thagard became the first American to enter space aboard a Russian rocket as he and two cosmonauts blasted off aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, headed for the Mir space station.

One year ago: The Clinton administration conceded the Chinese had gained from technology allegedly stolen from a federal nuclear weapons lab but insisted the government responded decisively.