Milestones

Ten years ago: During the Persian Gulf crisis, the Navy reported that American troops had fired a warning shot at an Iraqi tanker, then boarded it briefly before allowing it to proceed.

Five years ago: NATO called a temporary halt to its aerial pounding of Serb rebels while a U.S. envoy tried to clinch an agreement on withdrawing the Serbs’ big guns from around Sarajevo.

One year ago: Indonesian soldiers looted the abandoned U.N. mission in East Timor, just hours after 110 UN personnel and 1,300 East Timorese were evacuated and flown to safety to end a 10-day siege. Hurricane Floyd clobbered the Bahamas, toppling power lines, ripping roofs off homes and pushing a roiling sea into streets before heading toward the southeastern United States.