MILESTONES

RESIGNED. WILLIAM BRATTON, 48, New York City police commissioner; in Manhattan. Bratton is credited by many for a remarkable 27% drop in crime. But Gotham gossip long suggested that his boss, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, resented the commissioner's media profile (including a TIME cover) and independent nature. Bratton's successor, fire commissioner Howard Safir, is a Giuliani loyalist.

SENTENCED. YIGAL AMIR, 25; to life imprisonment; for the assassination of Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin; in Tel Aviv. The Jewish ultra-rightist brought new depths of meaning to the word unrepentant, grinning and yawning through a trial in which he freely admitted he shot Rabin to derail peace negotiations with the Palestinians. Amir's fellow extremists are taunting Rabin's successor, Shimon Peres, by chanting Amir's name.

DIED. SHIN KANEMARU, 81, political kingmaker; in Shiranecho, Japan. The power behind Japan's Liberal Democratic Party, Kanemaru handpicked Prime Ministers before being driven from office in 1992 in a bribery scandal that brought down his party.

DIED. EDMUND MUSKIE, 81, erstwhile Democratic Governor, Senator and Secretary of State; in Washington. His rangy physique and reputation for plain dealing bestowed upon the son of a Polish immigrant the life-long label "Lincolnesque." The image propelled Muskie to two terms in the Maine statehouse and 21 years in the U.S. Senate. There, his environmental concerns earned Muskie the nickname "Mr. Clean," part of a low-key liberalism that landed him the vice-presidential slot on the Democrats' failed 1968 ticket. But the presidential nomination eluded Muskie four years later. In the New Hampshire primary, he was the front runner but was overcome with emotion--crying, according to some--after an attack on his wife by the Manchester Union Leader. Shortly after, his campaign sputtered. Muskie left the Senate in 1980 to serve as Secretary of State in the final months of the Carter Administration.

DIED. DAVID PACKARD, 83, electronics and computer pioneer; in Stanford, California. The "Birthplace of Silicon Valley," an official California State landmark, is the garage where Packard and his Stanford University classmate William Hewlett opened a workshop in 1939. Today Hewlett-Packard is the nation's second largest computer maker (behind IBM). Packard eschewed corporate pomposity, preferring "management by walking around" to keep employee morale high and focus on achieving objectives. In the '60s, he met with Stanford students protesting his company's defense contracts, and later mediated talks between them and their school. His personable style and civic activism inspired a new generation of pioneers (Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple Computer in a garage, was an HP employee). His entire fortune of some $4.3 billion is going into a charitable trust.