MILESTONES

RESIGNING. ANITA HILL, 40, whose allegations of sexual harassment nearly derailed the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas; from the University of Oklahoma law school; in Norman. Hill said campus politics prompted her decision.

SENTENCED. WANG DAN, 27, Chinese dissident who led the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests; to 11 years in prison; in Beijing. Paroled in 1993 after serving a 3 1/2-year sentence, Wang continued to criticize the regime and was charged with conspiring to overthrow the government.

SENTENCED. EUGENE DE KOCK, 48, commander of a South African security-police assassination squad who was nicknamed Prime Evil by his colleagues; on 89 charges, including six of murder committed during the apartheid era; to two life terms and 212 years in prison; in Pretoria.

DIED. JAMES EDWARD DAY, 82, former Postmaster General who inaugurated the zip code in 1963; in Hunt Valley, Maryland. Day's Zoning Improvement Plan system was inspired by Time Inc.'s zoned mail deliveries.

DIED. MOREY AMSTERDAM, 80ish, master of the one-liner who brought his cheerfully wisecracking persona from vaudeville to TV's The Dick Van Dyke Show; in Los Angeles.

DIED. MARCEL CARNE, 90, French film director; in the Paris suburb of Clamart. Carne's Les Enfants du Paradis (1945), made in collaboration with poet and screenwriter Jacques Prevert, is widely considered by critics to be one of the best films of all times.

DIED. GEORGE OSLIN, 97, inventor in 1933 of the singing telegram; in Delray Beach, Florida. As the public relations director for Western Union, Oslin sent the first singing telegram to crooner Rudy Vallee on the singer's birthday. Today Western Union delivers singing telegrams by telephone--sung only to the tune of Happy Birthday.