Milestones Dec. 31, 1999

PLEADED NOT GUILTY. AHMED RESSAM, 32, Algerian arrested near the Canadian border after bombmaking parts were found in his car; to charges of illegally carrying explosives and making false statements to customs authorities; in Seattle.

DESCENDED. JULIA ("Butterfly") HILL, 25, environmental activist, after a 738-day treetop vigil to save a 600-year-old redwood from loggers; near Stafford, Calif. Hill left her 18-story-high perch after Pacific Lumber Co. agreed to spare the tree, located on company property.

DIED. TONY BRYANT, 60, Black Panther turned anti-communist who founded a short-lived, conservative black magazine after spending 11 years in a Cuban prison for hijacking a plane to Havana; of leukemia; in Miami. His 1984 book, Hijack, recounted his prison ordeal.

DIED. JOHN PATON DAVIES, 91; U.S. diplomat who unfairly lost his job in 1954 during Joseph McCarthy's hunt to find out "Who lost China?" to the communists; in Asheville, N.C.

DIED. JURGEN MOSER, 71, renowned mathematician who advanced scientists' understanding of how the solar system works and aided the development of particle accelerators; of cancer; in Zurich.

DIED. DESMOND LLEWELYN, 85, British actor who played the beleaguered gadget inventor Q in 17 James Bond films; in a car accident; in Firle, England. "In real life I'm allergic to gadgets," Llewelyn said. "They just don't work for me, not even those plastic cards for hotel-room doors."

DIED. ROBERT BRESSON, 98, acclaimed film director whose emphasis on image over dialogue helped redefine French cinema; near Paris (see Eulogy).

DIED. HANK SNOW, 85, country music's rhinestone-studded Singing Ranger, whose 1950 hit I'm Movin' On was recorded in 36 languages; in Madison, Tenn. A regular at the Grand Ole Opry for nearly 50 years, Snow recorded more than 80 albums and in 1979 made the Country Music Hall of Fame.