1997 

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Decades: 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s - 1990s - 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s

Years: 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 - 1997 - 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

• 1997 in film
• 1997 in literature
• 1997 in music
• 1997 in sports
• 1997 in television

• January 3 - NBC's Today show Bryant Gumbel[?] signs off for the last time.
• January 8 - Mister Rogers receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• January 16 - Ennis Cosby[?], the only son of actor Bill Cosby, is killed by a gunman while changing a flat tire in Los Angeles, California
• January 18 - In north west Rwanda, Hutu militia members kill 3 Spanish aid workers, 3 soldiers and seriously wound one other.
• January 19 - Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years and joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli controlled West Bank city.
• January 20 - Bill Clinton starts his second term as President of the United States.
• January 21 - Newt Gingrich becomes the first leader of the United States House of Representatives to be internally disciplined for ethical misconduct.
• January 22 - Madeleine Albright becomes the first female secretary of state after confirmation by the United States Senate.
• January 23 - Mir Aimal Kasi[?] receives the death sentence for a 1993 assault rifle attack outside CIA headquarters that killed two and wounded three others.
• January 27 - It is revealed that French museums had nearly 2,000 pieces of art that were stolen by Nazis.
• January 28 - Clive Davis receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• February 4 - O.J. Simpson is found to be civilly liable for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson[?] and Ron Goldman[?]. Simpson is ordered to pay $35,000,000 in damages to the families of the two victims.
• February 4 - On their way to Lebanon two Israeli troop-transport helicopters collide killing 73.
• February 4 - After at first contesting the results, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic recognizes opposition victories in the November 1996 elections.
• February 5 - The so-called "Big Three" banks in Switzerland announce the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families.
• February 5 - Morgan Stanley and Dean Witter[?] investment banks announce a $10 billion merger.
• February 9 - The Simpsons surpasses the The Flintstones as the longest-running prime-time animated series.
• February 10 - The United States Army suspends Sgt. Major Gene McKinney[?], its top-ranking enlisted soldier[?], after hearing allegations of sexual misconduct.
• February 11 - Bill Parcells[?] becomes head coach of New York Jets.
• February 13 - Tune-up and repair work on the Hubble Space Telescope is started by astronauts from the Space Shuttle Discovery .
• February 19 - The last of the People's Republic of China's major revolutionaries, Deng Xiaoping dies at 92.
• February 22 - In Roslin[?], Scotland, scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly had been successfully cloned and was born in July 1996.
• March 4 - United States President Bill Clinton bars federal funding for any research on human cloning.
• March 6 - Picasso's Tete de Femme[?] is stolen from a London gallery (it was recovered a week later).
• March 11 - An explosion at a nuclear waste reprocessing plant in Japan exposes 35 workers to low-level radioactive contamination in the worst nuclear accident[?] in Japan's history.
• March 12 - Mikail Markhasev[?] is arrested in Los Angeles, California and charged with shooting Bill Cosby's 27-year-old son, Ennis Cosby[?].
• March 13 - India's Missionaries of Charity chooses Sister Nirmala[?] to succeed Mother Teresa as its leader.
• March 18 - The tail of a Russian An-24[?] charter plane breaks off while en-route to Turkey causing the plane to crash killing all 50 on board and later the grounding of all An-24s.
• March 22 - 14 year, 10 month old Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest champion of the women's world figure skating competition.
• March 26 - Thirty-nine bodies found in Heaven's Gate cult suicide.
• April 22 - A 126-day hostage crisis at the residence of the Japanese ambassador in Lima, Peru ends after government commandos storm and capture the building rescuing 71 hostages. One hostage dies of a heart attack, two soldiers are killed from rebel fire and all 14 rebels were slain.
• April 27 - Andrew Cunanan murders Jerffrey Trail[?], beginning a murder spree that will last until July and terminate with the murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace[?].
• May 1 - The UK's Labour Party end 18 years of Conservative rule in the 1997 UK general election
• May 10 - An earthquake near Ardekul[?] in northeastern Iran kills at least 2,400.
• May 11 - IBM's Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov, the first time a computer beat a chess grand master
• May 22 - Women in the military[?]: Kelly Flinn[?], US Air Force's first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepts a general discharge[?] in order to avoid a court martial.
• May 25 - Strom Thurmond becomes the longest serving member in the history of the United States Senate (41 years and 10 months).
• May 25 - A military coup in Sierra Leone replaces President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah[?] with Major Johnny Paul Koromah[?].
• June - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi military escorts on board an UNSCOM helicopter try to physically prevent the UNSCOM pilot from flying the helicopter in the direction of its planned destination, threatening the safety of the aircraft and their crews.
• July 1 - The United Kingdom hands sovereignty of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China
• July 4 - NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.
• August 2 - Australian ski instructor Stuart Diver[?] is rescued as the sole survivor from the Thredbo[?] landslide in New South Wales, Australia, in which 18 lives were lost.
• September 6 - Princess Diana's funeral at Westminster Abbey draws large crowds
• September 7 - First test flight of the F/A-22 Raptor
• September 11 - Scotland votes to create its own Parliament after 290 years of union with England.
• South Korea suffers a severe economic crisis
• September 13 - Iraq disarmament crisis: An Iraqi military officer attacks an UNSCOM weapons inspector on board an UNSCOM helicopter while the inspector was attempting to take photographs of unauthorized movement of Iraqi vehicles inside a site designated for inspection.
• September 17 - Iraq disarmament crisis: While waiting for access to a site, UNSCOM inspectors witness and videotape Iraqi guards moving files, burning documents, and dumping waste cans into a nearby river.
• September 25 - Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM inspector Dr. Diane Seaman catches several Iraqi men sneaking out the back door of an inspection site with log books for the creation of prohibited bacteria and chemicals.
• October 15 - The first supersonic land speed record is set by the ThrustSSC team from the United Kingdom.
• October 29 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq says it will begin shooting down U-2 surveillance planes being used by UNSCOM inspectors.
• December 2 - Actress/model Anat Elimelech R.I.P. got murdered by her boyfriend, the hairstyler David Afuta.
• December 27 - Protestant paramilitary leader Billy Wright is assassinated in Northern Ireland.
• December 29 - Hong Kong begins to kill all the chickens within its territory (1.25 million) to stop the spread of a potentially deadly influenza strain.
• December 30 - In the worst incident in Algeria's insurgency, 400 people are killed from four villages.

• Timothy McVeigh is found guilty of Oklahoma City[?] bombing

Art, Culture & Fashion

• 1997 in film
  • Summer - Production begins on Star Wars, Episode I - The Phantom Menace.
  • Titanic
  • As Good As It Gets
  • Good Will Hunting
  • L.A. Confidential
• 1997 in literature
• 1997 in music
• 1997 in sports
  • January 18 - Boerge Ousland[?] of Norway becomes the first person to cross Antarctica alone and unaided
  • January 26 - Super Bowl XXXI Green Bay Packers (35) def. New England Patriots (21)
• 1997 in television
  • The murder of JonBenet Ramsey dominates the news in the United States.
  • June 6 - Actress Farrah Fawcett makes a bizarre appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman. Fawcett tells long, rambling stories without a point, fails to understand simple questions, and gets easily distracted by things like blinking lights on the set.

Births

Deaths

• January 10 - Sheldon Leonard[?], producer, actor, director
• January 17 - Clyde Tombaugh, astronomer
• January 19 - James Dickey, poet, novelist
• January 20 - Curt Flood[?], baseball star
• January 21 - Colonel Tom Parker[?], celebrity manager
• February 1 - Herb Caen[?], newspaper columnist
• February 11 - Don Porter[?], actor.
• February 19 - Deng Xiaoping, Chinese politician and leader
• February 20 - Edmond Yu, medical student
• March 9 - The Notorious B.I.G., rap musician
• March 10 - La Vern Baker[?], singer
• March 14 - Fred Zinnemann, director
• March 19 - Willem de Kooning[?], artist
• March 20 - Tony Zale[?], Boxer
• April 7 - Georgi Shonin, cosmonaut
• May 14 - Harry Blackstone Jr.[?], magician
• May 29 - Jeff Buckley, musician (accidental drowning)
• June 28 - Mrs. Miller, singer
• July 2 - James Stewart
• July 4 - Charles Kuralt[?], television reporter
• July 20 - John Akii-Bua Ugandan hurdler
• August 2 - William S. Burroughs, US author
• August 10 - Conlon Nancarrow, composer
• August 31 - Diana, Princess of Wales
• September 5 - Georg Solti
• September 5 - Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (Mother Teresa)
• September 9 - Burgess Meredith[?]
• September 17 - Red Skelton
• September 19 - Rich Mullins, singer
• December 3 - Kathy Acker, post-punk post-feminist and post-industrial author
• Allen Ginsberg, US poet
• December 27 - Billy Wright, Irish paramilitary leader

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Steven Chu[?], Claude Cohen-Tannoudji[?], William D. Phillips[?]
• Chemistry - Paul D Boyer[?], John E Walker[?], Jens C Skou[?]
• Medicine - Stanley B Prusiner[?]
• Literature - Dario Fo
• Peace - International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL)[?] and Jody Williams[?]
• Economics - Robert Merton, Myron Scholes