1997

1997 (MCMXCVII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar.

Designations

International organizations, including the United Nations, designated 1997 as the International Year of the Reef.

Events

January

• January 5 - 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 9 - Yachtsman Tony Bullimore found alive five days after his boat capsized in the Southern Ocean
• January 12 - The show King of the Hill first airs with its first episode entitled "Pilot."
• 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

• February 4
  • O. J. Simpson is found in civil court to be 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
  • On their way to Lebanon two Israeli troop-transport helicopters collide killing 73
  • After at first contesting the results, Serbian President Slobodan Milošević 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
  • Morgan Stanley and Dean Witter investment banks announce a $10 billion merger.
• February 6 - British Diane Blood wins the right to use the sperm of her dead husband to have a child
• February 9 - The Simpsons surpasses 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 10 - Australian newspapers publish stories that the government of Papua New Guinea has brought mercenaries onto Bougainville - the Sandline affair goes public
• 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
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 7,000 for the first time gaining 60.81 to 7,022.44.
• February 19 - The last of the People's Republic of China's major revolutionaries, Deng Xiaoping dies at 92, this was followed by weeks of mourning for the leader.
• February 22 - In Roslin, Scotland, scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly had been successfully cloned and was born in July 1996.
• February 23 - A large fire occurred in the Russian Space station, Mir.

March

• March 1 - Osaka Dome opens in Chiyozaki, Nishi-ku, Osaka, Japan.
• 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 6 - In Sri Lanka, Tamil Tigers overrun a military base and kill more than 200
• March 9 - Rap legend Notorious B.I.G. is murdered in Los Angeles, just six months after the killing of Tupac Shakur.
• March 10 - The main office of Fuji TV moves from Kawadacho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan to Odaiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
• Buffy The Vampire Slayer begins a 7 year television run.
• 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 16 - Sandline affair - On Bougainville, soldiers of commander Jerry Singirok arrest Tim Spicer and his mercenaries of the Sandline International
• 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 21 - In Zaire, Etienne Tshiksekedi is appointed new prime minister - he ejects supporters of Mobutu Sese Seko from his cabinet
• March 21 - Mercenaries of Sandline International withdraw from Papua New Guinea
• March 22 - 14 year, 10 month old Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest champion of the women's world figure skating competition.
• March 24 - Roberto Sanchez Vilella, the second Democratically Elected Governor of Puerto Rico, dies at age 84.
• March 26
  • Thirty-nine bodies found in Heaven's Gate cult suicide.
  • Survey of a claimed gold site of Bre-X Minerals in Indonesia reveals it is worthless; Bre-X complains and accuses Internet rumours.
• March 26 - Julius Chan resigns as a prime minister of Papua New Guinea - the Sandline affair ends.
• March 30 - The UK's fifth terrestrial television channel, Channel Five begins broadcasting at 6pm

April

• April 3 - Thalit massacre begins in Algeria; all but 1 of the 53 inhabitants of Thalit are killed by guerrillas.
• April 11 - Fire damages Turin Cathedral in Italy
• April 14
  • Fire breaks out in a pilgrim camp on the Plain of Mena, seven miles form Mecca - 343 dead
  • Former SS captain Erich Priebke is retried. On July 22 he is sentenced for five years in prison
• April 16 - Houston, Texas socialite Doris McGowen Beck Angleton is murdered in her River Oaks home. Roger Nicholas Angleton admits to the crime in the suicide note. Despite being found innocent of the crime by a Texas jury, he later gets arrested by the Department of Justice for similar charges.
• April 18 - The Red River of the North breaks through dikes and floods Grand Forks, North Dakota and East Grand Forks, Minnesota, causing 2 billion USD in damage.
• April 21 - First space burial, carrying the remains of 24 people on a Pegasus rocket into earth orbit.
• April 22 - Haouch Khemisti massacre in Algeria; 93 villagers killed.
• 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 Tupac Amaru rebels are slain
• April 22 - France supports new transitional government for Zaire, withdrawing its support of [[|Mobutu Sese Seko|Mobutu]]
• April 22 - In Lima, Peru, after four-month standoff, government troops storm the Japanese ambassador's residence - they release 71 hostages and kill one hostage and 14 captors
• April 23 - Omaria massacre in Algeria; 42 villagers killed.
• 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.
• April 31 - Mobutu and Laurent Kabila meet aboard South African warship Outenigus with Nelson Mandela and United Nations envoy Mohammad Sahnoun. They do not reach agreement

May

Tony Blair, appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on May 2, 1997

• May 1
  • Tasmania becomes the last state in Australia to decriminalize homosexuality
  • The UK's Labour Party end 18 years of Conservative rule in the 1997 UK general election
  • HM Prison Pentridge in Melbourne, Australia is officially closed
• May 2 - Tony Blair appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• May 10 - An earthquake near Ardekul in northeastern Iran kills at least 2,400
• May 11 - IBM's Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, the first time a computer beat a chess World champion in a match.
• May 12
  • Barnes and Noble Inc. filed a lawsuit against Amazon.com, a day before Amazon launched its initial public offering.
  • The Russian-Chechen Peace Treaty signed.
• May 14 - The Star Alliance is formed between Air Canada, Lufthansa, SAS, Thai Airways International and United Airlines
• May 14 - Laurent Kabila does not attend a second meeting with Mobutu
• May 16- Mobutu Sese Seko leaves Kinshasa (eventually settles in Morocco)
• May 16 - US President Bill Clinton issues a formal apology to the surviving victims of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and their families, 25 years after the 40 year "study" was exposed by reporter Jean Heller.
• May 17 - Troops of Laurent Kabila march into Kinshasa
• 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)
  • A military coup in Sierra Leone replaces President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah with Major Johnny Paul Koromah.
• May 27 - A strong tornado hits in Jarrell, Texas killing 27 people. It was the second deadliest tornado of the 1990s (see Jarrell Tornado).
• May 31 - Official opening of the Confederation Bridge, the longest bridge spanning ice covered waters.

June

• 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.
• June 2 - Timothy McVeigh is convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
• June 5 - Kim Hyun Chul, son of Kim Young Sam, president of South Korea, is charged with bribery and corruption related to the awarding of government contracts
• June 6 - Melissa Drexler kills her newborn baby in a toilet
• June 7 - A computer user known as "_eci" published his Microsoft C source code on a Windows 95 and Windows NT exploit, which would later become WinNuke. The source code gets wide distribution across the internet, and Microsoft is forced to release a security patch.
• June 7 - The Detroit Red Wings sweep the Philadelphia Flyers in 4 games in the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals.
• June 10 - Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot orders the killing of his defense chief Son Sen and 11 of Sen's family members before Pol Pot flees his northern stronghold (the news did not reach outside Cambodia for three days)
• June 11 - The British House of Commons votes for a total ban on handguns
• June 12 - The United States Department of the Treasury unveils a new $50 bill meant to be more counterfeit-resistant
• June 13 - A jury sentences Timothy McVeigh to the death penalty for his part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
• June 16 - Dairat Labguer massacre in Algeria; some 50 people killed.
• June 19 - Fast food chain McDonald's won a partial victory in its libel trial, known as the McLibel case, against two environmental campaigners. The judge decided it was true that McDonald's targeted its advertising at children, who pestered their parents into visiting company's restaurants.
• June 25 - An unmanned Progress spacecraft collided with the Russian Space station, Mir.

July

People's Republic of China assumes sovereignty over the British colony of Hong Kong.

• 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.
• July 5 - In Cambodia, Hun Sen of the Cambodian People's Party overthrows Norodom Ranariddh in a coup
• July 8 - Mayo Clinic researchers warn that the dieting-drug "fen-phen" can cause severe heart and lung damage
• July 8 - NATO invites the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to join the alliance in 1999
• July 10 - In London, scientists report their DNA analysis findings from a Neanderthal skeleton which support the out of Africa theory of human evolution placing an "African Eve" at 100,000 to 200,000 years ago
• July 13 - The remains of Che Guevara are returned to Cuba for burial alongside some of his other comrades
• July 15 - Serial killer Andrew Phillip Cunanan shoots fashion designer Gianni Versace to death outside Versace's Miami, Florida residence.
• July 16 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 63.17 to close at 8,038.88. It is the Dow's first close above 8,000. The Dow has doubled its value in 30 months.
• July 17 - The F.W. Woolworth Company closes after 117 years in business
• July 21 - The fully restored USS Constitution (aka "Old Ironsides") celebrates her 200th birthday by setting sail for the first time in 116 years
• July 22 - The second Blue Water Bridge opens between Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario
• July 23 - Digital Equipment Corporation files antitrust charges against chipmaker Intel
• July 25 - K.R. Narayanan is sworn-in as India's 10th president and the first member of the Dalits caste to hold this office.
• July 27 - Si Zerrouk massacre in Algeria; about 50 people killed.

August

• August 1 - Boeing and McDonnell Douglas complete merger.
• 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.
• August 3 - Oued El-Had and Mezouara massacre in Algeria; 40-76 villagers killed.
• August 4
  • 185,000 Teamsters union United Parcel Service drivers walk off the job.
  • The first chapter of the manga One Piece is printed in Japan's Shonen Jump
• August 6 - Microsoft buys a $150 million share of financially troubled Apple Computer.
• August 13 - The animated American TV series South Park is aired.
• August 13 - In Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Cruzeiro wins Sporting Cristal of Peru by 1-0 and are Copa Libertadores de América champions by second time.
• August 20 - Souhane massacre in Algeria; over 60 people killed, 15 kidnapped.
• August 26 - Beni-Ali massacre in Algeria; 60-100 people killed.
• August 26 - The Independent International Commission on Decommissioning set up in Northern Ireland, as part of the peace process.
• August 29 - Rais massacre in Algeria; over 98 (and possibly up to 400) people killed.
• August 29 - Christopher Maier of Lexington, Kentucky is bludgeoned to death by serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz. Angel also rapes and beats Christopher's girlfriend, who survives. This is the first of a string of murders that Angel commits.
• August 31 - Diana, Princess of Wales is taken to a hospital after a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris. She is pronounced dead at 4:00 the next morning.

September

The funeral cortege of Diana, Princess of Wales on route to Westminster Abbey from Kensington Palace.

• September 3 - Arizona Governor Fife Symington is convicted for various crimes tied to his real estate business, effectively forcing him out of office.
• September 4 - In Lorain, Ohio, the last Ford Thunderbird for three years rolls off the assembly line.
• September 5
  • Beni-Messous massacre in Algeria; over 87 killed.
  • The IOC picks Athens to be the host city for the 2004 Summer Olympics
  • Death of Mother Teresa
• September 6 - The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales takes place at Westminster Abbey, watched by over 1 billion people worldwide.
• 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
• 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 15 - Norwegian parliamentary election, 1997
• 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 18 - Wales votes in favour of devolution and the formation of a National Assembly
• September 19 - Guelb El-Kebir massacre in Algeria; 53 killed.
• September 21 - The AIS, the FIS' armed wing, declares a unilateral ceasefire in Algeria.
• September 22 - Bentalha massacre in Algeria; over 200 villagers killed.
• 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.
• September 26 - 234 die in air crash in Indonesia. Probable cause is the smoke rising from numerous forest fires in the area

October

• October 1 - The main office of Kansai TV moves from Nishi-Temma, Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan to Ogimachi, Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan. Luke Woodham walked into Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi and opened fire killing two girls, after earlier in the morning killing his mother.
• October 2 – UK scientists Moira Bruce and John Collinge with their colleagues independently show that the new variant form of the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is the same disease as Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or "mad-cow disease"
• October 4 - One million men gather for Promise Keepers' Stand in the Gap event in Washington DC.
• October 12 - Sidi Daoud massacre in Algeria; 43 killed at a fake roadblock.
• October 15 - Andy Green sets the first supersonic land speed record for the ThrustSSC team, led by Richard Noble of the United Kingdom. ThrustSSC goes through the flying mile course at Black Rock Desert, Nevada at an average speed of 1,227.985 km/h (763.035 mph).
• October 17 - The remains of Che Guevara were laid to rest with full military honours in a specially built mausoleum in the city of Santa Clara, where he had won the decisive battle of the Cuban Revolution thirty-nine years before
• October 27 - Stock markets around the world crash because of a global economic crisis scare. The Dow Jones Industrial Average follows suit and plummets 554.26, or 7.18%, to 7,161.15. The points loss exceeds the loss from Black Monday. Officials at the New York Stock Exchange for the first time invoke the "circuit breaker" rule to stop trading (this was a very controversial move and prompted a quick change in the rule; trading stops will only occur when the DJIA drops at least 10 or 20 percent) (see October 27, 1997 mini-crash).
• October 28 - The bulls come running back as the Dow Jones Industrial Average gains a record 337.17 to 7,498.32. One billion shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange for the first time ever.
• October 29 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq says it will begin shooting down U-2 surveillance planes being used by UNSCOM inspectors
• October 30 - British au pair Louise Woodward is found guilty of the baby-shaking death of 8-month-old Matthew Eappen.

November

• November 3 - In France, striking truck drivers blockade ports during a dispute over pay
• November 10
  • Telcoms WorldCom and MCI Communications announce a US$37 billion merger to form MCI WorldCom (the largest merger in US history).
  • A jury in Fairfax, Virginia finds Mir Aimal Kasi guilty of the murder of two CIA employees in 1993.
• November 11
  • Mary McAleese is elected the eighth President of Ireland
  • The last Pentium 586 MMX cpu (233 MHz) made. (until the Pentium II)
• November 12 - Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
• November 16 - After nearly 18 years of incarceration, the People's Republic of China releases Wei Jingsheng, a pro-democracy dissident, from jail for medical reasons.
• November 17 - In Luxor, Egypt, 62 people are killed by 6 Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut (police killed the assailants)
• November 19 - In Carlisle, Iowa, Bobbi McCaughey gives birth to septuplets in the second known case where all seven babies were born alive.
• November 20 - Boeing 727 of Portuguese TAP airline crashes just before landing in Funchal airport in Madeira - 123 dead
• November 27 - Second Souhane massacre in Algeria; 25 killed.

December

• December 1 - Michel Carneal fires at students in West Paducah, Ky - 3 dead, five wounded.
• December 3 - In Ottawa, Canada, representatives from 121 countries sign a treaty prohibiting manufacture and deployment of anti-personnel landmines. The United States, People's Republic of China, and Russia do not sign the treaty, however.
• December 16 - An episode of Pokemon (called Electric Soldier Porygon) in Japan caused 685 children to have epileptic seizures.
• December 24 - Sid El-Antri massacre in Algeria; 50-100 villagers killed.
• December 27 - Loyalist paramilitary leader Billy Wright is assassinated in Northern Ireland, inside Long Kesh prison.
• 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, the Wilaya of Relizane massacres of December 30, 1997, 400 people are killed from four villages in the wilaya of Relizane: Khrouba (176 deaths), Sahnoun (113 deaths), El-Abadel (73 deaths), and Ouled-Tayeb (50 deaths). Six days later they would be followed by another set of local massacres.
• December 31 - After 26 years in operation, Opryland USA theme park in Nashville, Tennessee closed to the public.

Unknown Dates

• Miami police arrests Russian criminal who tries to sell a Russian submarine to the Columbian drug cartels
• The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger in December 1997.
• The Toyota Prius comes to showrooms, only in Japan. The Prius was the first hybrid vehicle to go into full production. The Prius would come to US showrooms in 2000.

Fictional Events

• August 29: Judgment Day in the Schwarzenegger movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
• October 1: The "end day" in the SNK game, Crystalis for the NES and Game Boy Color.
• Unknown: Michael Corleone dies in Sicily following his retirment (The Godfather, Part III).

Births

• April 13 - Sloane Momsen, American actress

Deaths

January-May

• January 10 - Sheldon Leonard, American producer, actor, director
• January 10 - Alexander R. Todd, Baron Todd, Scottish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1907)
• January 12 - Charles B. Huggins, Canadian-born cancer researcher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1901)
• January 17 - Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer (b. 1906)
• January 19 - James Dickey, American poet and novelist (b. 1923)
• January 20 - Curt Flood, American baseball player (b. 1938)
• January 21 - Colonel Tom Parker, Dutch-born celebrity manager (b. 1909)
• February 1 - Herb Caen, American newspaper columnist (b. 1916)
• February 2 - Chico Science, Brazilian musician (automobile accident) (b. 1967)
• February 5 - Pamela Harriman, U.S. Ambassador to France (b. 1920)
• February 11 - Don Porter, American actor (b. 1912)
• February 19 - Deng Xiaoping, leader of the People's Republic of China (b. 1904)
• March 6 - Cheddi Jagan, President of Guyana (b. 1918)
• March 7 - Edward Mills Purcell, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1912)
• March 7 - Martin Kippenberger, German artist (b. 1953)
• March 9 - The Notorious B.I.G., American rapper (b. 1972)
• March 10 - La Vern Baker, American singer (b. 1929)
• March 14 - Fred Zinnemann, Austrian-born director (b. 1907)
• March 19 - Willem de Kooning, Dutch artist (b. 1904)
• March 20 - Tony Zale, American boxer (b. 1913)
• April 5 - Allen Ginsberg, American poet (b. 1926)
• April 7 - Witto Aloma, Cuban Major League Baseball player (b. 1923)
• April 7 - Georgi Shonin, cosmonaut (b. 1935)
• April 12 - George Wald, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1903)
• April 16 - Doris Angleton, American socialite (b. 1951)
• May 2 - John Carew Eccles, Australian neurophysiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1903)
• May 5 - Walter Gotell, German actor (b. 1924)
• May 14 - Harry Blackstone Jr., American magician (b. 1934)
• May 22 - Alfred Hershey, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1908)
• May 23 - James Lee Byars, artist (b. 1932)
• May 24 - Edward Mulhare, Irish actor (b. 1923)
• May 29 - Jeff Buckley, American musician (drowned) (b. 1966)
• May 31 - James Bennett Griffin, American archaeologist (b. 1905)

June-August

• June 3 - Dennis James, American game show host. (b. 1917)
• June 22 - Gérard Pelletier, French journalist, politician and diplomat (b. 1919)
• June 24 - Brian Keith, American actor (b. 1921)
• June 26 - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, Hawaiian singer (b. 1959
• June 28 - Mrs. Miller, American singer (b. 1907)
• July 2 -