1997

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1960s  1970s  1980s  – 1990s –  2000s  2010s  2020s
Years:	1994 1995 1996 – 1997 – 1998 1999 2000

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

Births

• April 1 – Asa Butterfield, English actor
• May 1 – Ariel Gade, American actress
• September 8 – Matthew Josten, American actor
• November 16 – Alex Polidori, Italian actress and younger sister of Gabriele Patriarca
• November 19 – McCaughey septuplets, famous American set of septuplets

Deaths

January – March

Deng Xiaoping 1904–1997

Allen Ginsberg 1926–1997

Jacques-Yves Cousteau 1910–1997

• January 9  – Edward Osobka-Morawski, Polish politician (b. 1909)
• January 10  – Alexander R. Todd, Baron Todd, Scottish chemist (b. 1907)
• January 10  – Sheldon Leonard, American producer, actor, director (b. 1907)
• January 12  – Charles Brenton Huggins, Canadian cancer researcher (b. 1901)
• January 15  – Helenio Herrera, Argentine football manager (b. 1916)
• 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 American 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)
• February 21  – Josef Posipal, German footballer (b. 1927)
• March 6  – Cheddi Jagan, President of Guyana (b. 1918)
• March 9  – The Notorious B.I.G., American rapper (b. 1972)
• March 14  – Fred Zinnemann, American director (b. 1907)
• March 19  – Willem de Kooning, Dutch artist (b. 1904)

April – June

• April 5  – Allen Ginsberg, American poet (b. 1926)
• April 7  – Georgi Shonin, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1935)
• April 7  – Witto Aloma, Major League Baseball player (b. 1923)
• April 11  – Wang Xiaobo, Chinese writer
• April 12  – George Wald, American scientist (b. 1903)
• April 17  – Chaim Herzog, President of Israel (b. 1918)
• May 2  – John Eccles, Australian neuropsychologist (b. 1903)
• May 16  – Giuseppe De Santis, Italian movie director (b. 1917)
• May 22  – Alfred Hershey, American biochemist (b. 1908)
• May 29  – Jeff Buckley, American musician (accidental drowning) (b. 1966)
• June 2  – Helen Jacobs, American tennis player (b. 1908)
• June 6  – Magda Gabor, American actress (b. 1914)
• June 14  – Richard Jaeckel, American actor (b. 1926)
• June 23  – Betty Shabazz, American widow of Malcolm X (b. 1936)
• June 25  – Jacques-Yves Cousteau, French underwater explorer and filmmaker (b. 1910)
• June 26  – Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, Hawaiian singer (b. 1959)
• June 29  – William Hickey, American actor (b. 1927)

July – September

Jeanne Calment 1875–1997

Diana, Princess of Wales 1961–1997

Stephane Grappelli 1908–1997

• July 1  – Robert Mitchum, American actor (b. 1917)
• July 2  – James Stewart, American actor (b. 1908)
• July 15  – Gianni Versace, Italian fashion designer (b. 1946)
• July 18  – Eugene Shoemaker, American astronomer (b. 1928)
• July 24  – Frank Parker, American tennis player (b. 1916)
• July 30  – Bao Dai, Vietnamese Emperor (b. 1913)
• August 2  – William S. Burroughs, American writer (b. 1914)
• August 4  – Jeanne Calment, French supercentenarian, longest-lived human ever (b. 1875)
• August 8  – Sviatoslav Richter, Ukrainian pianist (b. 1915)
• August 12  – Luther Allison, American musician (b. 1939)
• August 23  – John Kendrew, British molecular biologist (b. 1917)
• August 30  – Ernst Willimowski, Polish footballer (b. 1931)
• August 31  – Diana, Princess of Wales (b. 1961)
• August 31  – Dodi al-Fayed, Egyptian businessman (b. 1955)
• September 5  – Mother Teresa, Albanian nun and missionary (b. 1910)
• September 7  – Mobutu Sese Seko, President of Zaire (b. 1930)
• September 9  – Burgess Meredith, American actor (b. 1907)
• September 18  – Jimmy Witherspoon, American blues singer (b. 1920)
• September 29  – Roy Lichtenstein, American artist (b. 1923)

October – December

• October 12 – John Denver, American musician (b. 1943)
• October 16 – James A. Michener, American writer (b. 1907)
• October 22 – Leonid Amalrik, Russian animator (b. 1905)
• October 30 – Samuel Fuller, American screenwriter and director (b. 1912)
• November 22 – Michael Hutchence, Australian musician (b. 1960)
• November 25 – Hastings Banda, 1st President of Malawi (b. 1907)
• December 1 – Stephane Grappelli, French violinist (b. 1908)
• December 7 – Billy Bremner, Scottish footballer (b. 1942)
• December 18 – Chris Farley, American actor and comedian (b. 1964)
• December 20 – Juzo Itami, Japanese movie director (b. 1933)
• December 27 – Billy Wright, Northern Irish paramilitary leader (b. 1960)

Events

January

Kofi Annan becomes UN Secretary-General.

• January 1 – Kofi Annan becomes Secretary-General of the UN.
• January 8 – Mister Rogers receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• January 9 – Yachtsman Tony Bullimore is found alive five days after his boat capsized in the Southern Ocean.
• January 18 – In north west Rwanda, Hutu militia members kill 3 Spanish aid workers, 3 soldiers and seriously wound 1 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 2 and wounded 3 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 22 – Scientists in Scotland announce the cloning of Dolly, born on July 5, 1996.
• February 23 – A small fire occurs on the Mir space station.
• February 27 – Divorce becomes legal in the Republic of Ireland.

March

Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Korean Airlines Flight 801 crashes on Guam.

• March 6 – Guyana's President Cheddi Jagan dies in office.
• March 22 – At age 14, Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest figure skating world champion.
• March 24 – The movie The English Patient wins an Academy Award for best picture.

April

• April 29 – 126 people are killed in a train crash in Hunan, China.

May

• May 1 – Tony Blair of the Labour Party is elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in a landslide victory over the Conservatives, who lose all of their seats in Scotland and Wales, and lose power after 18 years in Government.
• May 3 – Katrina and the Waves win the Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom.
• May 10 – An earthquake in northeastern Iran kills 2400 people.
• May 16 – Mobutu Sese Seko leaves Zaire.
• May 17 – Laurent Kabila's troops enter Kinshasa, as Zaire changes its name to Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• May 23 – Mohammad Khatami is elected President of Iran.

June

• June 13 – Timothy McVeigh is sentenced to death for the Oklahoma City bombing.
• June 25 – The town of Plymouth on the Caribbean island of Montserrat is evacuated as the Soufriere Hills volcano erupts.
• June 26 – Bertie Ahern becomes Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland.

July

• July 1 – The United Kingdom hands control of Hong Kong back to the People's Republic of China.
• July 15 – Fashion designer Gianni Versace is shot dead in Florida by spree killer Andrew Cunanan.
• July 25 – K. R. Narayanan becomes President of India.

August

• August 4 – Jeanne Calment dies after a record human lifespan of 122 years and 164 days.
• August 6 – Korean Air Flight 801 crash lands on the island of Guam, killing 228 people.
• August 31 – Diana, Princess of Wales, Dodi al-Fayed and their driver Henri Paul are killed in a car crash in Paris.

September

Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales on September 6, 1997

• September 5 – The 2004 Summer Olympics are awarded to Athens, Greece.
• September 6 – The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales takes place at Westminster Abbey in London. It is watched by over 2 billion people worldwide.
• September 11 – Voters in Scotland approve the creation of their own regional parliament in a referendum.
• September 18 – Voters in Wales approve the creation of their own Assembly in a referendum.
• September 26 – The regions of Umbria and Marche in Italy are hit by a strong earthquake.
• September 26 - An Airbus A300 of Garuda Indonesia Airlines crashes in Medan, Sumatra, killing all 234 people on board.

October

• October 15 – NASA launches the Cassini-Huygens probe to Saturn.
• October 16 – The New York Times' first colour photographs appear.

November

Mary McAleese is chosen as President of Ireland on November 11, 1997.

• November 11 – Mary McAleese is chosen to succeed Mary Robinson as President of the Republic of Ireland, marking the first-ever woman to woman Presidential transfer.
• November 17 – 62 people are killed by Islamist terrorists in Luxor, Egypt.

December

• December 11 – The Kyoto protocol is approved by a UN committee.
• December 19 – Janet Jagan becomes President of Guyana, succeeding her deceased husband, Cheddi Jagan.
• December 19 – James Cameron's movie Titanic is released in the US.

Other significant events

• Algerian Civil War: Hundreds of people are killed in massacres throughout the year.

Nobel Prizes

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

movies released

• Air Force One
• Amistad
• As Good as It Gets
• Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
• Batman & Robin
• Contact
• Face/Off
• Gattaca
• Good Will Hunting
• Hercules
• Home Alone 3
• Into Thin Air
• L.A. Confidential
• Liar Liar
• Men in Black
• Mononoke Hime
• My Best Friend's Wedding
• Suicide Kings
• The Fifth Element
• The Full Monty
• The Ice Storm
• The Lost World: Jurassic Park
• The Rainmaker
• The Sweet Hereafter
• Titanic
• Tomorrow Never Dies
• Power Rangers Turbo: The Movie
• Volcano

New books

• American Pastoral – Philip Roth
• Are You Experienced? – William Sutcliffe
• Barney's Version – Mordecai Richler
• The Best Laid Plans – Sidney Sheldon
• The Bible Code – Michael Drosnin
• Budgie: The Little Helicopter – Sarah Ferguson
• Cat & Mouse – James Patterson
• Cold Mountain – Charles Frazier
• Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs – Dave Barry
• Deja Dead – Kathy Reichs
• Diana: Her True Story – Andrew Morton
• Everyday Wicca – Gerina Dunwich
• Fall On Your Knees – Ann-Marie MacDonald
• The Ghost – Danielle Steel
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone – J. K. Rowling
• Hornet's Nest – Patricia Cornwell
• I Am the Most Interesting Book of All (translation) – Marie Bashkirtseff
• Instruments of Darkness – Nancy Huston
• Jingo – Terry Pratchett
• Larry's Party – Carol Shields
• Last Standing Woman – Winona LaDuke
• Moab Is My Washpot – Stephen Fry (autobiography)
• Morisson of Peking – Cyril Pearl
• Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet – Karen Armstrong
• Night Train – Martin Amis
• The Partner – John Grisham
• Pretend You Don't See Her – Mary Higgins Clark
• The Ranch – Danielle Steel
• The Red Tent – Anita Diamant
• Special Delivery – Danielle Steel
• The Subtle Knife – Philip Pullman
• Timequake – Kurt Vonnegut
• Toulouse-Lautrec: The Soul of Montmartre – Reinhold Heller
• Tuesdays With Morrie – Mitch Albom
• Unnatural Exposure – Patricia Cornwell
• A Walk in the Woods – Bill Bryson
• A Wiccan's Guide to Prophecy and Divination – Gerina Dunwich

Hit songs

• Candle in the Wind 1997 – Elton John
• "MMMBop" – Hanson
• "My Heart Will Go On" – Céline Dion
• "Wannabe" – The Spice Girls
• "A Long December" – Counting Crows
• "All By Myself" – Céline Dion
• "Bitch" – Meredith Brooks
• "Don't Speak" – No Doubt
• "Forty Six & 2" – Tool
• "Longneck Bottle" – Garth Brooks
• "Magdalene" – Lenny Kravitz
• "Silver Springs" – Fleetwood Mac
• "The Difference" – The Wallflowers
• "Volcano" – Presidents of the United States of America
• "You Were Meant For Me" – Jewel