Important Historical Events of the year 1997, Year 1997 in History
List of 1997 Major News Events in History, Most Important Historical Events in 1997
What happened in the year 1997?
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| January 9, 1997 | Comair Flight 3272 crashes in Raisinville Township in Monroe County, Michigan, killing 29 people. |
| January 12, 1997 | Space Shuttle program: Atlantis launches from the Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-81 to the Russian space station Mir, carrying astronaut Jerry M. Linenger for a four-month stay on board the station, replacing astronaut John E. Blaha. |
| January 17, 1997 | Cape Canaveral Air Force Station: A Delta II carrying the GPS IIR-1 satellite explodes 13 seconds after launch, dropping 250 tons of burning rocket remains around the launch pad. |
| January 19, 1997 | 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 21, 1997 | The U.S. House of Representatives votes 395–28 to reprimand Newt Gingrich for ethics violations, making him the first Speaker of the House to be so disciplined. |
| January 23, 1997 | Madeleine Albright becomes the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State. |
| February 4, 1997 | En route to Lebanon, two Israeli Sikorsky CH-53 troop-transport helicopters collide in mid-air over northern Galilee, Israel, killing 73. |
| February 4, 1997 | The Bojnurd earthquake measuring Mw 6.5 strikes Iran. With a Mercalli intensity of VIII, it kills at least 88 and damages 173 villages. |
| February 5, 1997 | The so-called Big Three banks in Switzerland announce the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families. |
| February 11, 1997 | Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. |
| February 22, 1997 | In Roslin, Midlothian, British scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly has been successfully cloned. |
| February 28, 1997 | An earthquake in northern Iran is responsible for about 3,000 deaths. |
| February 28, 1997 | GRB 970228, a highly luminous flash of gamma rays, strikes the Earth for 80 seconds, providing early evidence that gamma-ray bursts occur well beyond the Milky Way. |
| February 28, 1997 | A Turkish military memorandum resulted with collapse of the government in Turkey.[11][12] |
| March 9, 1997 | Comet Hale–Bopp: Observers in China, Mongolia and eastern Siberia are treated to a rare double feature as an eclipse permits Hale-Bopp to be seen during the day. |
| March 9, 1997 | The Notorious B.I.G. is murdered in Los Angeles after attending the Soul Train Music Awards. He is gunned down leaving an after party at the Petersen Automotive Museum. His murder remains unsolved. |
| March 13, 1997 | The Missionaries of Charity choose Sister Nirmala to succeed Mother Teresa as their leader. |
| March 18, 1997 | The tail of a Russian Antonov An-24 charter plane breaks off while en route to Turkey, causing the plane to crash and killing all 50 people on board. |
| March 22, 1997 | Tara Lipinski, aged 14 years and nine months, becomes the youngest women's World Figure Skating Champion. |
| March 22, 1997 | Comet Hale–Bopp reaches its closest approach to Earth at 1.315 AU. |
| March 26, 1997 | Thirty-nine bodies are found in the Heaven's Gate mass suicides. |
| April 1, 1997 | Comet Hale–Bopp is seen passing at perihelion. |
| April 3, 1997 | The Thalit massacre begins in Algeria; all but one of the 53 inhabitants of Thalit are killed by guerrillas. |
| April 6, 1997 | In Greene County, Tennessee, the Lillelid murders occur. |
| April 13, 1997 | Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament. |
| April 14, 1997 | Pai Hsiao-yen, daughter of Taiwanese artiste Pai Bing-bing is kidnapped on her way to school, preceding her murder. |
| April 29, 1997 | The Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993 enters into force, outlawing the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons by its signatories. |
| May 6, 1997 | The Bank of England is given independence from political control, the most significant change in the bank's 300-year history. |
| May 8, 1997 | China Southern Airlines Flight 3456 crashes on approach into Bao'an International Airport, killing 35 people. |
| May 10, 1997 | The 7.3 Mw Qayen earthquake strikes Iran's Khorasan Province killing 1,567 people. |
| May 11, 1997 | Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player in a classic match format. |
| May 15, 1997 | The United States government acknowledges the existence of the "Secret War" in Laos and dedicates the Laos Memorial in honor of Hmong and other "Secret War" veterans. |
| May 15, 1997 | The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-84 to dock with the Russian space station Mir. |
| May 16, 1997 | Mobutu Sese Seko, the President of Zaire, flees the country. |
| May 17, 1997 | Troops of Laurent Kabila march into Kinshasa. Zaire is officially renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo. |
| May 19, 1997 | The Sierra Gorda biosphere, the most ecologically diverse region in Mexico, is established as a result of grassroots efforts. |
| May 25, 1997 | A military coup in Sierra Leone replaces President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah with Major Johnny Paul Koroma. |
| May 27, 1997 | The 1997 Central Texas tornado outbreak occurs, spawning multiple tornadoes in Central Texas, including the F5 that killed 27 in Jarrell. |
| June 2, 1997 | In Denver, Timothy McVeigh is convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, in which 168 people died. He was executed four years later. |
| June 5, 1997 | The Second Republic of the Congo Civil War begins. |
| June 10, 1997 | Before fleeing his northern stronghold, Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot orders the killing of his defense chief Son Sen and 11 of Sen's family members. |
| June 12, 1997 | Queen Elizabeth II reopens the Globe Theatre in London. |
| June 13, 1997 | A jury sentences Timothy McVeigh to death for his part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. |
| June 16, 1997 | Fifty people are killed in the Daïat Labguer (M'sila) massacre in Algeria. |
| June 25, 1997 | An uncrewed Progress spacecraft collides with the Russian space station Mir. |
| June 25, 1997 | The National Hockey League approved expansion franchises for Nashville (1998), Atlanta (1999), Columbus (2000), and Minneapolis-Saint Paul (2000). |
| June 26, 1997 | The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Communications Decency Act violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. |
| June 26, 1997 | J. K. Rowling publishes the first of her Harry Potter novel series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in United Kingdom. |
| June 28, 1997 | Holyfield–Tyson II: Mike Tyson is disqualified in the third round for biting a piece off Evander Holyfield's ear. |
| July 1, 1997 | China resumes sovereignty over the city-state of Hong Kong, ending 156 years of British colonial rule. The handover ceremony is attended by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Charles, Prince of Wales, Chinese President Jiang Zemin and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. |
| July 2, 1997 | The Bank of Thailand floats the baht, triggering the Asian financial crisis. |
| July 4, 1997 | NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars. |
| July 5, 1997 | Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil MP A. Thangathurai is shot dead at Sri Shanmuga Hindu Ladies College in Trincomalee. |
| July 6, 1997 | The Troubles: In response to the Drumcree dispute, five days of mass protests, riots and gun battles begin in Irish nationalist districts of Northern Ireland. |
| July 7, 1997 | The Turkish Armed Forces withdraw from northern Iraq after assisting the Kurdistan Democratic Party in the Iraqi Kurdish Civil War. |
| July 9, 1997 | A Fokker 100 from the Brazilian airline TAM launches engineer Fernando Caldeira de Moura Campos into 2,400 meters of free fall after an explosion that depressurized the aircraft. |
| July 10, 1997 | In London, scientists report the findings of the DNA analysis of a Neanderthal skeleton which supports the "out of Africa theory" of human evolution, placing an "African Eve" at 100,000 to 200,000 years ago. |
| July 10, 1997 | Miguel Ángel Blanco, a member of Partido Popular (Spain), is kidnapped (and later murdered) in the Basque city of Ermua by ETA members, sparking widespread protests. |
| July 19, 1997 | The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army resumes a ceasefire to end their 25-year paramilitary campaign to end British rule in Northern Ireland. |
| July 20, 1997 | The fully restored USS Constitution (a.k.a. Old Ironsides) celebrates its 200th birthday by setting sail for the first time in 116 years. |
| July 22, 1997 | The second Blue Water Bridge opens between Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario. |
| July 23, 1997 | Digital Equipment Corporation files antitrust charges against chipmaker Intel. |
| July 27, 1997 | About 50 people are killed in the Si Zerrouk massacre in Algeria. |
| July 31, 1997 | FedEx Express Flight 14 crashes at Newark International Airport, injuring five. |
| August 3, 1997 | Oued El-Had and Mezouara massacre in Algeria: A total of 116 villagers killed, 40 in Oued El-Had and 76 in Mezouara. |
| August 3, 1997 | The tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere, Sky Tower in downtown Auckland, New Zealand, opens after two-and-a-half years of construction. |
| August 6, 1997 | Korean Air Flight 801 crashed at Nimitz Hill, Guam killing 228 of 254 people on board. |
| August 7, 1997 | Space Shuttle Program: The Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-85 from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. |
| August 7, 1997 | Fine Air Flight 101 crashes after takeoff from Miami International Airport, killing five people. |
| August 10, 1997 | Sixteen people are killed when Formosa Airlines Flight 7601 crashes near Beigan Airport in the Matsu Islands of Taiwan. |
| August 20, 1997 | Souhane massacre in Algeria; over 60 people are killed and 15 kidnapped. |
| August 25, 1997 | Egon Krenz, the former East German leader, is convicted of a shoot-to-kill policy at the Berlin Wall. |
| August 26, 1997 | Beni Ali massacre occurs in Algeria, leaving 60 to 100 people dead. |
| August 29, 1997 | Netflix is launched as an internet DVD rental service. |
| August 29, 1997 | At least 98 villagers are killed by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria GIA in the Rais massacre, Algeria. |
| August 31, 1997 | Diana, Princess of Wales, her partner Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul die in a car crash in Paris. |
| September 3, 1997 | Vietnam Airlines Flight 815 (Tupolev Tu-134) crashes on approach into Phnom Penh airport, killing 64. |
| September 6, 1997 | The Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales takes place in London. Well over a million people lined the streets and 2.mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hi |
| September 7, 1997 | Maiden flight of the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor. |
| September 11, 1997 | NASA's Mars Global Surveyor reaches Mars. |
| September 11, 1997 | Kurkse tragedy: Fourteen Estonian soldiers of the Baltic Battalion are drowned or die of hypothermia during a training exercise in the Kurkse Strait. |
| September 11, 1997 | After a nationwide referendum, Scotland votes to establish a devolved parliament within the United Kingdom. |
| September 13, 1997 | A German Air Force Tupolev Tu-154 and a United States Air Force Lockheed C-141 Starlifter collide in mid-air near Namibia, killing 33. |
| September 14, 1997 | Eighty-one killed as five bogies of the Ahmedabad–Howrah Express plunge into a river in Bilaspur district of Madhya Pradesh, India. |
| September 18, 1997 | United States media magnate Ted Turner donates US$1 billion to the United Nations. |
| September 18, 1997 | The Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention is adopted. |
| September 19, 1997 | The Guelb El-Kebir massacre in Algeria kills 53 people. |
| September 21, 1997 | St. Olaf's Church, a stone church from the 16th century in Tyrvää, Finland, was burnt down by a burglar. |
| September 26, 1997 | A Garuda Indonesia Airbus A300 crashes near Medan airport, killing 234. |
| September 26, 1997 | An earthquake strikes the Italian regions of Umbria and the Marche, causing part of the Basilica of St. Francis at Assisi to collapse. |
| October 4, 1997 | The second largest cash robbery in U.S. history occurs in North Carolina |
| October 10, 1997 | Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 2553 crashes and explodes in Uruguay, killing 74. |
| October 12, 1997 | The Sidi Daoud massacre in Algeria kills 43 people at a fake roadblock. |
| October 15, 1997 | The Cassini probe launches from Cape Canaveral on its way to Saturn. |
| October 22, 1997 | Danish fugitive Steen Christensen kills two police officers, Chief Constable Eero Holsti and Senior Constable Antero Palo, in Ullanlinna, Helsinki, Finland during his prison escape.[9] |
| October 25, 1997 | After a civil war, Denis Sassou Nguesso proclaims himself President of the Republic of the Congo. |
| October 27, 1997 | The 1997 Asian financial crisis causes a crash in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. |
| November 3, 1997 | The United States imposes economic sanctions against Sudan in response to its human rights abuses of its own citizens and its material and political assistance to Islamic extremist groups across the Middle East and East Africa. |
| November 10, 1997 | WorldCom and MCI Communications announce a $37 billion merger (the largest merger in US history at the time). |
| November 12, 1997 | Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. |
| November 16, 1997 | After nearly 18 years of incarceration, China releases Wei Jingsheng, a pro-democracy dissident, from jail for medical reasons. |
| November 17, 1997 | In Luxor, Egypt, 62 people are killed by six Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut, known as Luxor massacre. |
| November 27, 1997 | Twenty-five people are killed in the second Souhane massacre in Algeria. |
| December 1, 1997 | In the Indian state of Bihar, Ranvir Sena attacks the CPI (ML) Party Unity stronghold Lakshmanpur-Bathe, killing 63 lower caste people. |
| December 1, 1997 | Heath High School shooting in West Paducah, Kentucky. |
| December 3, 1997 | In Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, representatives from 121 countries sign the Ottawa 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 6, 1997 | A Russian Antonov An-124 Ruslan cargo plane crashes into an apartment complex near Irkutsk, Siberia, killing 67. |
| December 11, 1997 | The Kyoto Protocol opens for signature. |
| December 15, 1997 | Tajikistan Airlines Flight 3183 crashes in the desert near Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, killing 85. |
| December 17, 1997 | Aerosvit Flight 241: A Yakovlev Yak-42 crashes into the Pierian Mountains near Thessaloniki Airport in Thessaloniki, Greece, killing all 70 people on board. |
| December 19, 1997 | SilkAir Flight 185 crashes into the Musi River, near Palembang in Indonesia, killing 104. |
| December 22, 1997 | Acteal massacre: Attendees at a prayer meeting of Roman Catholic activists for indigenous causes in the small village of Acteal in the Mexican state of Chiapas are massacred by paramilitary forces. |
| December 22, 1997 | Somali Civil War: Hussein Farrah Aidid relinquishes the disputed title of President of Somalia by signing the Cairo Declaration, in Cairo, Egypt. It is the first major step towards reconciliation in Somalia since 1991. |
| December 24, 1997 | The Sid El-Antri massacre in Algeria kills between 50 and 100 people. |
| December 27, 1997 | Protestant paramilitary leader Billy Wright is assassinated in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. |
| December 30, 1997 | In the worst incident in Algeria's insurgency, the Wilaya of Relizane massacres, 400 people from four villages are killed. |