1997 in the United States

1997
in
the United States

Decades:
  • 1970s
  • 1980s
  • 1990s
  • 2000s
  • 2010s
See also:

Events from the year 1997 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal government

Events

January

February

March

  • March 4 U.S. President Bill Clinton bars federal funding for any research on human cloning.
  • March 9 Brooklyn rapper The Notorious B.I.G. is killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles at age 24 before the release of his second album Life After Death. The album is released on March 25.
  • March 13 The Phoenix Lights are seen over Phoenix, Arizona.
  • March 14 A famous study of gender reassignment of a twin boy who lost his penis to a botched circumcision is exposed as fraudulent. The supposedly successful outcome for "Joan" had been widely cited as proof that gender was determined by nurture, yet the patient, David Reimer, was deeply unhappy and had returned to his original gender by the age of 15, thus indicating the exact opposite thesis.[2]
  • March 24 The 69th Academy Awards, hosted by Billy Crystal, are held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, with The English Patient winning Best Picture.
  • March 26 In San Diego, California, 39 Heaven's Gate cultists commit mass suicide at their compound.

April

May

  • May For the first time since December 1973, unemployment falls below 5%. It would remain below 5% until September 2001, during the early 2000s recession.
  • May 2 The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C.
  • May 15 The United States government acknowledges existence of the "Secret War" in Laos, and dedicates the Laos Memorial in honor of Hmong and other "Secret War" veterans.
  • May 16 U.S. President Bill Clinton issues a formal apology to the surviving victims of the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male and their families.
  • May 22 Kelly Flinn, the U.S. 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 27 The second-deadliest tornado of the 1990s hits in Jarrell, Texas, killing 27 people.

June

July

July 21: USS Constitution under sail

August

September

October

  • October 1 Luke Woodham walks into Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi and opens fire, killing two girls, after killing his mother earlier that morning.
  • October 4
    • One million men gather for Promise Keepers' "Stand in the Gap" event in Washington, DC.
    • Loomis Fargo Bank Robbery: The second largest cash robbery in U.S. history ($17.3 million, mostly in small bills) occurs at the Charlotte, North Carolina, office of Wells Fargo. An FBI investigation eventually results in 24 convictions and the recovery of approximately 95% of the stolen cash.
  • October 15
  • October 16 The first color photograph appears on the front page of The New York Times.
  • October 26 1997 World Series: The Florida Marlins defeat the Cleveland Indians.
  • October 27 Stock markets around the world crash due to 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.
  • October 28 In the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average gains a record 337.17 points, closing at 7,498.32. One billion shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange for the first time ever.
  • October 30 In Newton, Massachusetts, British au pair Louise Woodward is found guilty of the baby-shaking death of 8-month-old Matthew Eappen.

November

November 12: Ramzi Yousef guilty of planning the 1993 World Trade Center bombing

December

  • December 1 Michael Carneal opens fire on a prayer group at Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky, killing 3 and injuring 5.
  • December 3 In Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, representatives from 121 countries sign a treaty prohibiting the manufacture and deployment of anti-personnel land mines. However, the United States, the People's Republic of China, and Russia do not sign the treaty.
  • December 19 James Cameron's Titanic, the highest-grossing film of all time until Avatar (2009), premieres in the US.

Ongoing

Births

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Full date unknown

  • Milivi Adams (died 2002)
  • Amanda Balon, actress, vocalist and dancer
  • Lexi Peters, first female ice hockey player to appear in an EA Sports NHL Hockey video game

Deaths

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

See also

References

  1. "William Rehnquist Biography". biography.com. A&E Television Networks. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
  2. https://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/14/us/sexual-identity-not-pliable-after-all-report-says.html
  3. LeTourneau sentence upsets social workers
  4. "USA Gymnastics | Peyton Ernst". usagym.org. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  5. "Simone Biles". Team USA. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  6. Greenstein, Teddy. "Heisman Trophy finalist Dwayne Haskins was destined to select Ohio State. Next up: Become the next Peyton Manning". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  7. "Madison Kocian". Team USA. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
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