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1997 in the United States
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1970s  1980s  – 1990s –  2000s  2010s
Years:	1994 1995 1996 – 1997 – 1998 1999 2000
Flag:	50 stars (1960 – present)

Events from the year 1997 in the United States.

Incumbents

• President - Bill Clinton
• Vice President - Al Gore

January

Bill Clinton, the President of the United States, began his second term on January 20

• January 17 – A Delta II rocket carrying a military GPS payload explodes, shortly after liftoff from Cape Canaveral.
• January 20 – U.S. President Bill Clinton is inaugurated for his second term.
• January 22 – Madeleine Albright becomes the first female Secretary of State, after confirmation by the United States Senate.
• January 23 – Mir Aimal Kasi is sentenced to death for a 1993 assault rifle attack outside CIA headquarters that killed 2 and wounded 3.
• January 26 – Super Bowl XXXI: The Green Bay Packers win the NFL Championship for the first time since 1967, defeating the New England Patriots 35–21 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.

February

• February 10 – The United States Army suspends Gene C. McKinney, Sergeant Major of the Army, its top-ranking enlisted soldier, after hearing allegations of sexual misconduct.
• February 13 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 7,000 for the first time, gaining 60.81 to 7,022.44.
• February 13 – STS-82: Tune-up and repair work on the Hubble Space Telescope is started by astronauts from Space Shuttle Discovery.
• February 28 – The North Hollywood shootout takes place between 2 heavily armed bank robbers and officers of the Los Angeles Police Department.

March

• March 4 – U.S. President Bill Clinton bars federal funding for any research on human cloning.
• March 13 – The Phoenix Lights are seen over Phoenix, Arizona.
• 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

• April 16 – Houston, Texas socialite Doris Angleton is murdered in her River Oaks home. Roger Angleton later admits to the crime in his suicide note. Despite being found innocent of the crime by a Texas jury, he is later arrested by the United States Department of Justice on 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 US$ 2 billion in damage.

May

May 2: FDR Memorial dedicated

• 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

• June 2 – In Denver, Colorado, Timothy McVeigh is convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
• June 6 – In Lacey Township, New Jersey, high school senior Melissa Drexler kills her newborn baby in a toilet.
• June 7 – A computer user known as "_eci" publishes his Microsoft C source code on a Windows 95 and Windows NT exploit, which later becomes 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 win their first Stanley Cup championship in 42 years, defeating the Philadelphia Flyers 4 games to 0. Red Wings goaltender Mike Vernon is awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.
• June 8 – A United States Coast Guard helicopter crashes near Humboldt Bay, California; all 4 crewmembers perish.
• June 12 – The United States Department of the Treasury unveils a new $50 bill, meant to be more difficult to counterfeit.
• June 13 – A jury sentences Timothy McVeigh to death for his part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
• June 19 – The fast food chain McDonald's wins a partial victory in its libel trial, known as the McLibel case, against 2 environmental campaigners. The judge decides it was true that McDonald's targeted its advertising at children, who pestered their parents into visiting the company's restaurants.

July

• July 4 – NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.
• July 15 – Spree killer Andrew 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 21 – The fully restored USS Constitution (aka "Old Ironsides") celebrates her 200th birthday by setting sail for the first time in 116 years.
• July 23 – Digital Equipment Corporation files antitrust charges against chipmaker Intel.

August

• August 1 – Steve Jobs returns to Apple Computer, Inc at Macworld in Boston.
• August 6 – Microsoft buys a $150 million share of financially troubled Apple Computer.

September

• September 4 – In Lorain, Ohio, the last Ford Thunderbird for 3 years rolls off the assembly line.

October

• October 1 – Luke Woodham walks into Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi and opens fire, killing 2 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.
• October 4 – 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 – Andy Green sets the first supersonic land speed record for the ThrustSSC team, led by Richard Noble of the UK. 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 15 – NASA launches the Cassini-Huygens probe to Saturn.
• 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 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.
• 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 10 – Telecom companies WorldCom and MCI Communications announce a US$37 billion merger to form MCI WorldCom (the largest merger in U.S. history).
• November 10 – A Fairfax, Virginia jury finds Mir Aimal Kasi guilty of murdering 2 CIA employees in 1993.
• November 12 – Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the World Trade Center 1993 bombings.
• November 19 – In Des Moines, Iowa, Bobbi McCaughey gives birth to septuplets in the second known case where all 7 babies are born alive, and the first in which all survive infancy.
• November 27 – NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission is launched, the start of the satellite component of the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System.

December

• December 3 – In Ottawa, 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 second highest-grossing film of all time after Avatar (2009 film), premiers in the US.

See also

• 1997

References

External links

• Media related to 1997 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons