1997

For the band, see 1997 (band).

Template:C20YearInTopicX Year 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar). Template:C20YearTOCtempleton The year 1997 was the Year of the Ox according to the Chinese Zodiac.

Deaths

January-February

• January 1 - Townes Van Zandt, American folk singer (b. 1944)
• January 4 - Harry Helmsley, American real estate mogul (b. 1909)
• January 6 - Catherine Scorsese, Italian-American actress (b. 1912)
• January 10 - Sheldon Leonard, American producer, actor, director (b. 1907)
• 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 16 - Ennis Cosby, comedian Bill Cosby's son (b. 1969)
• 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)
• January 30 - Nicholas Mallett, TV director
• January 31 - Johnny Klein, American drummer (b. 1918)

• 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 17 - Zein Isa, Palestinian militant imprisoned in the United States for the honor killing of his daughter
• February 19 - Deng Xiaoping, leader of the People's Republic of China (b. 1904)
• February 23 - Tony Williams, American musician (b. 1945)

March-April

• March 2 - Bloodshed (rapper), American rapper (b. 1975)
• March 4 - Robert H. Dicke, American experimental physicist (b. 1916)
• March 4 - Carey Loftin, American actor and stuntman (b. 1914)
• 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 17 - Jermaine Stewart, American singer (b. 1957)
• March 19 - Willem de Kooning, Dutch artist (b. 1904)
• March 20 - Tony Zale, American boxer (b. 1913)
• March 21 - W.V. Awdry, British children's writer (b. 1911)
• 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 15 - Mildred Cleghorn, chairwoman of the Fort Sill Apache tribe (b. 1910)
• April 16 - Doris Angleton, American socialite (b. 1951)
• April 16 - Roland Topor, French illustrator (b. 1938)
• April 19 - El Duce, American singer/drummer (The Mentors) (b. 1958)
• April 20 - Henry Mucci, American Colonel of the 98th Ranger Battalion (b. 1909)
• April 22 - Baroness Seear, President of the UK Liberal Party (b. 1913)

May-June

• 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, American 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 3 - Dennis James, American game show host (b. 1917)
• June 12 - Bulat Okudzhava, Soviet non-mainstream singer of Georgian descent (b. 1924)
• June 22 - Gérard Pelletier, French journalist, politician and diplomat (b. 1919)
• June 23 - Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X (b. 1936)
• June 24 - Brian Keith, American actor (b. 1921)
• June 25 - Jacques-Yves Cousteau, French explorer (b. 1910)
• June 26 - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, Hawaiian singer (b. 1959)
• June 28 - Mrs. Miller, American singer (b. 1907)

July-August

• July 1 - Robert Mitchum, American actor (b. 1917)
• July 2 - James Stewart, American actor (b. 1908)
• July 4 - Charles Kuralt, American television reporter (b. 1934)
• July 4 - John Zachary Young, British biologist (b. 1907)
• July 15 - Gianni Versace, Italian fashion designer (murdered) (b. 1946)
• July 20 - John Akii-Bua Ugandan hurdler (b. 1949)
• July 23 - Chuhei Nambu, Japanese athlete (b. 1904)
• July 24 - William J. Brennan, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1906)
• August 2 - William S. Burroughs, American author (b. 1914)
• August 2 - Fela Kuti, Nigerian musician and political activist (b. 1938)
• August 4 - Jeanne Calment, French supercentenarian (b. 1875)
• August 8 - Sviatoslav Richter, Ukrainian pianist (b. 1915)
• August 10 - Conlon Nancarrow, American-born composer (b. 1912)
• August 12 - Luther Allison, American musician (b. 1939)
• August 16 - Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Pakistani Qwalli artist (b. 1948)
• August 21 - Yuri Nikulin, Russian actor
• August 23 - John Kendrew, British molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1917)
• August 24 - Louis Essen, English physicist (b. 1908)
• August 31 - Diana, Princess of Wales (car accident) (b. 1961)
• August 31 - Dodi Al-Fayed, Egyptian businessman (the same automobile accident) (b. 1955)

September-October

• September 2 - Rudolph Bing, Austrian opera manager (b. 1902)
• September 2 - Viktor Frankl, Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist (b. 1905)
• September 5 - Georg Solti, Hungarian conductor (b. 1912)
• September 5 - Mother Teresa, Albanian missionary and humanitarian, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1910)
• September 7 - Mobutu Sese Seko, president of Zaire (b. 1930)
• September 9 - Burgess Meredith, American actor (b. 1907)
• September 17 - Red Skelton, American comedian (b. 1913)
• September 18 - Jimmy Witherspoon, blues singer (b. 1920)
• September 19 - Rich Mullins, American musician (b. 1955)
• September 25 - Jean Françaix, French composer (b. 1912)
• September 27 - Walter Trampler, American violist (b. 1915)
• October 1 - Jerome H. Lemelson, American inventor (b. 1923)
• October 4 - Gunpei Yokoi, Japanese video game franchise creator (creator of the Nintendo Game Boy) (automobile accident) (b. 1941)
• October 5 - Brian Pillman, American professional wrestler (b. 1962)
• October 6 - Adrienne Hill, British actress
• October 6 - Johnny Vander Meer, baseball player (b. 1914)
• October 12 - John Denver, American musician (b. 1943)
• October 19 - Glen Buxton, American guitarist (b. 1947)
• October 23 - Bert Haanstra, Dutch filmmaker (b. 1916)
• October 24 - Don Messick, American voice actor (b. 1926)
• October 29 - Anton Szandor LaVey, American founder of the Church of Satan (b. 1930)

November-December

• November 5 - James Robert Baker, American novelist and screenwriter (b. 1946)
• November 5 - Sir Isaiah Berlin, Russian historian of ideas (b. 1909)
• November 11 - Rodney Milburn, American athlete (b. 1950)
• November 12 - Carlos Surinach, Spanish composer (b. 1915)
• November 15 - Douglas MacArthur II, nephew of World War II General Douglas MacArthur (b. 1909)
• November 17 - John Wimber, American leader of the Vineyard Movement (b. 1934)
• November 21 - Robert Simpson, English composer (b. 1921)
• November 22 - Michael Hutchence, Australian musician (b. 1960)
• November 25 - Monique Serf, French singer (b. 1930)
• November 30 - Kathy Acker, American author (b. 1947)
• December 2 - Shirley Crabtree, British wrestler best known as Big Daddy (b. 1930)
• December 2 - Michael Hedges, American composer and guitarist (b. 1953)
• December 18 - Chris Farley, American actor and comedian (b. 1964)
• December 19 - David Schramm, American astrophysicist (b. 1945)
• December 20 - Denise Levertov, English-born American poet (b. 1923)
• December 21 - Amie Comeaux, American country singer (b. 1976)
• December 24 - Toshirō Mifune, Japanese actor (b. 1920)
• December 25 - Denver Pyle, American actor (b. 1920)
• December 27 - Billy Wright, Irish paramilitary leader (b. 1960)

Unknown dates

• Laurence Henry Hicks, Australian composer (b. 1912)

Designations

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

Nobel prizes

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

Templeton Prize

• Pandurang Shastri Athavale

See also

• 20th century

Table of contents

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[[January {{{1}}} |January]]

[[February {{{1}}} |February]]

[[March {{{1}}} |March]]

[[April {{{1}}} |April]]

[[May {{{1}}} |May]]

[[June {{{1}}} |June]]

[[July {{{1}}} |July]]

[[August {{{1}}} |August]]

[[September {{{1}}}|September]]

[[October {{{1}}} |October]]

[[November {{{1}}} |November]]

[[December {{{1}}} |December]]