1997

Jan 2, 1997 - Letter bombs began arriving into the US from Egypt. Four were addressed to the Washington bureau of Al-Hayat, an Arab language daily. Others went to Leavenworth, Kansas. They contained the plastic explosive semtex.

Jan 13, 1997 - Supreme Court justices aggressively questioned both sides in a battle over whether a sexual-harassment lawsuit should be allowed to proceed against President Clinton while he was in office. (The following May, the justices ruled unanimously that it could.)

Jan 9, 1997 - Christopher Meili, night watchman at the Union Bank of Switzerland, salvaged an armful of books and papers that contained bank records from the Nazi era that were about to be shredded. His dismissal from the security company for which he worked, effective at the end of April, was announced Feb 24.

Jan 13, 1998 - Iraq blocks an inspection by a US-dominated team and accuses its leader, Scott Ritter, of spying for America.

Jan 20, 1997 - President Clinton and Vice President Gore were sworn in for second terms of office. In his inaugural address, Clinton called for an end to "the politics of petty bickering and extreme partisanship."

Feb 4, 1997 - A civil jury in Santa Monica, Calif., found O. J. Simpson liable for the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, awarding $8.5 million in compensatory damages to Goldman's parents. Six days later, the jury added $25 million in punitive damages to go to Nicole Brown Simpson's estate and Goldman's father.

Feb 5, 1997 - It was reported that $68 million in gold bars, looted by the Nazis from European central banks and stored in the vaults of the Federal Reserve Bank in New York and the Bank of England, would be frozen. Switzerland, Sweden and other nations turned them over to the allies after WW II. The disbursement of the gold was to be administered by the Tripartite Commission but claims have been made that part of the gold came from private citizens who died in the Holocaust.   Three Swiss banks announced that they had put about $70-71 million into an account with the Swiss National Bank to establish a "Humanitarian Fund" for the victims of the Holocaust.

Feb 23, 1998 - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan announces a deal on weapons inspections after meeting Saddam Hussein in Baghdad.

March 10, 1997 - Vietnam agreed to repay the US millions of dollars in debts incurred by the former South Vietnam. The debts were currently worth $140 million.

March 15, 1997 - German soldiers, while rescuing foreigners, opened fire under hostile conditions in Albania. This was their first active combat since WW II.

April 2, 1997 - An Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt jet with four 500- pound bombs was lost over the Colorado Rockies. It was piloted by Capt. Craig Button (32). Wreckage of the plane was found Apr 20 on the sheer face of New York Mountain [Gold Dust Peak], 15 miles from Vail.

April 9, 1997 - The CIA announced that its own errors may have led to demolition of an Iraqi ammunition bunker filled with chemical weapons at Kamisiyah in 1991. The CIA apologized to Gulf War veterans for failing to do a better job in supplying information to U.S. troops who blew up an Iraqi bunker later found to contain chemical weapons.

April 23, 1997 - North Korean defector, Hwang Jang Yop, claimed that North Korea has nuclear weapons and that the 1.2 million man army was prepared for war.

May 5, 1997 - North Korea and South Korea met for first time in 25 years to talk peace.

May 6, 1997 - It was reported that Syrian missiles were tipped with VX, a lethal chemical that kills on contact with the skin. The Syrian chemical weapons program was assisted by Anatoly Kuntsevich, former head of the Russian Army's Chemical Troops. The existing stockpile of Sarin, the nerve gas used by the terrorists in Tokyo, was hoped to be upgraded to VX.

May 28. 1997 - President Clinton paid tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Marshall Plan with a speech in the Netherlands in which he urged today's leaders to revive economies in the former Soviet bloc.

June 20, 1997 - US tobacco negotiators announced a settlement that would require cigarette companies to pay $368.5 billion over the next 25 years to compensate states for smoking-related illnesses, to finance anti-smoking programs, and to underwrite health care for millions of uninsured children in exchange for major relief from mounting lawsuits and legal bills.

June 28, 1997 - In a wild rematch, Mike Tyson was disqualified in the 3rd round in the boxing heavyweight title for biting Evander Holyfield's ear in Las Vegas. Tyson complained of head buts by Holyfield. His $30 million purse was withheld pending a hearing. Tyson was suspended and his purse withheld pending a decision on his punishment. His Nevada state boxing license was taken away and he was fined $3 million.

June 30, 1997 - In Hong Kong, the Union Jack was lowered for the last time over Government House as Britain prepared to hand the colony back to China after ruling it for 156 years.

July 6, 1997 - The rover Sojourner rolled down a ramp from the Mars Pathfinder lander and began mankind's first mobile exploration of Mars. The first rock targeted for examination was named "Barnacle Bill."

July 13, 1997 - Secretary of State Madeleine Albright returned to her Jewish roots in the Czech Republic, finding names of family members killed by the Nazis inscribed on a Prague synagogue wall. News reports the previous February revealed that Albright, who'd been raised a Roman Catholic, had Jewish relatives, many of whom died in the Holocaust.

July 21, 1997 - The U.S.S. Constitution, aka Old Ironsides,, which defended the United States during the War of 1812, set sail with 216 crew members under its own power for first time in 116 years, leaving its temporary anchorage at Marblehead, Mass., for a one-hour voyage marking its 200th anniversary. The actual anniversary was the following October. It was built in 1797 and was never defeated in 42 battles.

Aug 9, 1997 - It was reported that 800,000 children of North Korea were in immediate danger of dying from malnutrition. UNICEF was appealing for a $14.3 million emergency fund for supplies such as high-energy milk.

Aug 14, 1997 - An unrepentant Timothy McVeigh was formally sentenced to death for the Oklahoma City bombing.

Aug 19, 1997 - In North Korea groundbreaking ceremonies were held for 2 nuclear power plants to be built by a US led Int'l. consortium.

Aug 27, 1997 - There was a report on the US nuclear arsenal broken down to the number of nuclear weapons in each state. New Mexico was 1st with 2,850, Georgia 2nd with 2,000, and Washington State 3rd with 1,600. The total stockpile was totaled at 12,500 warheads, of which 8,750 were described as "operational."

Aug 29, 1997 - In Japan the Supreme Court upheld the government's right to control the nation's textbooks but not to tamper with the truth. Japan's Supreme Court ruled that the country's Education Ministry broke the law by removing mention of a Japanese World War II atrocity from historian Saburo Ienaga's high school textbook. Novelist Ryotaro Shiba was quoted: "A country whose textbooks lie... will inevitably collapse."

Aug 30, 1997 - Americans and others in the Western Hemisphere learned of the deaths of Princess Diana, her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, and their driver, Henri Paul, in a car crash in Paris. Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones survived. (Because of the time difference, it was the morning of Aug. 31 in Paris when Diana was pronounced dead.)

Sept 5, 1997 - In India Mother Teresa, the Calcutta nun who worked on behalf of the destitute, died of heart failure in Calcutta at age 87. Britain's Queen Elizabeth II broke the royal reticence over Princess Diana's death, calling her "a remarkable person" in a televised address.

Sept 6, 1997 - The USS Hopper, the 354th ship in the modern naval fleet, was commissioned. The high-tech destroyer is the 2nd warship to be named after a woman. Grace Hooper (d.1992) was a computer programmer for the Navy until she retired in 1986 at age 79. She coined the term "debugging" when she pulled a moth from her computer.  --  Diana, Princess of Wales dies in car crash.

Sept 7, 1997 - The US F-22 Raptor stealth fighter took its first flight from Dobbins Air Reserve Base north of Atlanta, Ga. The plane was estimated to cost $100 million.

Oct 6, 1997 - In a blow to both Democrats and Republicans, President Clinton used his line-item veto to kill 38 military construction projects that Congress had added to a spending bill that cost $287 million.

Nov 5, 1997 - A UN inspector claimed that Iraq was taking advantage of the inspection halt and had moved sensitive machinery out of camera view at certain weapons sites.  In Germany a court in Bonn awarded back wages to a Polish-born Jewish woman for 55 weeks of slave labor at the Weichsel Metall Union company during 1943-1945. Rywka Merin was awarded $8,500.

Nov 6, 1997 - In Belgrade former Serb soldier and convict, Slobodan Misic, was arrested after he told reporters that he had killed up to 80 Croats and Muslims near Vukovar in eastern Croatia and in the Bratunac-Shrebrenica area of eastern Bosnia in 1991.

Nov 7, 1997 - In Iraq Saddam Hussein rejected the efforts of UN envoys to resolve the dispute over weapons inspections.

Nov 10, 1997 - It was reported that the 1997 Pentagon budget was around $250 billion.

Nov 12, 1997 - The UN imposed mild new sanctions on Iraq. A travel ban on Iraqi officials who interfere with weapons inspections was set by a unanimous Security Council vote.

Nov 13, 1997 - In Germany parliament amended the 1950 Federal Benefits Law to exclude veterans of disability rights if they violated "principles of humanity of the law" during the Third Reich.

Nov 20, 1997 - Iraq agreed to allow US arms inspectors back into the country after Russia agreed to help work to lift UN Security Council sanctions. Prodded by Russia, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein agreed to allow U.S. arms monitors back into his country, ending a three-week crisis that had raised fears of a military confrontation with the United States.

Nov 21, 1997 - U.N. arms inspectors returned to Iraq after Saddam Hussein's three-week standoff with the United Nations over the presence of Americans on the team.

Nov 22, 1997 - A 75 man team of U.N. weapons experts including 4 Americans returned to work in Iraq, searching eight sites for signs the Iraqis might have worked on biological, chemical or other banned arms during a three-week forced halt in inspections.

Nov 24, 1997 - It was reported that Iraq continued to withhold access to 63 weapons sites that included 47 presidential compounds.

Nov 26, 1997 - In Iraq Sadam Hussein invited foreign diplomats but not weapons inspectors to examine his presidential palaces. Under heavy international pressure Saddam Hussein said he would allow visits to presidential palaces where U.N. weapons experts suspected he might be hiding chemical and biological weapons.

Nov 27, 1997 - day after saying it would open its presidential palaces to international observers, Iraq declared that U.N. weapons monitors were not included in the invitation.

Dec 1, 1997 - Pres. Clinton signed the 50 States Commemorative Coin Program Act into law.

Dec 2, 1997 - The US promised to donate $29 million over the next 3 years to an int'l. fund for Holocaust survivors at a conference in London on Nazi gold. Congress would have to approve the contribution. Britain pledged $1.7 million. Some 5.5 tons of gold were still held in New York and London. Over the last 50 years the Tripartite Gold Commission, established by the Allies, had returned over 300 tons of gold to ten countries whose treasuries were sacked.  It was reported that Libya was constructing some 2,000 miles of tunnels with 13-foot concrete pipes. Libya called it the Great Man-Made River Project and it stretched from Tunisia to Egypt. Analysts feared it would be used for military purposes. The primary contractor was Dong Ah, a South Korean construction conglomerate and much of the equipment used was of US make.

Dec 9, 1997 - North Korean officials agreed to a 4-nation meeting in Geneva for a permanent peace treaty to the 1950-1953 Korean War. The talks inaugurated formal discussion for a permanent peace agreement and a new session was scheduled for Mar 16.

Dec 15, 1997 - In Missouri the nation's last workable Minuteman II missile silo was destroyed in Dederick. It was the last of 150 in Missouri aimed at the Soviet Union. The missiles were deactivated and the silos destroyed due to the 1995 signing of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

Dec 29, 1997 - In Newport, Indiana, Orville Lynn Majors (36), a former nurse, was arrested for murder and suspected in the deaths of 130 out of 147 patients that died while he was on duty between 1993 and 1995. In 1999 Majors was convicted in the deaths of 6 patients in 1994 at Vermillion County Hospital and sentenced to 6 consecutive 60-year terms in jail.