This day in history. Read about what happened today. A short and interesting account of historical events and facts about this day as well as any other day of the year. Find historical birthdays, deaths, tragedies, war events, disasters and sports events.

This year in history
In the year 1997

	January 5th	Russian armed forces were withdrawn from Chechnya.
	January 23th	Madeleine Albright was appointed as the first woman to ever serve as Secretary of State of the United States.
	February 5th	The investment banks of Morgan Stanley and Dean Witter announced a 10 billion (USD) merger.
	February 19th	Chinese politician, Deng Xiaoping, died at the age of 92. He was the leader of the People's Republic of China from the late 1970's until his health started to deteriorated in the early 1990's. He is credited with instituting a wide range of reforms which helped push China towards economic growth as well as bringing traditional Chinese heritage back into society.
	February 22nd	Scientists announced that an adult sheep named Dolly had been successfully cloned.
	March 4th	The United States banned all federally funded human cloning research.
	March 26th	Thirty-nine bodies were found in the Heaven's Gate cult suicides. The UFO cult's members committed suicide in order for their souls to join the space ship that was hiding behind the comet Hale-Bopp.
	April 3rd	The Thalit massacre occurs in Algeria. All but 1 of the 53 inhabitants of the village of Thalit were killed by guerrillas.
	April 15th	A fire erupted in a campsite of Muslims making the Hajj pilgrimage (Pilgrimage to Meca), resulting in the death of over 300 people.
	April 23th	During the bloody Algerian Civil War 42 people were massacred in the village of Omaria.
	May 2nd	The Labour Party, under the leadership of Tony Blair won the general elections in the United Kingdom. This win ended 18 years of Conservative Party rule in Britain.
	May 10th	A massive earthquake struck near Ardekul in north eastern Iran. The death toll was estimated at around 2500 people.
	June 25th	French explorer and ecologist, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, died at the age of 86. He was one of the most famous explorers and oceanographers in history. The documentaries of his explorations aboard the Calypso have been viewed by millions of people around the world. He was also the co-inventor of the aqua-lung.
	June 28th	Boxer, Mike Tyson, was disqualified after biting fellow boxer, Evander Holyfield's, ear during their WBA heavyweight title fight.
	June 30th	Sovereignty of the city-state of Hong Kong passed to China after 156 years of British colonial rule.
	July 1st	American actor, Robert Mitchum, died at the age of 79.
	July 8th	NATO invited the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to join the alliance. The induction to the organization would
	July 15th	Italian fashion designer, Gianni Versace, died at the age of 50. He was shot dead outside his ocean-front mansion in Miami Beach, Florida
	July 17th	The F.W. Woolworth Company closed after 117 years in operation. It was one of the largest general retail store companies in the United States and although the name no longer exists in the United States, it has survived in several countries around the world.
	August 6th	In an effort to revitalize the ailing computer company, Apple, Microsoft bought $150 million worth of shares of its financially troubled former rival.
	August 6th	A Korean Air passenger jet crashed into the jungle of Guam, resulting in the death of 228 people.
	August 31st	Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car crash in Paris. She was 36 years old at the time.
	September 5th	Albanian missionary and humanitarian, Mother Teresa, died at the age of 87 in . Her birth name was Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu. She was the recipient of the Nobel Peace prize as well as a multitude of other awards from a host of different nations. She was the only person to be portrayed on an Indian postal stamp while still alive, in recognition of her tremendous work with the poverty stricken population of Calcutta.
	September 11th	Scotland voted to re-establish its parliament, 290 yearsafter its union with England.
	September 18th	US media magnate and founder of the CNN channel, Ted Turner, donated 1 billion dollars to the United Nations.
	September 26th	An Indonesian passenger jet crashed near Medan airport in Indonesia. 234 people died in the crash.
	September 29th	American artist, Roy Lichtenstein, died at the age of 94. He was one of the most prominent pop-art painters, whose work was strongly influenced from popular advertising and comic book styles.
	November 10th	WorldCom and MCI Communications announced their merger which at $37 billion was the largest merger in the history of the US. In 2002 Worldcom filed for bankruptcy after a series of accounting scandals that plagued the company, in one of the biggest bankruptcy to ever occur in the US.
	November 17th	In Luxor, Egypt, 62 people, mostly tourists, were gunned down by Islamic militants.
	December 15th	A chartered passenger jet crashed in the desert while approaching the United Arab Emirates airport. 85 people died in the crash.
	December 16th	An episode of the popular cartoon, Pokemon, caused epilepsy attacks on over 600 children in Japan.
	December 19th	A Silkair passenger flight crashed near Palembang in Indonesia resulting in the death of 104 people.
	December 19th	The film Titanic was released. It is to date (2006) the most successful (financially) movie ever made.

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