01|President Jiang Zemin of China, in remarks following a speech at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, describes, for the first time in public, the 1989 military crackdown on student-led protests in Tiananmen Square in Beijing as a "mistake." The suppression of the student sit-in at Tiananmen Square left hundreds of people dead and hundreds more imprisoned or exiled. The event badly damaged U.S.-Sino relations.|
02|The leaders of Japan and Russia pledge to seal a peace treaty by the year 2000, ending territorial disputes that have lasted since the end of the World War II (1939-1945). The talks between Russian President Yeltsin and Japanese Prime Minister Hashimoto take place in Krasnoyarsk, Russia.|
02|Iraq blocks two Americans on a United Nations weapons inspection team from entering the country, its second such action in less than a week. Officials of the Clinton Administration respond that the United States will ask the UN Security Council to force Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to allow Americans into Iraq as team members.|
03|Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh of Thailand resigns after weeks of public protest sparked by the country's financial crisis. Chavalit's government has been unable to institute strong measures needed for economic recovery.|
03|President Saddam Hussein of Iraq threatens to shoot down American U-2 spy planes used by an international team monitoring Iraq's weapons program and disarmament. The United States announces that it has no plans to ground the planes.|
04|Officials at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, announce that they will not give up attempts to reestablish communication with the Pathfinder craft on Mars. Pathfinder has not been heard from in approximately one month, but it remained operational nearly three times longer than its projected lifespan of 30 days. Pathfinder transmitted more than 16,000 pictures from Mars to Earth.|
05|The U.S. House of Representatives passes legislation giving taxpayers new rights in their dealings with the Internal Revenue Service. The bill, if passed by the U.S. Senate, would create a board made up largely of private citizens to oversee the tax collection agency, making it easier for taxpayers to prevail in tax-court cases.|
05|An independent panel of scientists assembled by the U.S. National Institutes of Health concludes that the ancient Chinese needle therapy of acupuncture is effective for pain after surgery or dental procedures and for control of nausea and vomiting caused by cancer chemotherapy or pregnancy.|
06|James Ware, a Federal District Court judge in California, admits that his brother had not been the victim of a racist murder in 1963, something Ware had publically claimed for years was the formative event in his life that had made him "hungry for justice." Ware asks President Bill Clinton to withdraw his nomination for judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.|
07|The U.S. government reports that unemployment fell in October to 4.7 percent, the lowest rate in the United States since 1973. The drop in unemployment is believed to contribute to higher hourly earnings for many employees.|
07|The Iraqi government renews its threat to attack American U-2 spy planes flying over its territory and tells a UN delegation that it will not change its policy of barring U.S. arms inspectors from the country. The Administration of U.S. President Bill Clinton announces it will retaliate with force if Iraq persists in defying the United Nations.|
08|Chinese engineers close a 130-foot (40-meter) gap in a dam as they complete the diversion of the Yangtze River and forge ahead with a hydropower project that is forcing more than 1 million people to relocate. The Three Gorges project, which will construct the world's biggest dam on the world's third longest river, is disrupting aquatic life and will submerge archeological treasures. Chinese officials claim the country needs the 18,200 megawatts of power--equivalent to the output of 18 nuclear plants--that will be produced when the project is completed in 2009.|
09|United States President Bill Clinton urges the United Nations to take "very strong" action to force Iraq to comply with international weapons inspections. Clinton says that the United States would regard an Iraqi attack on American spy planes as an act of war.|
09|Israeli archaeologists reveal the discovery of a large rock in Jerusalem, thought to be that which was worshiped as the resting place of the Virgin Mary as she travelled to Bethlehem to give birth to Jesus Christ. The stone, believed to have been revered by Christians until the 1000's, has been excavated from a site along the road to Bethlehem from Jerusalem.|
10|China and Russia formally end a territorial dispute by signing a declaration that maps out the border between the two countries. Presidents Jiang Zemin and Boris Yeltsin sign the agreement in Beijing at the end of the Sino-Russian summit, ending a territorial dispute that has lasted since the 1600's.|
10|Louise Woodward, a British au pair who had faced a long prison sentence following her October 30 murder conviction in the death of a child in her care, is released by a Massachusetts judge who reduces her charge to involuntary manslaughter and sentences her to the 279 days she had already served in jail.|
10|American U-2 surveillance flights over Iraq are not shot down despite Iraqi threats to fire at the spy planes. Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz presents the U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan with a list of Iraqi demands that include taking part in any future UN Security Council debate on Iraq.|
11|Retired U.S. General Colin L. Powell announces that he has no plans of seeking the Republican nomination for president or any other political office in the year 2000.|
11|The Eastman Kodak Company says it will cut 10,000 jobs, the biggest layoff by a U.S. company so far in 1997.|
11|Rescue workers report that the heaviest rains in 30 years have left at least 130 people dead in southern Somalia and are threatening much of the country's food crops. At least 300,000 people have been left without shelter or food since flooding began in late October.|
12|Four American oil company auditors and their Pakistani driver are shot and killed as they drive through the central business district of Karachi, the capital of Pakistan. The assailants flee. Police suspect the assailants were avenging the November 10 conviction in the United States of a Pakistani citizen for killing two Central Intelligence Agency employees in Virginia in 1993.|
12|A federal jury in New York City convicts Ramzi Ahmed Yousef of orchestrating and helping carry out a deadly bomb plot at the World Trade Center in New York in 1993. The jury also convicts Eyad Ismoil, whom prosecutors accused of driving the van that carried the bomb into the Trade Center's underground garage. The bombing killed six people and injured hundreds of others.|
13|Iraq expels six American members of a United Nations arms inspection team and puts them on the road to Amman, Jordan. United States President Bill Clinton denounces Iraq's action but stops short of ordering military retaliation.|
13|At least 500 people die as extensive flooding strikes the Juba region in southern Somalia. The floods destroy livestock, food supplies and crops, and leave more than 200,000 people homeless. Relief officials fear that many more people will perish if rains continue over Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia.|
14|A U.S. jury recommends death for Amal Kansi, a Pakistani immigrant who was convicted on November 10 of killing two Central Intelligence Agency employees in Virginia in 1993. Shortly after sentencing, the U.S. State Department warns that Kansi's sympathizers might seek retaliation against Americans traveling abroad. The warning follows the deaths of four Americans who were ambushed and killed 28 hours after Kansi was convicted of murder. A group that took responsibility for the killings threatened further retaliation if Kansi received the death penalty.|
15|The U.S. Justice Department reports that the number of Americans victimized by crime fell in 1996 to the lowest level since the government began keeping data on crime victims in 1973. The nation's rate of violent crime dropped 10 percent in 1996, while the rate of property crime declined 8 percent.|
16|The official Iraqi news agency reports that President Saddam Hussein announced at a cabinet meeting that Iraq is not seeking a military confrontation with the United States. Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz tells a French newspaper that Iraq would readmit American arms inspectors if the United Nations agrees to change the makeup of its weapons inspection teams, with equal representation given to each permanent member of the UN Security Council. U.S. and UN officials reject that offer, and the United States persuades Russia to urge Iraq to back down in the dispute over weapons inspection.|
16|China's most prominent prodemocracy campaigner arrives in the United States after having unexpectedly been released from a prison in China where he had spent nearly 18 years. Wei Jingsheng leaves Beijing to seek medical attention in the United States for heart problems. He is taken to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. His release follows U.S. pressure on China over human rights.|
17|Fifty-eight foreign tourists and four Egyptians are killed when gunmen open fire on visitors to the Hatshepsut Temple in the desert outside of Luxor, Egypt. The attack is believed to be the work of the al-Gamaat al-Islamiya (The Islamic Group), an Islamist extremist faction. Six of the attackers are hunted down and killed.|
17|In Rwanda, almost 300 people are killed as more than a thousand Hutu rebels attack a jail in an attempt to free Hutu genocide suspects. Clashes between the rebels and the predominantly Tutsi army continue for many hours.|
18|The Federal Bureau of Investigation presents a 15-minute videotape reconstruction of the explosion that blew apart Trans World Airlines Flight 800 in July 1996, seeking to explain the reports of 244 witnesses who said they saw ascending lights before the plane plunged into the Atlantic Ocean. Officials said the streaks of lights had actually been created by the explosion on board the plane and were misinterpreted by witnesses because of the difference in the speed of light and sound. The FBI finds no proof of either sabotage or a specific mechanical failure that caused the crash, which killed all 230 passengers and crew onboard.|
19|Bobbi McCaughey, a 29-year-old woman from Carlisle, Iowa, gives birth to seven babies, marking the world's first successfully delivered set of septuplets. McCaughey underwent a cesarean section performed by a team of more than 40 specialists. She became pregnant following treatment with a fertility drug.|
19|Secretary of State Madeline K. Albright arrives in Geneva, Switzerland, to try to bring an end to the crisis with Iraq. Albright and foreign ministers of Russia, Britain, and France agree to meet to see if Iraq is willing to retreat from its challenge to the United Nations under terms the United States will accept.|
19|A car bomb explodes at a movie studio in India, killing 23 people and injuring 31. The bomb explodes as hundreds of people are leaving festivities for the start of filming in a studio in Hyderabad. Police suspect that the bombing is the work of political rivals of the movie's producer.|
20|Iraqi President Saddam Hussein allows UN inspectors--including Americans--to resume their search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. United States President Bill Clinton says the American military build-up in the Persian Gulf would continue until Iraq complies "unconditionally with the will of the international community."|
20|A U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel recommends approval of raloxifene, a drug that protect bones from the crippling effects of osteoporosis without increasing the risk of breast cancer. According to doctors, the drug could be an option for women who fear that long term use of estrogen--a hormone used to battle osteoporosis. Estrogen can increase the risk of breast cancer.|
21|South Korea, which has the world's 11th biggest economy, announces that it will seek emergency assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to avert a financial crisis. Economists predict that the IMF will commit a package of assistance that could exceed more than $60 billion, an amount that would greatly surpass the previous record of $48 billion in IMF aid committed to Mexico in 1994. The money is likely to be used to help distressed banks repay debts, which may restore confidence in foreign investors. United States officials fear that South Korea's plunging currency and mounting bad debts may shake economies in Japan, Europe, and the United States.|
21|North Korea agrees to resume its talks with South Korea, China, and the United States in order to agree on an agenda for peace negotiations to be held in Geneva in December. The talks aim to finally end the hostility between North and South Korea, who are technically still at war since no peace treaty was signed following the end of the Korean War in 1953.|
21|Historical research into the Old City in Jerusalem claims that the Wailing Wall, the holiest site of Jewish worship, belongs to Muslim authorities and not the state of Israel. The site of the wall is also part of the Temple Mount where two important Muslim places of worship were relocated for political reasons. Researcher Shmuel Berkovitch's study, published by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, claims that because the Jewish authorities have not laid claim to it, the wall belongs to the Muslim faith since it remains the property of the Waqf, the Islamic trust that administers the Temple Mount. |
22|U.S. President Bill Clinton rejects Russia's call for an easing of sanctions that had been imposed on Iraq at the end of the Persian Gulf war in 1991. Clinton says that Iraq continues to impede UN weapons inspectors and that he is wary about the willingness of Iraq to abide by the international arms monitoring program.|
23|Yamaichi Securities, Japan's fourth-largest brokerage firm, decides to cease operations. It is the largest corporate failure in Japan since World War II (1939-1945). Thousands of employees stand to lose their jobs in a country where lifetime employment at one company is still the norm.|
24|The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves the first new obesity drug since it banned the popular diet drug fen-phen in September. The drug, Meridia, is "moderately effective" at helping patients shed pounds, but it can cause increases in blood pressure and pulse rates that may endanger certain patients, according to the FDA.|
24|United States President Bill Clinton meets with leaders of Asia's largest countries at an economic conference for Pacific Rim nations in Vancouver, Canada. He says that the United States and international aid organizations will assist Asia through its financial crisis; however, countries in the region must pursue more sound economic policies in order to recover.|
25|United Nations medical experts report that they grossly underestimated the worldwide spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Experts now believe that there are almost twice as many new infections daily as they believed. The new data suggest that 30.6 million people around the world are now living with HIV, as opposed to the 1996 estimate of 22.6 million.|
25|Ron Carey steps down as president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a 1.4-million-member union. Carey announces that he will take a leave of absence without pay, just hours before a federally appointed oversight board accuses him of diverting union money to his 1996 election campaign.|
26|The long-running debate over federal spending on the arts moved to the Supreme Court as the court's justices agreed to rule on whether the U.S. Constitution permits Congress to make "decency" a test for the awarding of grants by the National Endowment for the Arts.|
26|Russia seeks American support for a program of Western assistance in an attempt to prevent global economic turmoil from overwhelming its financial system. The aid would strengthen confidence in Russia's central bank, which has been using up its reserves in an effort to prop up the national currency, the ruble.|
27|British atmospheric scientists announce that 1997 will likely be the world's hottest year since worldwide temperature records began in the 1860's. The scientists predicted that average worldwide temperature for 1997 would be 59.8 degrees Fahrenheit (15.43 degrees Celsius), 0.77 Fahrenheit degree (0.43 Celsius degree) above the worldwide average from 1961 to 1990.|
27|Sudden bursts of high winds disrupt Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. The winds damage many of the parade's signature helium-filled balloons. Two spectators are hospitalized with serious head injuries when a six-story-tall Cat in the Hat balloon strikes a lamppost and plunges on top of the crowd. Several balloons could not finish the parade, including Barney, the Cat in the Hat, the Pink Panther, and Quick Bunny.|
28|India's fourth prime minister in 18 months resigns, deepening the political chaos that has overtaken the country since a 1996 election produced a fractured Parliament and minimal political leadership. Prime Minister I. K. Gujral resigns his government after three weeks of heated political fighting in Parliament. The speaker of Parliament, fearing violence, adjourns Parliament indefinitely.|
29|The Socialist government in France eases nationality laws, angering right-wing politicians who say that there are already too many foreigners in the country. The government adopts a law granting the right of automatic French nationality to children born in France of foreign parents once they reach 18, provided they have lived in France for at least five years since age 11.|
30|Czech Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus resigns his government after a call to do so by President Vaclav Havel. Klaus, a noted reform economist, lost standing due to a campaign finance scandal in his party. The resignation brings to an end the longest running premiership in post-Communist central Europe.|
