01|A 14-year-old boy shoots eight students who had just ended a prayer meeting at a high school in West Paducah, Kentucky, killing two girls and critically injuring a third girl. The boy, who had recently told classmates that "something big is going to happen on Monday at the prayer meeting," is charged as a juvenile with murder, attempted murder, and burglary.|
02|The United States Food and Drug Administration approves the irradiation of red meat, a measure that could nearly eliminate dangerous bacteria that cause food poisoning from the meat supply. According to the FDA, irradiation is safe and kills nearly all bacteria on meat that can cause sickness or death. The FDA claims that irradiation does not change the flavor or aroma of meat, make it radioactive, or alter meat's nutritional content.|
02|President Farooq Leghari of Pakistan resigns from office after a month long political battle with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Earlier in the day, Leghari and Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah of the Supreme Court made a move to oust Sharif. However, the Pakistani army and Supreme Court refused to back the ouster, leading to Leghari's resignation and Shah's demotion.|
02|U. S. Attorney General Janet Reno rejects the appointment of an independent prosecutor to investigate fund-raising phone calls by President Bill Clinton and Vice President Albert Gore, ending an inquiry that has clouded the Clinton Administration for months.|
03|South Korea agrees to the largest international economic bailout in history--a $57-billion loan package that will overhaul the world's 11th largest economy. According to terms set by the International Monetary Fund, the leader of the bailout, South Korea must severely cut public spending and institute austerity measures, which may result in rising unemployment and bankruptcies.|
03|Leaders from 121 countries gather in Ottawa, Canada, to sign a comprehensive ban on the global production and use of the deadliest of land mines. The United States, China, and Russia take part in meetings, but do not sign the treaty.|
04|The National Basketball Association suspends Latrell Sprewell, an all-star guard with the Golden State Warriors, for one year without pay three days after he choked and threatened to kill his coach, P. J. Carlesimo. The Warriors terminated Sprewell's $32-million contract on December 3.|
05|The federal government reports that the American economy showed surprising strength in November 1997. More than 400,000 new jobs were created, and the unemployment rate dipped to 4.6 percent, a 24-year low.|
06|A Russian military transport plane smashes into an apartment complex in Irkutsk, a city in southern Siberia, killing more than 60 people and injuring dozens more. The plane crashed seconds after it took off fully loaded with fuel. Rescuers battle not only the fire and smoke from the crash, but sub-zero temperatures as well.|
07|Songwriter Bob Dylan, actress Lauren Bacall, actor Charlton Heston, opera singer Jessye Norman, and ballet dancer Edward Villella are honored for their artistic achievements as recipients of the 1997 Kennedy Center Honors at a gala at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The ceremony also marks the 20th anniversary of the honors.|
08|The widow of M. Larry Lawrence, a former U.S. ambassador to Switzerland, decides to have his remains exhumed from Arlington National Cemetery in the face of mounting evidence that he had fabricated a heroic World War II (1939-1945) record. In 1996, President Bill Clinton granted a waiver that allowed Lawrence to be buried in the cemetery, one of the military's highest honors.|
09|The huge helium balloon of Richard Branson, the British businessman and adventurer, floats away from Marrakech, Morocco, without its three-man crew, who had hoped to become the first balloonists to fly around the world. The balloon drifted between Morocco and Algeria as Branson implored those countries' air forces to shoot the balloon down.|
10|Gerry Adams, the nationalist leader of Northern Ireland, meets with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street in London. At the meeting, Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, makes a commitment to nonviolence. It was the first time that a Sinn Fein member had visited the official residence of British prime ministers since 1921.|
11|Negotiators for more than 150 countries meeting in Kyoto, Japan, agree tentatively on a package of measures that for the first time would legally obligate industrialized countries to cut emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. The nations would have a year to ratify the treaty, starting in March 1998. Environmentalists hail the agreement, but opponents of the treaty condemn it as economically ruinous.|
12|The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), quoting from its own internal audit conducted in the fall of 1997, admits that taxpayers' rights are abused by a system-wide climate of high pressure that encourages auditors to go to improper lengths to meet statistical benchmarks set by the IRS. The IRS commissioned the study after Senate hearings in late September where taxpayers told of IRS abuses, leading to a public apology from the agency.|
12|A federal judge orders the removal of wolves released in Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho in 1995 and 1996 after ruling that the federal government's wolf recovery program was illegal. The judge said the program was illegal because by moving the wolves to Yellowstone and Idaho it reduced protections the animals had enjoyed in Montana and Canada.|
13|The Getty Arts Center, one of the largest arts centers in the country, is dedicated in Los Angeles. It opens to the public on December 16. The $1-billion center was designed by Richard Meier. The complex, a series of connected two-storied pavilions, contains artworks from masters including Rembrandt, Van Gogh, and Walker Evans.|
14|President Mohammed Khatami of Iran professes "great respect" for the United States and says that he hopes the American politicians will stop trying to isolate Iran. Relations between Iran and America have been virtually suspended since the Islamic revolution of 1979. Khatami, who won a landslide victory in May 1997, is regarded as the most moderate official to emerge in Iran's top ranks of power since 1979.|
15|The U.S. Department of Agriculture announces sweeping a set of proposed regulations that would cover all organically grown food. The proposed rules would define exactly which products, whether raw or processed, could be labeled organic food. The proposed regulations would also set standards for the production and handling of organically grown crops and organically raised meat and poultry--for example, prohibiting the use of antibiotics in animals, except to treat illness.|
16|More than 700 television viewers in Tokyo, Japan, suffer epilepsylike seizures while watching the hit cartoon "Pokemon." According to doctors, the seizures could have been triggered by a cartoon character with flashing eyes.|
17|The value of the Japanese yen soars after Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto of Japan announces a sweeping economic package that includes income tax cuts of 2 trillion yen, or more than $15 billion. The Japanese central bank sells dollars to buy yen, emphasizing the government's support of the currency.|
18|South Koreans, angered by the ruling party's mismanagement of the economy, elect an opposition candidate president for the first time in the country's history. Kim Dae Jung, head of the National Congress for New Politics, is elected to lead the nation, succeeding Kim Yong-sam, whose five-year term in office ended amid charges of corruption and corporate collapses.|
18|President Bill Clinton announces that American troops will stay in Bosnia past their mission's current departure deadline of June 1998 as part of an international peacekeeping force. There are approximately 8,000 Americans serving in Bosnia as part of a NATO-led force of more than 30,000 troops.|
19|A Singaporean passenger jet crashes in a marsh in Indonesia, killing all 104 people on board. It was the third plane crash in a week. A Tajik airliner crashed in the United Arab Emirates on December 15, killing 85 people, and a Ukrainian plane crashed in Greece on December 17, killing 70 people.|
20|The World Health Organization announces that a cholera epidemic sweeping through eastern Africa has killed at least 2,687 people.|
21|Hong Kong health officials report that a third person has died from a viral strain of influenza, previously known to infect only poultry. Scientists escalate efforts to develop a vaccine to avert a potential epidemic.|
22|South Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand--economies hardest hit in 1997 by plunging stock prices and depressed currency values--suffer a financial blow when Moody's Investor Services Inc. downgrades the countries' credit ratings to junk level, a rating normally reserved for high-risk corporate ventures. The downgrade will make borrowing more expensive for the countries and for companies that operate in the countries.|
22|President Bill Clinton makes his first visit to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, pledging continued U.S. military support of peace keeping efforts in Bosnia and Herzegovina.|
23|Terry L. Nichols is convicted of involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy for his part in the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building, but a federal jury acquits him of more serious murder charges. The jury found that Nichols conspired with Timothy McVeigh, who was sentenced to death after his June 2, 1997, conviction on eight counts of first degree murder for his role in planning and carrying out the blast that killed 168 people.|
23|Gunmen spraying rifle fire and swinging machetes charge into a remote mountain village in the southern state of Chiapas, killing 45 Indians, including 15 children, and wounding at least 13 people. At least 300 people have been killed in Chiapas since clashes began in 1994 between Indian guerrillas fighting for greater rights and armed militia members opposed to their cause.|
24|Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, the international terrorist who calls himself Carlos, is convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of two French police agents and a Lebanese informant in a 1976 shooting in Paris. He is wanted in at least four other countries in numerous bombings, killings, and attacks.|
25|Jerry Seinfeld, creator and star of the television comedy "Seinfeld," announces that the show will stop production at the end of the 1997-1998 season. The show has anchored NBC's Thursday night since 1993, leading the network to record-making profits and viewership.|
26|International health workers report the first evidence of probable human-to-human transmission of a new viral strain of influenza in Hong Kong. The transmission was detected from recent blood tests in a physician who cared for a 3-year-old boy--the first known human case of the strain--who became sick in May and later died. According to health officials, the virus was transmitted by physical contact and did not spread beyond the doctor.|
27|The Clinton Administration announces it will propose a significant increase in spending for food inspection and safety research in the budget to be presented to Congress early in 1998. President Bill Clinton will seek an additional $71 million for food safety programs at the Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.|
28|The Hong Kong government announces that it will kill every chicken in the territory--more than 1.2 million birds--to combat a potentially deadly strain of flu. The virus, which scientists believe is contracted from chickens, has caused four deaths and left at least eight people seriously ill.|
29|Lawyers for Theodore Kaczynski abandon their efforts to argue that the suspected Unabomber suffers from a "mental defect." The defense team is now left to face an expected barrage of prosecution evidence linking Kaczynski to a series of package bombings that killed 3 people and injured 28 others in a terror campaign that began in 1978.|
30|Scientists at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., reveal that a bird that had not been seen for more than 100 years and was thought to be extinct has been photographed. An Indian forest owlet was spotted by American scientists near Shahada, India.|
31|Bars, casinos, and nightclubs in California are forced to ban smoking at the stroke of midnight between Dec. 31, 1997, and Jan. 1, 1998. The policy that bans indoor smoking in public places is part of a 1994 state labor law intended to protect the health of employees from the risks of second-hand smoke.|
31|Michael Kennedy, son of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, dies at age 39 in a skiing accident in Aspen, Colorado.|
