1997 Trivia, History, and Fun Facts

In 1997, the world stopped for a princess. When Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a Paris tunnel on August 31, an estimated 2.5 billion people watched her funeral six days later — the largest television audience for a single event in history to that point. Elton John rewrote Candle in the Wind for her, recorded it in one take, and it became the best-selling single in history. Meanwhile, Titanic opened in December and went on to make more money than any film had before. IBM’s Deep Blue defeated the world chess champion. The Spice Girls conquered the world. Heaven’s Gate left it. It was, by any measure, a year worth remembering.

Quick Facts from 1997

• World-Changing Event: Princess Diana, aged 36, was killed in a car accident in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris on August 31, 1997; IBM’s Deep Blue defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov in their rematch in May
• Top Song: Candle in the Wind 1997/Something About the Way You Look Tonight by Elton John, a double A-side tribute to Princess Diana that became the best-selling single in recorded history at the time
• Influential Songs: I’ll Be Missing You by Puff Daddy, Faith Evans, and 112; Wannabe by the Spice Girls; The Old Apartment by Barenaked Ladies
• Must-See Movies: Titanic, Good Will Hunting, As Good As It Gets, Contact, The Fifth Element, Amistad, and Men in Black
• People’s Sexiest Man Alive: George Clooney
• Notable Books: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling and Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
• Price of Sony AM/FM Cassette Walkman: $44.99
• Price of a Plymouth/Dodge Neon: $11,395.00
• The Funny Late Night Host: Jay Leno
• Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Ox, associated with hard work, dependability, and a steady disposition — qualities the year itself did not particularly model
• The Habit: Watching Titanic at the theater. Multiple times. Crying.
• The Conversation: Did you hear about Diana? And have you seen Titanic yet?

Top Ten Baby Names of 1997

Girls: Emily, Jessica, Ashley, Sarah, Hannah Boys: Michael, Jacob, Matthew, Christopher, Joshua

Emily held the top spot for girls for the first of what would become many consecutive years. Jacob was climbing steadily. Michael had been a fixture in the top five for boys since the 1950s and was showing no signs of departure.

Fashion Icons and Sex Symbols of 1997

Claudia Schiffer

The year’s fashion conversation was dominated by Diana’s legacy — her style, her choices, her influence on women’s fashion over the preceding decade — and by the designers and models she had championed. Schiffer was at the peak of her visibility as one of the era’s defining supermodels.

Leading Men and Hollywood Heartthrobs of 1997

George Clooney, Michael Hutchence, John Travolta

Michael Hutchence, the INXS frontman whose stage presence and personal charisma had made him one of the most compelling rock figures of the 1980s and early 1990s, died on November 22, 1997, at age 37. He is listed here as he appeared in the source data, as a heartthrob of the year, before the year ended.

The Quotes

“Oh my God! They killed Kenny!” — South Park, which premiered on Comedy Central on August 13, 1997, immediately establishing a format in which Kenny McCormick died in increasingly inventive ways at the end of each episode and was inexplicably alive again the following week

“There are some things that money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s MasterCard.” — the MasterCard Priceless campaign, which launched in 1997 and became one of the most recognized and most parodied advertising slogans of the decade

“I’m king of the world!” — Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson in Titanic, delivered at the bow of the ship, immediately becoming one of the most quoted and most imitated lines in recent cinema

Time Magazine’s Man of the Year

Andy Grove, chairman of Intel, for his role in driving the personal computer revolution and for building Intel into the company whose processors had powered the transformation of American business and culture through the preceding decade. Grove, who had escaped both the Holocaust and the Soviet invasion of Hungary before arriving in the United States, was cited as the model of the entrepreneur who could navigate radical technological change.

Miss America and Miss USA

Miss America: Tara Holland, Overland Park, Kansas
Miss USA: Brook Mahealani Lee of Hawaii, who went on to win Miss Universe 1997; Brandi Sherwood of Idaho succeeded her as Miss USA when Lee vacated the title to compete at the international level

We Lost in 1997

Princess Diana, the Princess of Wales, died August 31, 1997, at age 36, in the Pont de l’Alma underpass in Paris, where the car she was traveling in crashed at high speed while being pursued by photographers. Her companion Dodi Fayed and the driver also died. Her bodyguard survived. The outpouring of public grief that followed was unlike anything Britain had seen in living memory. Flowers piled up outside Kensington Palace to a depth of several feet across a large portion of the grounds. Queen Elizabeth II was criticized for remaining at Balmoral and not addressing the public, a response she eventually made on the eve of the funeral. Approximately 2.5 billion people watched Diana’s funeral on September 6. Elton John sang a rewritten version of Candle in the Wind, recorded it immediately after, and donated all royalties to Diana’s charitable foundation. The investigation into the crash has been the subject of inquiry, inquest, and persistent speculation ever since. The official finding was that the crash was caused by the grossly negligent driving of Henri Paul, who had been drinking.

The Notorious B.I.G., born Christopher Wallace and also known as Biggie Smalls, one of the most gifted and commercially successful rappers of his era, was shot and killed on March 9, 1997, at age 24, in Los Angeles, in a drive-by shooting after leaving an industry party. He had released his second album, Life After Death, which was completed before his death and released 16 days after it. The album debuted at number one. His murder remains officially unsolved. His death came six months after the shooting of Tupac Shakur in September 1996, and the two deaths were widely discussed as connected to the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop rivalry of the mid-1990s, though no definitive connection was established.

Chris Farley, the comedian whose physical commitment and explosive energy had made him one of the most beloved cast members in Saturday Night Live history, died December 18, 1997, at age 33, of an acute drug intoxication from a combination of cocaine and morphine. His death was compared at the time to that of John Belushi, another physically large, enormously talented SNL performer who had died of a drug overdose at a similar age in 1982. Farley’s characters — the motivational speaker living in a van down by the river, the Chippendale dancer competing with Patrick Swayze — had become part of the permanent vocabulary of American comedy.

John Denver, the singer-songwriter whose music had captured an American longing for simpler landscapes and quieter living, died October 12, 1997, at age 53, when the experimental aircraft he was piloting crashed into Monterey Bay, California. He had been one of the best-selling artists of the 1970s and his songs Rocky Mountain High, Take Me Home, Country Roads, and Sunshine on My Shoulders have become permanent fixtures of American folk memory.

Jimmy Stewart, the actor whose career had spanned six decades and whose performances in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It’s a Wonderful Life, Vertigo, Rear Window, and The Philadelphia Story had established him as one of the most beloved figures in American cinema, died July 2, 1997, at age 89. Stewart had served as a bomber pilot in World War II, risen to the rank of brigadier general in the Air Force Reserve, and conducted himself throughout his public life with a quiet decency that his obituaries were unanimous in noting.

Michael Hutchence, the lead singer of INXS, whose charismatic stage presence and remarkable voice had propelled the band to global prominence throughout the 1980s, died on November 22, 1997, at age 37, in a hotel in Sydney, Australia. The official ruling was suicide. Hutchence had struggled with depression and was dealing with significant personal difficulties in the period before his death. At the time, he was involved with Paula Yates, with whom he had a daughter, Tiger Lily.

America in 1997 — The Context

Bill Clinton was inaugurated for his second term on January 20, 1997, the first Democrat to win re-election since Franklin Roosevelt. The economy was strong, the federal budget was moving toward surplus, and the political situation appeared relatively stable — which is not how things turned out.

The Balanced Budget Act was signed in August 1997, establishing a framework for eliminating the federal deficit over five years. The Children’s Health Insurance Program was created as part of the same legislation, extending health coverage to millions of children from low-income families who did not qualify for Medicaid.

The Heaven’s Gate cult, led by Marshall Applewhite, carried out a mass suicide at their rented mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, California, between March 24 and 26, 1997. Thirty-nine members died, believing their deaths would allow them to leave their physical bodies and board a spacecraft they believed was traveling in the wake of the Hale-Bopp comet. They were found wearing identical black clothing and new Nike athletic shoes.

The Hale-Bopp comet, visible to the naked eye for a record 18 months, was at its brightest in March and April 1997 and was the most widely observed comet in history. It generated wonder, scientific attention, and, in at least one community, catastrophic misinterpretation.

Princess Diana

Diana Frances Spencer had been Princess of Wales since her marriage to Prince Charles on July 29, 1981 — a ceremony watched by an estimated 750 million people worldwide. By 1997, she had been divorced from Charles for a year and had established herself as a globally recognized humanitarian figure through her work with landmine removal campaigns and AIDS charities. She had become more popular in her post-marriage life than she had been during it.

On the night of August 30-31, 1997, she left the Ritz Hotel in Paris with Dodi Fayed after dinner. Their car was pursued by photographers. At 12:23 a.m., the car crashed in the Pont de l’Alma underpass. Diana and Fayed died at the scene; the driver, Henri Paul, also died. Diana was taken to Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 4:00 a.m.

The public reaction in Britain was immediate and overwhelming. Flowers, candles, cards, and photographs accumulated outside Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace within hours. The emotional scale of the response caught the royal family and the government off guard. Queen Elizabeth II’s delayed public response — she remained at Balmoral for several days — drew criticism that was unprecedented for the monarchy.

The funeral on September 6, 1997, at Westminster Abbey, was attended by 2,000 people inside and watched by an estimated 2.5 billion on television, the largest single television audience in history to that point. Elton John, a friend, performed Candle in the Wind 1997 with new lyrics he had written with Bernie Taupin in the preceding days. Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, delivered a eulogy that included a pointed challenge to the royal family that was applauded inside the Abbey — an unprecedented event at a royal funeral.

IBM’s Deep Blue Defeats Kasparov

In May 1997, IBM’s chess-playing computer Deep Blue defeated world champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match by a score of 3.5 to 2.5, becoming the first computer to defeat a reigning world chess champion under standard tournament conditions. Kasparov, who had defeated an earlier version of Deep Blue in 1996, demanded a rematch and accused IBM of cheating. IBM declined the rematch and subsequently dismantled the computer. Kasparov has disputed the legitimacy of the result ever since. The victory was widely discussed as a milestone in artificial intelligence, though subsequent analysis suggested Deep Blue’s strength came more from brute-force calculation than from anything resembling human understanding of the game.

The Spice Girls

Wannabe, the debut single of the Spice Girls — Victoria Adams, Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm, and Geri Halliwell — reached number one in 37 countries and spent nine weeks at the top of the UK charts. The group sold the concept of “Girl Power” so effectively that it became a genuine cultural phrase rather than a marketing term. Their debut album Spice sold 23 million copies. Their tour merchandise, their nicknames (Scary, Sporty, Baby, Posh, Ginger), and their general dominance in tabloid and entertainment coverage made them the most-discussed music act of the year. Shania Twain’s album Come On Over, released in November 1997, would prove a longer-lasting commercial achievement — it became the best-selling country album, the best-selling album by a female artist, and the best-selling album by a Canadian artist — but the Spice Girls dominated 1997 in volume if not in depth.

Pop Culture Facts and History

Titanic, directed by James Cameron and released December 19, 1997, cost approximately $200 million to produce — the most expensive film ever made at that time — and earned $600 million in North America and over $2 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film in history. The film’s success was driven by repeat viewings on a scale rarely seen; significant portions of the audience, particularly young women, saw it multiple times in theaters. It went on to win 11 Academy Awards at the March 1998 ceremony.

Céline Dion initially declined to record My Heart Will Go On for the Titanic soundtrack. She recorded it in a single take as a demonstration — a demo intended to show how the song might sound, not for release. James Cameron heard it, declared it perfect, and insisted it be used as recorded. It became her signature song and one of the best-selling singles in history.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published in Britain by Bloomsbury on June 26, 1997, after being rejected by twelve publishers. Scholastic paid $105,000 for the US rights — an unusually large sum for a children’s debut novel at the time. The book had been acquired after the chairman of Bloomsbury’s eight-year-old daughter read the first chapter and demanded the rest immediately, which was considered a sufficient market test.

IBM’s Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov in their May 1997 rematch 3.5-2.5, the first time a computer had defeated a world chess champion under standard match conditions. Deep Blue could evaluate 200 million chess positions per second. Kasparov could evaluate perhaps three. He had a better success rate per position evaluated.

Bill Gates invested $150 million in Apple Computer in August 1997, purchasing non-voting preferred stock and agreeing to continue developing Microsoft Office for the Mac platform for five years. Apple was approximately 90 days from bankruptcy at the time of the investment. The transaction was announced at Macworld Boston, where the image of Gates appeared on a giant screen to an audience that greeted his face with audible booing.

The Teletubbies — Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, and Po, accompanied by their vacuum cleaner companion Noo-noo — debuted on BBC Two on March 31, 1997. The show was designed for children aged one to four and featured characters with television screens in their abdomens, a detail that the show’s creators described as reflecting the centrality of television in young children’s lives. Jerry Falwell later claimed that Tinky Winky was gay because he was purple and carried a bag. The BBC declined to comment.

A Pokémon episode called Dennō Senshi Porygon aired in Japan on December 16, 1997, and caused approximately 685 children to be hospitalized with seizures after a sequence of rapidly flashing red and blue lights. The episode has never been broadcast again. Television news coverage of the incident included clips of the offending sequence, which caused additional seizures among viewers.

WebMD launched in 1997, providing medical information to the general public online. Its subsequent role in leading people to conclude, from a headache, that they have a rare tropical disease has been a source of both genuine concern and considerable humor ever since.

On April 1, 1997, Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak and Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek traded places for the day, each hosting the other’s show. The swap was genuine, not simply a promotional conceit, and required each host to learn the other’s format for a single broadcast. Trebek reportedly found the spinning more physically demanding than expected.

Fred Rogers, accepting his Lifetime Achievement Award at the 1997 Daytime Emmy Awards, asked the audience to take ten seconds to think of the people who had helped them become who they are. He then waited in silence while they did. The audience, which had been prepared to applaud, found itself unexpectedly emotional. The moment has been repeatedly described by those present as one of the most remarkable they have experienced in their professional lives.

Nathan Zohner, a 14-year-old student from Idaho Falls, won first place at his school science fair in 1997 with a project in which he convinced 43 out of 50 classmates to sign a petition banning “dihydrogen monoxide,” — a colorless, odorless chemical that contributed to the death of thousands annually, was used in nuclear reactors, and was present in cancer tumors. The chemical was water. Zohner named his project “How Gullible Are We?” His findings have been cited in discussions of science literacy and media credibility ever since.

The Heaven’s Gate cult carried out its mass suicide over three days beginning March 24, 1997, in a rented mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, California. Thirty-nine members, including leader Marshall Applewhite, died in carefully planned stages, consuming phenobarbital mixed with applesauce, washing it down with vodka, and lying down with plastic bags over their heads. They were discovered on March 26. Each member was wearing black clothing and new Nike Decade sneakers and was covered with a purple shroud. They believed they were departing for a spacecraft following the Hale-Bopp comet.

Ellen DeGeneres came out as gay on April 30, 1997, in the Ellen sitcom episode titled The Puppy Episode, in which her character Ellen Morgan also came out. DeGeneres had publicly come out as gay in a Time magazine cover story the previous week. The episode was watched by approximately 42 million people. ABC aired it with a parental advisory. It won a Peabody Award and a Writers Guild Award.

Purell hand sanitizer was launched for consumer sale in 1997, having been available to healthcare workers since 1988. The product had been developed by Goldie and Jerry Lippman of Akron, Ohio, and acquired by GOJO Industries. Its transition from medical to consumer product was unremarkable at the time. Its subsequent role in global public health was not yet apparent.

Pfizer’s cholesterol medication Lipitor received FDA approval in 1997 and became available to patients. It subsequently became the best-selling prescription drug in pharmaceutical history, with over $125 billion in sales before its patent expired.

Nobel Prize Winners in 1997

Physics was awarded to Steven Chu, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, and William Phillips for the development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light — techniques that slowed atoms to near-absolute-zero temperatures and enabled precise atomic measurements with implications for atomic clocks, GPS systems, and quantum computing.

Chemistry went to Paul Boyer and John Walker for their elucidation of the enzymatic mechanism underlying the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the molecule that powers virtually every living cell, and to Jens Skou for the first discovery of an ion-transporting enzyme. Boyer and Walker’s work explained how the molecular motor that produces ATP actually functions.

Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Stanley Prusiner for his discovery of prions — a new biological principle of infection involving a misfolded protein rather than a bacterium or virus. Prions are responsible for diseases including mad cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Prusiner’s initial proposal was met with significant skepticism before being confirmed. His Nobel was awarded three years after the British mad cow disease crisis had made the subject uncomfortably urgent.

Literature went to Dario Fo of Italy, for emulating the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden. Fo was a playwright and theatrical provocateur whose works had been banned in Italy and whose visa had been denied by the United States government. His Nobel prompted complaints from the Italian political right and a congratulatory telegram from Pope John Paul II.

Peace was awarded to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and its coordinator, Jody Williams, for their work toward the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines. The Ottawa Treaty, banning landmines, had been signed by 122 nations days before the award. The United States, Russia, and China did not sign. Princess Diana had been among the treaty’s most prominent advocates.

Economics went to Robert Merton and Myron Scholes for a new method to determine the value of derivatives. Their Black-Scholes formula has become the foundation of modern options trading since its development in the early 1970s. The subsequent use of increasingly complex derivatives in financial markets would produce consequences that became apparent in 2008.

1997 Toys and Christmas Gifts

Beanie Babies became the defining toy phenomenon of 1997-1999, driven by scarcity marketing, collectibility, and a secondary market that gave small stuffed animals the pricing dynamics of commodity futures. Tamagotchi virtual pets, Teletubby toys, Pokémon merchandise, Spice Girls dolls, and Rapunzel Barbie rounded out a holiday season that was as commercially frantic as any in recent memory.

The record for keeping an original 1996-97 Tamagotchi alive was 89 days. The creators of Tamagotchi won the 1997 Ig Nobel Prize in Economics for diverting millions of person-hours of work into the care of virtual pets — a recognition that was both an insult and, by most accounts, fully deserved.

Broadway in 1997

The Lion King, directed by Julie Taymor, with choreography by Garth Fagan and a score that combines Elton John and Tim Rice’s existing songs with new African-influenced compositions by Hans Zimmer, Lebo M, and others, opened on November 13, 1997, at the New Amsterdam Theatre. It won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Its use of masks, puppetry, and full-body costumes rather than conventional theatrical makeup was considered revelatory. As of 2026, it remains one of the longest-running and highest-grossing Broadway productions in history.

Chicago, based on the 1975 original with choreography by Ann Reinking in the style of Bob Fosse, opened its West End run at the Adelphi Theatre in London on October 18, 1997, and ran until September 1, 2012. Its Broadway production opened in 1996 and ran until 2024, making it the longest-running American musical in Broadway history.

Best Film Oscar Winner

The English Patient, directed by Anthony Minghella and based on Michael Ondaatje’s novel, won Best Picture at the 69th Academy Awards on March 24, 1997, for the 1996 film year. It won nine Academy Awards in total. The film’s victory over Fargo, which had been widely favored by critics, was one of the more discussed Best Picture outcomes of the decade. A specific critique of the result was later immortalized in a Seinfeld episode in which Elaine vocally refuses to endorse the film’s sentimentality, a position that divided opinion at the time.

1997 Entries to the National Film Registry

Ben-Hur (1925)
The Big Sleep (1946)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
The Great Dictator (1940)
Harold and Maude (1972)
How the West Was Won (1962)
The Hustler (1961)
Mean Streets (1973)
Rear Window (1954)
The Thin Man (1934)
West Side Story (1961)
Wings (1927)

Top Movies of 1997

1. Titanic
2. Men in Black
3. The Lost World: Jurassic Park
4. Liar Liar
5. Air Force One
6. As Good As It Gets
7. Good Will Hunting
8. Star Wars (Special Edition)
9. My Best Friend’s Wedding
10. Tomorrow Never Dies
11. Face/Off

Titanic earned $600 million in North America alone, the highest domestic gross in history at the time, and over $2 billion worldwide. Men in Black, pairing Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, was the summer’s most purely enjoyable film and spawned a franchise. Good Will Hunting, written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and directed by Gus Van Sant, won two Academy Awards including Best Original Screenplay — and launched both writers’ careers definitively. Star Wars: Special Edition — a digitally enhanced re-release of the 1977 original — grossed $138 million domestically and reminded a generation that had grown up with the films why they had mattered.

Most Popular TV Shows of 1997

1. Seinfeld (NBC)
2. ER (NBC)
3. Veronica’s Closet (NBC)
4. Friends (NBC)
5. Touched by an Angel (CBS)
6. 60 Minutes (CBS)
7. Union Square (NBC)
8. Frasier (NBC)
9. Home Improvement (ABC)
10. Just Shoot Me (NBC)

Seinfeld was in its eighth season and at the peak of its ratings dominance. ER was in its third year and equally dominant in the drama category. South Park premiered on Comedy Central on August 13, 1997, with immediate controversy and immediate cultural impact. Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered on The WB on March 10, 1997, launching a seven-season run that would redefine what television genre storytelling could do.

1997 Billboard Number One Hits

December 7, 1996 – February 21, 1997: Un-Break My Heart — Toni Braxton (carryover from late 1996)
February 22 – March 21: Wannabe — Spice Girls
March 22 – May 2: Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down — Puff Daddy featuring Mase
May 3 – May 23: Hypnotize — The Notorious B.I.G.
May 24 – June 13: MMMBop — Hanson
June 14 – August 29: I’ll Be Missing You — Puff Daddy and Faith Evans featuring 112 (11 weeks)
August 30 – September 12: Mo Money Mo Problems — The Notorious B.I.G. featuring Puff Daddy and Mase
September 13 – October 3: Honey — Mariah Carey
October 4 – October 10: 4 Seasons of Loneliness — Boyz II Men
October 11, 1997 – January 16, 1998: Candle in the Wind 1997 — Elton John (carrying into 1998)

The Notorious B.I.G. had two separate number ones in 1997 — Hypnotize before his death in March and Mo Money Mo Problems released posthumously in August. I’ll Be Missing You, Puff Daddy’s tribute to his friend, spent 11 weeks at number one and was the best-performing single of the year on the Billboard Year-End chart. MMMBop by Hanson, three brothers from Tulsa aged 11 to 16, spent three weeks at number one and generated a level of critical condescension that somewhat missed the point — the song is well-constructed, and the brothers wrote it themselves. Candle in the Wind 1997 closed the year and ran well into 1998, ultimately selling 33 million copies worldwide.

Sports Champions of 1997

World Series: The Florida Marlins defeated the Cleveland Indians four games to three in a Game 7 that went to extra innings, with Edgar Rentería’s single in the 11th scoring Craig Counsell with the winning run. The Marlins had been an expansion team for only five years, making them the youngest franchise to win the World Series. Their owner immediately dismantled the team in a cost-cutting exercise that remains one of the more cynical acts in baseball’s business history.

Super Bowl XXXI: The Green Bay Packers defeated the New England Patriots 35-21 on January 26, 1997, in New Orleans. Desmond Howard returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown and was named MVP — the first special teams player to win Super Bowl MVP. Brett Favre threw for two touchdowns. It was Green Bay’s first Super Bowl championship since the Lombardi era in 1967.

NBA Champions: The Chicago Bulls defeated the Utah Jazz, four games to two, to win their fifth championship in seven years. Michael Jordan was named Finals MVP for the fifth time, averaging 32.3 points per game. The series featured the so-called “Flu Game” in Game 5, in which Jordan played with what was described at the time as a severe case of the flu and scored 38 points in a Bulls victory. Questions about the nature of his illness have persisted.

Stanley Cup: The Detroit Red Wings defeated the Philadelphia Flyers four games to none, winning their first Stanley Cup in 42 years and doing it with a sweep that was not particularly competitive. Brendan Shanahan, Steve Yzerman, and the Russian contingent of Sergei Fedorov, Viacheslav Fetisov, Vladimir Konstantinov, Viacheslav Kozlov, and Igor Larionov formed one of the deepest rosters in recent NHL history. Vladimir Konstantinov suffered catastrophic brain injuries in a limousine accident six days after the Cup win. His teammates won the Cup again the following year and carried him onto the ice in his wheelchair during the celebration.

U.S. Open Golf: Ernie Els of South Africa won his second U.S. Open title at Congressional Country Club in Maryland, defeating Colin Montgomerie and Tom Lehman by one stroke.

U.S. Open Tennis: Patrick Rafter of Australia won the men’s title, and Martina Hingis of Switzerland won the women’s title, becoming, at 16, the youngest women’s U.S. Open champion of the Open Era.

Wimbledon: Pete Sampras won his fourth Wimbledon title and Martina Hingis won the women’s title — the same week she turned 17, making her the youngest Wimbledon women’s champion in the Open Era at that time.

NCAA Football: Michigan and Nebraska shared the national championship for the 1997 season, a split title that resulted from the two major polls — the Associated Press and the coaches’ poll — selecting different champions. Michigan, undefeated at 12-0, was named the AP champion. Nebraska, which had lost to Missouri during the regular season but won the Big 12 Championship, was named champion by the coaches. Both claims were considered legitimate by their respective supporters and illegitimate by the other side.

NCAA Basketball: Arizona defeated Kentucky 84-79 in overtime in the national championship game in Indianapolis. Miles Simon was named Most Outstanding Player. Arizona had entered the tournament as a number four seed and defeated three number-one seeds on its way to the title.

Kentucky Derby: Silver Charm won the Derby and the Preakness, setting up a potential Triple Crown run at the Belmont. He finished second at the Belmont by three-quarters of a length to Touch Gold, ending the bid. The Triple Crown remained elusive for another eighteen years.

Frequently Asked Questions About 1997

Q: What happened to Princess Diana?
A: Diana, Princess of Wales, died August 31, 1997, at age 36, in the Pont de l’Alma underpass in Paris, when the car she was traveling in crashed while being pursued by photographers. Her companion, Dodi Fayed, and the driver, Henri Paul, also died. An estimated 2.5 billion people watched her funeral on September 6. Elton John performed a rewritten version of Candle in the Wind that became the best-selling single in history at that time. The official investigation concluded that the crash was caused by the negligent driving of Henri Paul, who was drunk.

Q: How did IBM’s Deep Blue defeat Kasparov?
A: IBM’s chess computer Deep Blue defeated world champion Garry Kasparov in their six-game May 1997 rematch by a score of 3.5 to 2.5. Deep Blue could evaluate 200 million chess positions per second. Kasparov demanded a rematch, accused IBM of cheating, and claimed the computer had displayed signs of human-like intuition in one key game. IBM declined the rematch and dismantled the computer. The legitimacy of the result has been disputed by Kasparov and accepted by most others.

Q: Why did Bill Gates invest in Apple?
A: Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple in August 1997, acquiring non-voting preferred stock and committing to continue developing Microsoft Office for the Mac. Apple was approximately 90 days from bankruptcy. Steve Jobs, who had just returned as CEO, negotiated the deal. For Microsoft, keeping Apple alive meant avoiding antitrust scrutiny for a monopoly in personal-computing operating systems — a healthy Apple served Microsoft’s legal interests. For Apple, it meant survival.

Q: What was the Heaven’s Gate cult?
A: Heaven’s Gate was a cult led by Marshall Applewhite that believed their physical bodies were vessels to be abandoned so their souls could board a spacecraft they believed was traveling behind the Hale-Bopp comet. Thirty-nine members died in a planned mass suicide between March 24 and 26, 1997, in a rented mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, California. They were found wearing identical clothing and Nike athletic shoes.

Q: What was significant about Ellen DeGeneres coming out in 1997?
A: Ellen DeGeneres came out publicly as gay in a Time magazine cover story in April 1997, then came out on her sitcom Ellen on April 30, in an episode watched by approximately 42 million people. It was the first time a lead character in an American network sitcom had come out as gay. The episode won a Peabody Award. ABC aired it with a parental advisory. The sitcom was cancelled the following year; DeGeneres later said the network had made it difficult to continue. Her talk show, launched in 2003, became one of the most watched in American television.

Q: What were Beanie Babies, and why were they so popular?
A: Beanie Babies were small plush animals filled with PVC pellets, manufactured by Ty Inc. and introduced in 1993. Their popularity exploded in 1997-99 due to deliberate scarcity — Ty regularly retired designs, creating collector demand — and a secondary market that convinced many buyers they were investments. At the peak, some rare editions sold for hundreds of dollars. The market collapsed in 1999-2000, leaving collectors with bins of stuffed animals worth a fraction of what they had paid.

In a year that lost a princess and found a chess-playing machine smarter than the best human player, saw a boy band from Tulsa at number one and a cult in California’s most exclusive zip code interpret a comet as a taxi, Titanic arrived in December to remind everyone that the biggest stories are still, somehow, love stories. The year ended with Elton John on the radio and 2.5 billion people still thinking about Diana. Some things do not resolve quickly.