1997 World Events

January 12: NASA launches space shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-81.

January 18: Norwegian Boerge Ousland becomes the first person to traverse the Antarctic alone and without aid.

January 20: Bill Clinton starts his second term as President of the United States.

January 26: The Green Bay Packers defeat the New England Patriots, 35-21, in Super bowl XXXI.

February 10: Russia launches Soyuz TM-25 with crewmembers Vasili Tsibliyev, Aleksandr Latzukin, and Reinhold Ewald.

February 11: NASA launches space shuttle Discovery on mission STS-82. This is the second repair mission for the Hubble Space Telescope.

February 22: Scientists announce to the world that a sheep named Dolly has been successfully cloned and born in July of 1996.

March: The Best Picture Oscar is awarded to "The English Patient" at the Academy Awards.

March 2: Soyuz TM-24 returns to Earth with crew Valeri Korzun, Aleksandr Kaleri, and Reinhold Ewald.

May 15: Atlas Centuar 128 is launched from LC36A ath the Cape Canaveral Air Station. Its payload is the Tempo 2 communications satellite. Please follow the AC-128 link for my eye witness account of this launch.

April 4: NASA launches space shuttle Columbia on the STS-83 mission. Power issues force a premature termination of the mission in just under 4 days.

April 13: Tiger Woods wins the Masters Golf Tournament and becomes the youngest winner in its history.

May 15: NASA launches the space shuttle Atlantis on the STS-84 mission. For my detailed account of witnessing this launch, follow the STS-84 link.

May 27: Arie Luyendyk wins the Indianapolis 500.

June 2: Timothy McVeigh is convicted of all 15 counts of murder and conspiracy brought against him for his role in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

July 1: NASA launches space shuttle Columbia on the STS-94 mission. This is mission is a reflight of the STS-83 crew whose mission was terminated prematurely in April. The crew consists of Jim Halsell, Susan Still, Janice Voss, Don Thomas, Michael Gernhardt, Roger Crouch, and Greg Linteris.

July 4: NASA's Pathfinder probe makes a successful landing on the surface of Mars.

July 17: Space shuttle Columbia returns to Earth after the completion of the STS-94 mission. The duration of the flight was 15 days, 16 hours, 45 minutes, and 31 seconds. The crew of Jim Halsell, Susan Still, Janice Voss, Don Thomas, Michael Gernhardt, Roger Crouch, and Greg Linteris lands at Runway 33 at the Kennedy Space Center.

August 5: Russia launches Soyuz TM-26 with a crew of Anatoli Solovyov and Pavel Vinogradev.

August 7: NASA launches space shuttle Discovery on mission STS-85. The crew of STS-85 consisted of Curtis Brown, Kent Rominger, Jan Davis, Robert Curbeam, Steve Robinson, and Bjarni Tryggvason.

August 14: Soyuz TM-25 spacecraft returns to Earth with crew Vasili Tsibliyev and Aleksandr Latzukin.

August 19: Space shuttle Discovery returns to Earth after a flight of 11 days, 20 hours, 28 minutes and 7 seconds. The STS-85 crew of Curtis Brown, Kent Rominger, Jan Davis, Robert Curbeam, Steve Robinson, and Bjarni Tryggvason lands at Runway 33 at the Kennedy Space Center.

August 31: A car crash in Paris, France claims the life of Diana, Princess of Wales.

September 25: NASA launches space shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-86. The crew for STS-86 consists of Jim Wetherbee, Michael Bloomfield, Vladimir Titov, Scott Parazynski, Jean-Loup Cretien, Wendy Lawrence, and David Wolf.

October 5: Atlas Centaur 135 launches the Echostar 3 communications satellite from LC36A at the Cape Canaveral Air Station. Please follow the AC-135 link for my account of witnessing this launch.

October 5: NASA waves off both attempts for the landing of Atlantis during the STS-86 mission. For my account of witnessing these landing scrubs please follow the STS-86 link.

October 6: Space shuttle Atlantis lands at runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center after a flight of 10 days, 19 hours, 22 minutes and 12 seconds. The returning astronauts were im Wetherbee, Michael Bloomfield, Vladimir Titov, Scott Parazynski, Jean-Loup Cretien, Wendy Lawrence, and Michael Foale.<>

October 9: My father passes away at the age of 73.

October 12: Singer John Denver is killed when the home built Long-EZ plane that he is piloting crashes off the coast of Monterey, California.

October 15: NASA launches a space probe named Cassini on a multi-year voyage to Saturn.

November 19: NASA launches space shuttle Columbia on mission STS-87.

December 29: A program is begun in Hong Kong to exterminate all chickens there. The reason for this drastic measure is to prevent the spread of a deadly strain of influenza.