Jan 7Newt Gingrich narrowly re-elected speaker of the US House of Representatives

Jan 9Krzysztof Penderecki's choral symphony "Seven Gates of Jerusalem" premieres in Jerusalem, Israel

Jan 10Arnoldo Aleman sworn in as president of Nicaragua

Jan 15Diana, Princess of Wales, calls for an international ban on landmines, angering ministers in the UK

Jan 19Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years and joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli-controlled West Bank city.

Jan 26Mario Lemieux ties NHL record with 4 goals in the 3rd period as Pittsburgh wins, 5-2 at Montreal; 39th career hat trick and 13th 4-goal game, tying NHL record shared by Wayne Gretzky & Mike Bossy

Feb 1 Future Hockey Hall of Fame defensemanRay Bourque scores a goal and an assist to become the Boston Bruins' all-time scoring leader, with 1,341 points in an 18-year NHL career

Feb 2Scotty Bowman becomes first coach in NHL history to win 1,000 games

Feb 3 Public memorial held forCarl Sagan at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Feb 4 After at first contesting the results, Serbian PresidentSlobodan Milošević recognizes opposition victories in the November 1996 elections.

Feb 4O.J. Simpson found liable in the deaths of Ron Goldman and Nicole Simpson in a civil court action

Feb 4 US Secretary of StateMadeleine Albright announces she just discovered that her grandparents were Jewish, three of whom were killed in the Holocaust

Feb 9 Fox cartoon series "The Simpsons" airs 167th episode; longest-running animated series in cartoon history

Feb 13Joseph Stiglitz becomes Chief Economist of the World Bank

Feb 16 39th Daytona 500: Hendrick Motorsports posts a 1-2-3 finish withJeff Gordon winning the race, ahead of Terry Labonte and Ricky Craven

Feb 20 San Francisco GiantsBarry Bonds signs record $22.9M 2 year contract

Feb 23 NBC TV shows "Schindler's List" completely uncensored and without commercial interruptions; 65 million watch[1]

Feb 24Deng Xiaoping the former paramount leader of China is cremated five days after he passed away

Feb 26 39th Grammy Awards: "Change the World", Babyface, Beck, andLeAnn Rimes win

Mar 1 CanadianElvis Stojko hits the first quad-triple combination jump in the history of figure-skating competition to win the Championship Series final in Hamilton, Ontario

Mar 1 Puerto Rican boxer Héctor Camacho stopsSugar Ray Leonard in 5th round in Atlantic City, NJ to retain IBC middleweight title; only time Leonard's is KO'ed and sends him into permanent retirement

Mar 4 USPresident Clinton bans federally funded human cloning research

Mar 5Tommy Lasorda, Nellie Fox and Willie Wells inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame

Mar 6Picasso's painting Tête de Femme is stolen from a London gallery, it is recovered a week later

Mar 10 "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," created byJoss Whedon and starringSarah Michelle Gellar, premieres on the WB Television Network

Mar 10 The PalmPilot, as developed byJeffrey Hawkins, is released

Mar 11 BeatlePaul McCartney is knighted byQueen Elizabeth II

Mar 21 Film "Selena" is released based on the life of singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, starringJennifer Lopez in her breakthrough role, directed by Gregory Nava

Mar 24 69th Academy Awards: "The English Patient",Geoffrey Rush andFrances McDormand win

Mar 25 "Life After Death" second studio album byThe Notorious B.I.G. is released (Billboard Song of the Year 1997)

Mar 25 MLB Cleveland Indians trade Lofton & Embree to Braves for Marquis Grissom &David Justice

Mar 27 Martin Luther King's son meetsJames Earl Ray, his father's killer

Mar 31 West Indies cricketers win 3rd Test at Bridgetown, Barbados by 38 runs after setting India a modest 120 run target; tourists dismissed for 81 inBrian Lara's debut as Windies' captain

Apr 5Steve Irwin's "The Crocodile Hunter" debuts

Apr 15 Baseball honorsJackie Robinson by retiring #42 for all teams

Apr 15 Disaster film "Volcano" directed by Mick Jackson, and starringTommy Lee Jones andAnne Heche premieres in South Korea

Apr 17 NJ DevilMartin Brodeur is 2nd NHL goalie to score in a playoff game

Apr 20Mark McGwire is 4th to HR on Detroit Tiger left field roof (others are Frank Howard, Harmon Killibrew, &Cecil Fielder)

Apr 21 Ashes of psychologist and author Timothy Leary and "Star Trek" creatorGene Roddenberry launched into space orbit

Apr 28Ringo Starr's fourth All-Starr Band debuts in concert; members include: Peter Frampton, Jack Bruce, Gary Brooker, Simon Kirke, and Mark Rivera

Apr 30 42 million watchEllen DeGeneres publicly declare she is gay

Apr 30 Rock for the Rainforest benefit concert held at Carnegie Hall, NYC; performers include:Sting,Elton John,James Taylor,Stevie Wonder,Lyle Lovett, Bobby McFerrin, Bonnie Raitt, Shawn Colvin and Zucchero