Editing 1997 (section)

==Events==
*January 10 - [[Arnoldo Alemán]] is elected President of Nicaragua.
*January 16 - [[Eric Rudolph]] bombs an abortion clinic in Sandy Springs, Georgia. No one is hurt in the attack.
*February 19 - [[Evan Ramsey|Bethel Regional High School shooting]]
*February 23 - [[Ali Hassan Abu Kamal|Empire State Building mass shooting]]
*March 9 - American rapper The Notorious B.I.G. is assassinated by [[Blue Tuxedo Man|a mysterious assailant]] in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, California.
*March 26 - The [[Heaven's Gate]] cult commits ritual mass suicide.
*March 30-  [[Mohammad al-Nazari|Sana'a school shooting]].
*April 6 - [[Natasha Cornett|Lillelid murders]] 
*April 18 - The [[United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia]] are founded.
*May 16 - End of the First Congo War. [[Laurent-Désiré Kabila]] declares himself President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
*May 25 - [[Johnny Paul Koroma]] seizes power in Sierra Leone with help from the [[Revolutionary United Front]].
*June 5 - Beginning of the Second Republic of the Congo Civil War.
*June 12 - [[Pol Pot]] is placed under house arrest.
*June 27 - End of the Tajikistani Civil War.
*July 10 - Spanish conservative politician Miguel Ángel Blanco is [[Kidnapping|kidnapped]] and [[murder]]ed by the separatist group [[ETA]].
*July 15 to 20 - The [[Mapiripán Massacre]] is carried out by the [[United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia]], resulting in 30 deaths.
*July 23 - [[Slobodan Milošević]] is elected President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
*August 2 - [[Charles Taylor]] is elected President of Liberia. End of the First Liberian Civil War.
*August 6 - Former dictator [[Hugo Banzer]] is elected the constitutional president of Bolivia.
*August 9 - Abner Louima was beaten and raped by [[Justin Volpe|four]] [[Charles Schwarz|corrupt]] [[Thomas Bruder|NYPD]] [[Thomas Wiese|officers]].
*September 4 - Mercenaries carry out a series of terrorist attacks against hotels in Havana, Cuba, leaving an Italian tourist dead and 11 injured. These attacks would have been coordinated by [[Luis Posada Carriles]].
*October 1 - [[Luke Woodham]] kills his mother before committing a [[School Shooting|shooting]] at Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi, killing two students and wounding seven others.
*October 8 - [[Kim Jong-il]] is named General Secretary of the [[Workers' Party of Korea]] and Supreme Leader of North Korea three years after the death of his father [[Kim Il-sung]].
*October 13 - [[Shinichiro Azuma]] is sentenced to juvenile detention for 2 charges of murder.
*October 25 - [[Denis Sassou Nguesso]] is restored as President of the Republic of the Congo.
*November 9 - [[Chuan Leekpai]] elected Prime Minister of Thailand for the second time.
*November 19 - [[James Patterson Smith]] is sentenced to life in prison for the gruesome [[torture]] and [[murder]] of Kelly Anne Bates.
*December 1 - [[Arauco-Malleco Coordinator]] is founded.
*December 16 - [[Earl Bramblett]] is found guilty of the 1994 murders of Blaine, Teresa, Winter, and Anah Hodges and is sentenced to death.
*December 26 - [[Đỗ Mười]] steps down as General Secretary of the [[Communist Party of Vietnam]].
*Unknown - The [[National Party (South Africa)|National Party]] is dissolved.
*Unknown - The last federally-funded Canadian Indian boarding school, Kivalliq Hall in Nunavut, is closed, officially discontinuing the [[Canadian Indian residential school system]].