1997

• Backstreet Boys – “Quit Playing Games (with My Heart)”
• Elton John – “Candle in the Wind 1997” / “Something About the Way You Look Tonight”
• Hanson – “MMMBop”
• Jewel – “Foolish Games”
• LeAnn Rimes – “How Do I Live”
• Puff Daddy & Faith Evans ft. 112 – “I’ll Be Missing You”
• Puff Daddy ft Mase – “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down”
• R Kelly – “I Believe I Can Fly”
• Spice Girls – “Wanna Be”
• Sugar Ray – “Fly”
• The Cardigans – “Lovefool”
• The Notorious B.I.G. – “Hypnotize”
• The Notorious B.I.G. ft Puff Daddy & Mase – “Mo Money Mo Problems”
• The Wallflowers – “One Headlight”
• Toni Braxton – “Un-Break My Heart”

• Titanic
• The Lost World: Jurassic Park
• Men in Black
• Tomorrow Never Dies
• Air Force One
• As Good as It Gets
• Liar Liar
• My Best Friend's Wedding
• The Fifth Element

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Stargate SG-1
• The View
• South Park
• Ally McBeal
• Brooklyn South
• Dharma & Greg

• Roseanne
• Married... with Children
• Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
• Beavis and Butt-head

• Seinfeld
• ER
• Veronica's Closet
• Friends
• Touched by an Angel
• Frasier
• Home Improvement
• Just Shoot Me
• The X-Files
• Law and Order
• King of the Hill
• Mad About You
• Cosby

• Jake Paul - YouTube star
• Kylie Jenner - reality star, "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" 
• Nash Grier - YouTube star
• Camila Cabello - pop singer, first in girl group Fifth Harmony; huge hit "Havana"
• Bella Thorne - TV actress in "Shake It Up"; in movie "The Duff"
• Lil Yachty - rapper, trademark red hair, "1Night", member of FaZe Clan
• KJ Apa - TV actor, "Riverdale"
• Simone Biles - American gymnast, won 4 gold medals at 2016 Olympics
• Chloe Grace Moretz - movie actress, in "Hugo", "Diary of a Wimpy Kid", "If I Stay" 
• Cody Simpson - Australian pop singer, "Im Yours", "I Want You Back"
• Rebecca Black - pop singer, viral hit "Friday"
• Asa Butterfield - movie actor, "Nanny McPhee" and "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children"

• IBM's computer "Deep Blue" defeats chess champion Gary Kasparov for the first time
• Internet Explorer 4 released
• first supersonic land speed record in Nevada at 763 mph (1,228 kph)
• first Harry Potter book released
• Hale-Bopp comet closest approach to earth (visible for over 18 months)
• Tiger Woods at 21 years old became the youngest ever golfer to win the Masters
• Electronics companies agree to make Wi-Fi a worldwide standard for wireless Internet.

• Amber Alert
• auto-tune
• elliptical trainer
• emoji
• Generaztion Z
• judgy
• weblog

On July 1, 1997, Hong Kong was peaceably handed over to China in a ceremony attended by numerous Chinese, British, and international dignitaries. The chief executive under the new Hong Kong government, Tung Chee Hwa, formulated a policy based on the concept of “one country, two systems,” thus preserving Hong Kong’s role as a principal capitalist center in Asia.

August 31: Princess Diana is killed in a car crash in Paris, France. The princess was traveling with her friend Dodi Al Fayed who was also killed in the crash, as well as the driver of the vehicle. The vehicle hit a wall after the driver lost control when trying to evade the paparazzi hat was following them. After the crash it was determined that the driver, Henri Paul, was at fault when drugs and alcohol were found in blood tests taken afterwards.

IBM’s Deep Blue chess-playing computer defeated chess champion Garry Kasparov. The computer won game 6 of the match-up becoming the first computer to defeat the world champion chess player under tournament conditions. Kasparov had never lost to a human opponent. Deep Blue’s win marked an important point in the development of artificial intelligence as observers noted it as a point when computers’ development began to outpace human development.

March 9: American rapper Christopher Wallace, better known by his stage names Biggie Smalls and The Notorious B.I.G., was shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, California, which led to his death minutes later. Despite numerous witnesses and enormous media attention and speculation, no one was ever formally charged for the murder, and the case remains officially unsolved.

June 28: Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield re-match. In Round 3, after getting headbutted by Holyfield, Tyson retaliated by biting a one-inch piece of Holyfield's right ear off. Tyson was disqualified and banned from boxing for 15 months.

June: The very first book in the Harry Potter series, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”, written by JK Rowling, was published in the U.K. It was an immediate success in the UK and was soon released in the US in September of 1998 under the name “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”