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| 1997, Jan. 1 |
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| Kofi Annan, a native of Ghana, was sworn in as the UN's new secretary general, replacing Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who was not reelected due in large part to pressure from the United States. | 1 |
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| Feb. 13 |
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| Ian Wilmut and colleagues at the Roslin Institute in Scotland announced the first successful cloning of an adult mammal, a sheep named Dolly. | 2 |
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| Feb. 15 |
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| More than 65 countries agreed to a global telecommunications accord that opened their markets to foreign competition. | 3 |
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| April 27 |
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| The G7 met and expressed concern over the continuing rise of the U.S. dollar, especially in relation to the Japanese yen. The group threatened to intervene in international currency markets to stabilize the dollar. | 4 |
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| May 11 |
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| Deep Blue, a computer program developed by IBM, defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a highly publicized match by a score of 3½ to 2½ games. | 5 |
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| June 23–27 |
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| Sixty heads of state and delegates from 180 countries attended a UN conference on the environment called Earth Summit. Considerable tension between richer and poorer nations heightened divisions, however, and little was actually decided. | 6 |
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| July 16 |
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| Kofi Annan announced a reform package restructuring the internal organization of the UN. | 7 |
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| Sept. 17 |
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| Eighty-nine countries met in Oslo and agreed to a treaty banning the use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of landmines. | 8 |
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| Dec. 1–11 |
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| The UN held a global warming summit in Kyoto, Japan, setting the first global limits on greenhouse gas emissions to standards below then-current levels. | 9 |
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