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| 1997, Feb. 4 |
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| A civil jury in Santa Monica, Calif., ordered the former football star O.J. Simpson to pay $8.5 million in compensatory damages for the wrongful death of Ronald L. Goldman, a friend of Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole, who was also murdered. Simpson had been acquitted of murder charges in a 1995 criminal trial, which had generated a great deal of discussion and conflict over issues of race in American society. A separate trial was set for punitive damages in the death of Nicole Simpson. | 1 |
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| June 14 |
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| Pres. Clinton announced the formation of a new panel on race, headed by the distinguished historian John Hope Franklin of Duke University. Clinton charged the panel to launch a “great and unprecedented discussion about race” in U.S. society. | 2 |
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| June 20 |
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| The tobacco industry reached an agreement with dozens of claimants in lawsuits against the industry. When implemented, the plan would result in the payment of a landmark $368 billion in damages and imposition of stricter rules on the marketing of cigarettes; it would also free the industry from a variety of pending legal claims against it. | 3 |
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| June 24 |
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| Federal district court judge James Lawrence King of Miami blocked the deportation (from three southern states) of thousands of refugees from Nicaragua and other Central American countries. Critics of Clinton's Citizenship USA policy claimed that thousands of immigrants had been wrongly naturalized under the program. | 4 |
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| July 4 |
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| The U.S. probe Pathfinder landed on Mars to examine the landscape there. | 5 |
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| July 27 |
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| A bomb exploded at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga., taking the life of one person and injuring 111 others. Pres. Clinton described the bombing as “an evil act of terror.” | 6 |
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| Oct. 22 |
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| Clinton unveiled plans to fight global warming by giving industries financial incentives to decrease their greenhouse gas emissions. | 7 |
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| Oct. 25 |
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| An estimated 300,000 to 500,000 black women held a Million Woman March in Philadelphia at the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, where they adopted a 12-point platform for improving life in the black community. | 8 |
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| Oct. 27 |
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| The U.S. stock market plunged by 554 points, the largest single-day decline in its history; analysts credited a series of internal “corrective” measures in the market's speedy rebound. | 9 |
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| Oct. 29 |
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| Chinese president Jiang Zemin visited the U.S. and met with Clinton for the first U.S./China summit in eight years. | 10 |
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| Nov. 13 |
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| The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee blocked Pres. Clinton's nomination of Bill Lann Lee as assistant attorney general for civil rights. Conservative members of Congress opposed Lee because of his vocal support for affirmative action. Lee's appointment would have made him the highest ranking Asian American in the Clinton administration. | 11 |
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