On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
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Large number of prime Hamptons, NY, houses are still available for summer rental despite earlier press reports that all best houses are already taken (S)
US Air Force Gen Joseph W Ralston will withdraw name from consideration for post of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman because of admission of adultery 13 years ago when separated from wife; has been told there is almost no hope for promotion, given reaction on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers have accused Pentagon of having double standard; Defense Sec William S Cohen orders Defense Dept lawyers to review, and possibly rewrite, military's legal manual for prosecutors, to eliminate possibility of double standard in adultery cases; creates two panels to study sexual-misconduct and gender issues in armed forces (M)
Michelle Krebs article on convertibles describes her experience driving inexpensive Toyota Paseo and $275,100 Lamborghini Diablo; photos (M)
Life of Malcolm Shabazz, troubled 12-year-old accused of setting fire that critically burned grandmother Betty Shabazz in Yonkers, NY, apartment, reflects suffering of extraordinary American family still wrestling with singular historical moment 32 years ago when his grandfather Malcolm X was assassinated in Harlem; he has spent most of existence in obscurity as lonely son of troubled and nomadic mother, flitting almost anonymously through five cities, five schools and at least two hospitals over last three years; his life mirrors struggles of thousands of single mothers who find themselves unable to handle hardships they encounter; photo (M)
Detroit Red Wings win ice hockey's Stanley Cup, defeating Philadephia Flyers, 2-1, to win series, 4-0; table; photo (M)
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of June 4, 1997, covering June 8, 1997.
Spice Girls
Bob Carlisle
KRS-One
Soundtrack
The Notorious B.I.G.
1997Jeļena Ostapenko, Latvian tennis player[†]
Jeļena "Aļona" Ostapenko is a Latvian professional tennis player. She has career-high rankings of world No. 5 in singles and No. 4 in doubles by the WTA. Ostapenko has won nine WTA Tour-level singles and eleven doubles titles, including a singles major at the 2017 French Open and a doubles major at the 2024 US Open, partnering Lyudmyla Kichenok. She is the first Latvian to win a major in singles or in doubles.
1997George Turner, Australian author and critic (born 1916)[†]
George Reginald Turner was an Australian writer and critic, best known for the science fiction novels written in the later part of his career. His first science fiction story and novel appeared in 1978, when he was in his early sixties. By this point, however, he had already achieved success as a mainstream novelist, including a Miles Franklin Award, and as a literary critic.
1997Karen Wetterhahn, American chemist and academic (born 1948)[†]
Karen Elizabeth Wetterhahn, also known as Karen Wetterhahn Jennette, was an American professor of chemistry at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, who specialized in toxic metal exposure. She died of mercury poisoning at the age of 48 due to accidental exposure to the extremely toxic organic mercury compound dimethylmercury. Protective gloves in use at the time of the incident provided insufficient protection, and exposure to only a single drop or 2 of the dimethylmercury absorbed through the gloves proved to be fatal after less than a year.
In 1997, the world population was approximately 5,924,787,816 people[†]