1997

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• On 19 February, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping dies, aged 92.

• In Britain on 30 April, the Labour party led by Tony Blair wins the general election, ending 18 years of Conservative party rule.

• On 17 May in Zaïre, Laurent Kabila overthrows President Mobutu Sese Seko, proclaims himself president and renames the country the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

• On 30 June, Britain returns Hong Kong to China, and peaceful reunification occurs.

• On 31 August, Britain's Princess Diana dies in a car crash in Paris. Many thousands gather in London to mourn her death and attend her funeral on 6 September.

• In Indonesia on 25 September, the president proclaims the uncontrolled forest fires throughout the country to be a national disaster. They are so extensive that a deep haze covers a number of South-east Asian countries for three months.

• On 27 September, Taliban troops capture Kabul in Afghanistan.

• On 29 October, Saddam Hussein of Iraq expels all US members of the United Nations arms-inspection team.

• In February, British scientists in Scotland announce the creation of the first cloned animal, Dolly the sheep. This raises questions about the ethics of genetic engineering.

• On 11 May, in a match lasting less than an hour, the Deep Blue computer defeats Garry Kasparov, the Russian chess champion.

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