At A Glance

16 August 1997 at a glance

Day of the week
16 August 1997 was a Saturday.
UK Number One
The UK Number One single was “Men in Black” by Will Smith.
Top Film of 1997
The highest-grossing film worldwide released in 1997 was Titanic.
Star sign
The star sign for 16 August is Leo.
Chinese zodiac
In the Chinese zodiac, 16 August 1997 fell in the Year of the Ox.
Birthstone
The birthstone for August is Peridot.
Moon phase
The moon phase on 16 August 1997 was Waxing Gibbous.

On this day: 16 August

  • 1972 In an unsuccessful coup d'état attempt, the Royal Moroccan Air Force fires upon Hassan II of Morocco's plane while he is traveling back to Rabat.
  • 1975 Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam symbolically hands over land to the Gurindji people after the eight-year Wave Hill walk-off, a landmark event in the history of Indigenous land rights in Australia, commemorated in a 1991 song by Paul Kelly and an annual celebration.
  • 1989 A solar particle event affects computers at the Toronto Stock Exchange, forcing a halt to trading.
  • 2008 The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago is topped off at 1,389 feet (423 m), at the time becoming the world's highest residence above ground-level.
  • 2020 The August Complex fire in California burns more than one million acres of land.

Famous people born on 16 August

  • Madonna, American singer-songwriter, producer, actress, and director (born 1958)
  • Sophie Cunningham, American basketball player (born 1996)
  • Jannik Sinner, Italian tennis player (born 2001)
  • James Cameron, Canadian director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1954)

Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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Events of 1997 in the United Kingdom

A selection from Wikipedia's '1997 in the United Kingdom'. Not a complete list.

  • 30 March – Channel 5, Britain's fifth terrestrial television channel and its first new one since the launch of Channel 4 in November 1982, is launched.
  • 31 March – BBC preschool children's television series Teletubbies first airs.
  • 26 June – Publication of J. K. Rowling's first Harry Potter fantasy novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, in London by Bloomsbury Publishing, in an edition of 500 copies.

Life in 1997

Prime Minister

Tony Blair

Monarch

Elizabeth II

Pint of Beer

£1.60

Loaf of Bread

67p

Average House

£65,798

Weekly Wage

£385.00

Or

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Famous Faces Born in the 1990s

Well-known people born in the same decade as you, not on your birthday.

Sources: Wikidata and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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