Timeline Wednesday 1 January 1997

Events on Wednesday 1 January 1997 5

• 1944 – 1997 Townes Van Zandt (1944-1997) Died 1 January 1997, aged 52 Townes Van Zandt was an American singer-songwriter whose songs, including Pancho and Lefty, were covered by numerous country and folk artists. Though he achieved little mainstream commercial success in his lifetime, he is regarded as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation. He died in Smyrna, Tennessee, on New Year's Day.
• 1997 1997: Jacques Villeneuve Williams Canadian Villeneuve, son of the legendary Gilles Villeneuve, won the title after Schumacher was disqualified from the championship for deliberately colliding with him at the final race at Jerez.
• 1997 Broadway Debut in Skylight Made his Broadway debut in David Hare's Skylight, earning a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play.
• 1997 Tearing the Silence Published Tearing the Silence: On Being German in America, a nonfiction work based on interviews with over 200 German Americans born during or just after the Nazi era, exploring the shame and silence they inherited.
• 1997 – 1998 Tomorrow Never Dies and Apt Pupil Played Admiral Kelly in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and a Jewish concentration camp survivor in Bryan Singer's Apt Pupil (1998), demonstrating his range from authority figures to victims.