Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris after her Mercedes collided with a pillar while fleeing paparazzi.

NASA's Mars Pathfinder mission, which had landed months earlier, continued sending back groundbreaking data on the Martian surface as its Sojourner rover explored nearby terrain.

An estimated 2.5 billion people worldwide watched the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, at Westminster Abbey, following her death in a Paris car crash days earlier.

NASA launched the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft from Cape Canaveral on a seven-year journey to study Saturn and its moon Titan.

More than 120 countries signed the Ottawa Treaty in Oslo banning the use, production, and stockpiling of anti-personnel landmines, days after Jody Williams won the Nobel Peace Prize for the campaign.

Delegates from over 150 nations adopted the Kyoto Protocol, the first international treaty setting binding targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.