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Neposedi

Neposedi

Neposedi (in Cyrillic, Непоседы ) was a popular music group of children that performed in Russia from 1997. Outside of Russia, the group is little known. Both members of the group t.A.T.u. were members of Neposedi from 1997 to 1999, but Yulia (Юлия Олеговна Волкова or Yulia Olegovna Volkova) claims to have been banned for smoking drinking and swearing; Neposedi, however, deny this. Elena (Елена Сергеевна Катина or Elena Sergeevna Katina), the other member of t.A.T.u., left Neposedi soon after Volkova.

Cyrillic alphabet

The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first letters) is an alphabet used to write six natural Slavic languages (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe.

Origins

The plan of the alphabet is derived from the early Cyrillic alphabet, itself a derivative of the Glagolitic alphabet, a ninth century uncial cursive usually credited to two brothers from Thessaloniki, Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius. The glyphs in the Cyrillic alphabet are, however, mainly Byzantine Greek letters. Some of them, especially those representing sounds that did not exist in medieval Greek, retain their Glagolitic forms. Whereas it is widely accepted that the Glagolitic alphabet was invented by Saints Cyril and Methodius, the origins of the early Cyrillic alphabet are still a source of much controversy. Though it is usually attributed to Saint Clement of Ohrid, a Bulgarian scholar and disciple of Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius, the alphabet is more likely to have developed at the Preslav Literary School in north-eastern Bulgaria, where the oldest Cyrillic inscriptions have been found, dating back to the 940s. The theory is supported by the fact that the Cyrillic alphabet almost completely replaced the Glagolitic in northeastern Bulgaria as early as the end of the tenth century, whereas the Ohrid Literary School—where Saint Clement worked—continued to use the Glagolitic until the twelfth century. Among the reasons for the replacement of the Glagolithic with the Cyrillic alphabet is the greater simplicity and ease of use of the latter and its closeness with the Greek alphabet, which had been well known in the First Bulgarian Empire. There are also other theories regarding the origins of the Cyrillic alphabet, namely that the alphabet was created by Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius themselves, or that it preceded the Glagolitic alphabet, representing a "transitional" stage between Greek and Glagolitic cursive, but these have been widely disproved. Although Cyril is almost certainly not the author of the Cyrillic alphabet, his contributions to the Glagolitic and hence to the Cyrillic alphabet are still recognised, as the latter is named after him. The alphabet was disseminated along with the Old Church Slavonic liturgical language, and the alphabet used for modern Church Slavonic language in Eastern Orthodox rites still resembles early Cyrillic. However, over the following ten centuries, the Cyrillic alphabet adapted to changes in spoken language, developed regional variations to suit the features of national languages, and was subjected to academic reforms and political decrees. Today, dozens of languages in Eastern Europe and Asia are written in the Cyrillic alphabet.

Letter-forms and typography

The development of Cyrillic typography passed directly from the medieval stage to the late Baroque, without a Renaissance phase as in Western Europe. Late Medieval Cyrillic letters (still found on many icon inscriptions even today) show a marked tendency to be very tall and narrow; strokes are often shared between adjacent letters. Peter the Great, tsar of Russia, mandated the use of westernized letter forms in the early eighteenth century; over time, these were largely adopted in the other languages that use the alphabet. Thus, unlike modern Greek fonts that retained their own set of design principles (such as the placement of serifs, the shapes of stroke ends, and stroke-thickness rules), modern Cyrillic fonts are much the same as modern Latin fonts of the same font family. The development of some Cyrillic computer typefaces from Latin ones has also contributed to the visual Latinization of Cyrillic type. Cyrillic uppercase and lowercase letter-forms are not as differentiated as in Latin typography. Upright Cyrillic lowercase letters are essentially small capitals (with the exception of a few forms such as "а" and "е" which adopted western lowercase shapes), although a good-quality Cyrillic typeface will still include separate small caps glyphs. small capitals In the absence of Roman and Italic traditions, Cyrillic type fonts are properly classified as upright (Russian: pryamoi shrift) and cursive (kursivnyi). Cursive or hand-written shapes of many letters, especially the lowercase letters, are entirely different from the upright shapes. As in Latin typography, a sans-serif face may have a mechanically-sloped oblique font (naklonnyi). In Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Serbian, some cursive letters are different from those used in other languages. These cursive letter shapes are often used in upright fonts as well, especially for road signs, inscriptions, posters and the like, less so in newspapers or books. External link: [http://jankojs.tripod.com/SerbianCyr.htm Serbian Cyrillic Letters BE, GHE, DE, PE, TE]. The following table shows the differences between the upright and cursive Cyrillic letters as used in Russian. Cursive glyphs that are bound to confuse beginners (either because of an entirely different look, or because of being a false friend with an entirely different Latin character) are highlighted. Reference: Bringhurst, Robert (2002). The Elements of Typographic Style (version 2.5), pp. 262–264. Vancouver, Hartley & Marks. ISBN 0-88179-133-4.

Romanization

There are various systems for Romanization of Cyrillic text, including transliteration to convey Cyrillic spelling in Latin characters, and transcription to convey pronunciation. Standard Cyrillic-to-Latin transliteration systems include:
- Scientific transliteration, used in linguistics, is based on the Latin Croatian alphabet.
- The [http://www.eki.ee/wgrs/ Working Group on Romanization Systems] of the United Nations recommends different systems for specific languages. These are the most commonly used around the world.
- ISO 9:1995, from the International Organization for Standardization.
- America Library Association & Library of Congress (ALA-LC) [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/roman.html Romanization tables for Slavic alphabets], used in North American libraries.
- BGN/PCGN 1947 transliteration system (United States Board on Geographic Names & Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use).
- GOST 16876-71 (1983), from the Main Administration of Geodesy and Cartography of the former Soviet Union. Russian abbreviation of GOsudarstvenny STandart, "the State Standard". GOST has limited support for non-Russian alphabets. Serbian is written in both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. There is also a Latin alphabet for Belarusian, and some non-Slavic languages, such as Azerbaijani, Uzbek or Moldavian have confronted permanent Romanization after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. In Serbian there is a one-to-one correspondence between Vuk Karadžić's Serbian Cyrillic and Ljudevit Gaj's Croatian Gajica (derived from the Czech alphabet. See Serbo-Croatian language#Writing systems.) The Belarusian Latin alphabet is traditionally based on Polish and is called Łacinka, but, because of the political realities in the former USSR, Belarusian is usually Romanized by analogy to Russian. See also:
- Romanization.
- Transliteration of Russian into English.
- Romanization of Ukrainian.
- Transliteration of Bulgarian into English. External links:
- [http://transliteration.eki.ee/ Transliteration of Non-Roman Scripts], a collection of writing systems and transliteration tables, by Thomas T. Pederson. Includes PDF reference charts for many languages' transliteration systems.

As used in various languages

Sounds are indicated using IPA. These are only approximate indicators. While these languages by and large have phonemic orthographies, there are occasional exceptions—for example, Russian его (meaning him/his), which is pronounced instead of . Note that spellings of names may vary, especially Y/J/I, but also GH/G/H and ZH/J.

Slavic languages

Old Church Slavonic

Main article: early Cyrillic alphabet Old Church Slavonic is the first literary and liturgical Slavic language developed from the native language of the 9th century missionaries, Saints Cyril and Methodius. It is not the same as the modern Church Slavonic language, which is still used in some Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic church services. As the Cyrillic alphabet spread throughout the Slavic world, it was adopted for writing local languages, such as Old Ruthenian. Its adaptation to the characteristics of local languages led to the development of its many modern variants, below. Yeri (ЪІ) was originally a ligature of Yer and I. Ya (Я) was written in an archaic form called A iotified. Capital and lowercase letters were not distinguished in old manuscripts. The early Cyrillic alphabet is difficult to represent on computers. Many of the letterforms differed from modern Cyrillic and varied a great deal in manuscripts, and changed over time. Few fonts include adequate glyphs to reproduce the alphabet. Some characters are missing from the current Unicode standard altogether, including Cyrillic dotless I, iotified Yat, abbreviated Yer ("Yerok"), and many ligatures. See also: Glagolitic alphabet.

Russian

Main article: Russian alphabet Notes: # In the pre-reform Russian orthography, in Old Russian and in Old Church Slavonic the letter is called yer. Historically, the "hard sign" takes the place of a now-absent vowel, still preserved in Bulgarian. See the notes for Bulgarian. # When an iotated vowel (vowel whose sound begins with ) follows a consonant, the consonant will become palatalised (the sound will mix with the consonant), and the vowel's sound will not be heard independently. The Hard Sign will indicate that this does not happen, and the sound will appear only in front of the vowel. The Soft Sign will indicate the consonant should be palatised, but the vowel's sound will not mix with the palatalization of the consonant. The Soft Sign will also indicate that a consonant before another consonant or at the end of a word is palatised. Examples: та (); тя (); тья (); тъя (); т (); ть (). Historical letters: before 1918, there were four extra letters in use: (replaced by Ии), (Фита "Fita", replaced by Фф), (Ять "Yat", replaced by Ее), and (ижица "Izhitsa", replaced by Ии); these were eliminated by reforms of Russian orthography.

Ukrainian

Main article: Ukrainian alphabet. Ukrainian differs from Russian in the following ways:
- He (Г, г) is a voiced fricative consonant, pronounced .
- Ge (Ґ, ґ) appears after He, pronounced , i.e., like a Russian Г. It looks like He with an "upturn" pointing up from the right side of the top bar. (This letter was not officially used in the Soviet Union after 1933, so it is missing from older Cyrillic fonts.)
- E (Е, е) is pronounced .
- Ye (Є, є) appears after E, pronounced . It looks like a mirrored Russian letter Э.
- Y (И, и) is pronounced (similar to Russian Yery).
- I (І, і) appears after Y, pronounced . It looks like the Latin letter I.
- Yi (Ї, ї) appears after I, pronounced . It looks like I with a diaeresis above it (the same two dots that appear over the Russian letter Yo).
- Yot (Й, й) is the equivalent of Russian Short I.
- Shcha (Щ, щ) is pronounced .
- An apostrophe (’) serves the purpose of the Russian Hard Sign.
- Yo does not appear.

Belarusian

Belarusian is also written in a Belarusian Latin alphabet (Łacinka). Historically, Belarusian Tatars have written the language in the Arabic alphabet (Arabica), and Belarusian Jews in the Hebrew alphabet. NB: Before 1933, Ґ () was also present. Some linguists call for restoring the letter. Belarusian differs from Russian in the following ways:
- I looks like the Latin letter I (І, і). (But non-syllable short I looks the same as in Russian.)
- Between U and Ef is the letter U short (Ў, ў), which looks like U (У) with a breve and pronounced , or like the u part in diphthongs in now, low.
- Shcha (Щщ) does not appear. A combination of sh and ch (ШЧ/шч) is typically used instead.
- The Hard Sign is not used. Its purpose (removing of palatalisation) is served by an apostrophe.
- The letter combinations Дж дж and Дз дз appear after Д д in the Belarusian alphabet in some publications. These digraphs each represent one sound: Дж , Дз .
- Г represents a voiced fricative consonant.

External links

- [http://www.pravapis.org/art_belarusian_alphabet.asp Introduction to Belarusian Alphabet]
- [http://www.pravapis.org/art_lac1.asp Introduction to Belarusian Latin Script]
- [http://www.pravapis.org/art_kitab1_en.asp Belarusian language using Arabic script]
- [http://www.pravapis.org/art_letter_frequency.asp Letter Frequency in Belarusian and Russian]
- [http://www.pravapis.org/translator.asp Converter from Latin "Translit" into Cyrillics]

Bulgarian

See Bulgarian language#Alphabet. Bulgarian differs from Russian in the following ways:
- Ye (Е) is pronounced and is called "E".
- Yo (Ё) does not appear.
- The Russian letter Э does not appear.
- Shcha (Щ) is pronounced and is called "Shta".
- The Hard Sign (Ъ) is used for a vowel, (Schwa).
- Yery (Ы) does not appear.

Modern Serbian since the 19th century

Serbian can also be written with the Latin alphabet. See Serbo-Croatian language. Serbian differs from Russian in the following ways:
- Ye is pronounced . Yo does not appear. The Russian letter E does not appear.
- Between D and E is the letter Djə (Ђ, ђ), which is pronounced , and looks like Tjə, except that the loop of the H curls farther and dips downwards.
- Short I does not appear. Between I and K is the letter Jə (Ј, ј), pronounced , which looks like the Latin letter J.
- Between L and M is the letter Ljə (Љ, љ), pronounced , which looks like L and the Soft Sign smashed together.
- Between N and O is the letter Njə (Њ, њ), pronounced , which looks like N and the Soft Sign smashed together.
- Between T and U is the letter Tjə (Ћ, ћ), which is pronounced and looks like a lowercase Latin letter h with a bar. On the uppercase letter, the bar appears at the top; on the lowercase letter, the bar crosses the top half of the vertical line.
- Between Ch and Sh is the letter Dzhə (Џ, џ), pronounced , which looks like Ts but with the downturn moved from the right side of the bottom bar to the middle of the bottom bar.
- Sh is the last letter; the rest do not appear.

Macedonian

Macedonian differs from Serbian in the following ways:
- Between Ze and I is the letter Dze (Ѕ, ѕ), pronounced , which looks like the Latin letter S.
- Djerv is replaced by Gje (Ѓ, ѓ), pronounced , which looks like Ghe with an acute accent (´).
- Tjerv is replaced by Kja (Ќ, ќ), pronounced , which looks like Ka with an acute accent (´).

Non-Slavic languages

These alphabets are generally modelled after Russian, but often bear striking differences, particularly when adapted for Caucasian languages. The first few of them were generated by Orthodox missionaries for the Finnic and Turkic peoples of Idel-Ural (Mari, Udmurt, Mordva, Chuvash, Kerashen Tatars) in 1870s. Later such alphabets were created for some of the Siberian and Caucasus peoples who had recently converted to Christianity. In the 1930s, some of those alphabets were switched to the Uniform Turkic Alphabet. All of the peoples of the former Soviet Union who had been using an Arabic or other Asian script (Mongolian script, etc.) also adopted Cyrillic alphabets, and during the Great Purge in late 1930s, all of the Roman-based alphabets of the peoples of then Soviet Union were switched over to Cyrillic as well. The Abkhazian alphabet was switched to Georgian script, but after the death of Stalin Abkhaz also adopted Cyrillic. The last language to adopt Cyrillic was the Gagauz language, which had used Greek script before. In Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, the use of Cyrillic to represent local languages has often been a politically controversial issue after the collapse of the Soviet Union, as it evokes the era of Soviet rule (see Russification). Some of Russia's languages have also tried to drop Cyrillic, but the move was halted under Russian law (see Tatar alphabet). A number of languages have switched from Cyrillic to other orthographies—either Roman-based or returning to a former script. Unlike the Roman alphabet, which is usually adapted to different languages by using additions to existing letters such as accents, umlauts, tildes and cedillas, the Cyrillic alphabet is usually adapted by the creation of entirely new letter shapes. In some alphabets invented in the 19th century, such as Mari, Udmurt and Chuvash, umlauts and breves also were used.

Abkhaz

Abkhaz is a Caucasian language, spoken in the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia, Georgia. See Abkhaz alphabet.

Turkic languages

Chuvash

The Cyrillic alphabet is used for the Chuvash language since the late 19th century, with some changes in 1938.

Kazakh

Kazakh is also written with the Latin alphabet (in Turkey and now in Kazakhstan as well), and modified Arabic alphabet (in China, Iran and Afghanistan).
- Ә ә =
- Ғ ғ = (uvular fricative)
- Қ қ = (uvular plosive)
- Ң ң =
- Ө ө =
- У у = , ,
- Ұ ұ =
- Ү ү =
- Һ һ =
- İ і = The Cyrillic letters Вв, Ёё, Цц, Чч, Щщ, Ъъ, Ьь and Ээ are not used in native Kazakh words, but only for Russian loans.

Kyrgyz

Kyrgyz has also been written in Latin and in Arabic.
- Ң ң =
- Ү ү =
- Ө ө =

Moldovan

The Moldovan language used the Cyrillic alphabet between 1946 and 1989. Nowadays, this alphabet is still official in the breakaway republic of Transnistria.

Mongolian

The Mongolic languages include Khalkha (in Mongolia), Buryat (around Lake Baikal) and Kalmyk (northwest of the Caspian Sea). Khalkha Mongolian is also written with the Mongol vertical alphabet, which is being slowly reintroduced in Mongolia.

Khalkha

- В в =
- Е е = ,
- Ё ё =
- Ж ж =
- З з =
- Н н = ,
- Ө ө =
- Ү ү =
- Ы ы = (after a hard consonant)
- Ь ь = (extra short)
- Ю ю = , The Cyrillic letters Кк, Фф and Щщ are not used in native Mongolian words, but only for Russian loans.

Buryat

The Buryat (буряад) Cyrillic alphabet is similar to the Khalkha above, but Ьь indicates palatalization as in Russian. Buryat does not use Вв, Кк, Фф, Цц, Чч, Щщ or Ъъ in its native words.
- Е е = ,
- Ё ё =
- Ж ж =
- Н н = ,
- Ө ө =
- Ү ү =
- Һ һ =
- Ы ы = ,
- Ю ю = ,

Kalmyk

The Kalmyk (хальмг) Cyrillic alphabet is similar to the Khalkha, but the letters Ээ, Юю and Яя appear only word-initially. In Kalmyk, long vowels are written double in the first syllable (нөөрин), but single in syllables after the first. Short vowels are omitted altogether in syllables after the first syllable (хальмг = xaʎmag).
- Ә ә =
- В в =
- Һ һ =
- Е е = ,
- Җ җ =
- Ң ң =
- Ө ө =
- Ү ү =

Cyrillic in Unicode

Main article: Cyrillic characters in Unicode. In Unicode, the Cyrillic block extends from U+0400 to U+052F. The characters in the range U+0400 to U+045F are basically the characters from ISO 8859-5 moved upward by 864 positions. The characters in the range U+0460 to U+0489 are historic letters, not used now. The characters in the range U+048A to U+052F are additional letters for various languages that are written with Cyrillic script. Unicode does not include accented Cyrillic letters, but they can be combined by adding U+0301 ("combining acute accent") after the accented vowel (e.g., ы́ э́ ю́ я́). Some languages (e.g., modern Church Slavonic) still are not fully supported.

External links

- [http://toma.dnsalias.net/phonetic Bulgarian Online Transliterator]
- [http://www.omniglot.com/writing/cyrillic.htm Cyrillic alphabet at omniglot.com]
- [http://www.terena.nl/library/multiling/euroml/mlcs5-cyr.txt A Survey of The Use of Modern Cyrillic Script], including the complete required repertoire of graphic characters, by J. W. van Wingen.
- [http://www.peoples.org.ru/eng_index.html Minority Languages of Russia on the Net], a list of resources.
- [http://www.easybulgarian.com/members/u0a_sample.html Bulgarian Cyrillic Alphabet audio]
- [http://www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/translit.htm Information on Cyrillic transliteration] and the handwritten script form of Cyrillic.
- [http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0400.pdf Unicode Code Charts "Cyrillic"] (PDF)
- [http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0500.pdf Unicode Code Charts "Cyrillic Supplement"] (PDF)
- [http://czyborra.com/charsets/cyrillic.html The Cyrillic Charset Soup], Roman Czyborra's overview and history of Cyrillic charsets.
- [https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=561 The Russ Key Mozilla Firefox extension], this extension allows typing in Russian and other languages and transliterating HTML text into Cyrillic. Category:Cyrillic alphabet als:Kyrillisches Alphabet ko:키릴 문자 ja:キリル文字 th:อักษรซีริลลิก

1997

1997 (MCMXCVII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar.

Designations

International organizations, including the United Nations, designated 1997 as the International Year of the Reef.

Events

January

- January 5 - NBC's Today Show Bryant Gumbel signs off for the last time
- January 8 - Mister Rogers receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
- January 9 - Yachtsman Tony Bullimore found alive five days after his boat capsized in the Southern Ocean
- January 16 - Ennis Cosby, the only son of actor Bill Cosby, is killed by a gunman while changing a flat tire in Los Angeles, California
- January 18 - In north west Rwanda, Hutu militia members kill 3 Spanish aid workers, 3 soldiers and seriously wound one other.
- January 19 - Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years and joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli-controlled West Bank city
- January 20 - Bill Clinton starts his second term as President of the United States
- January 21 - Newt Gingrich becomes the first leader of the United States House of Representatives to be internally disciplined for ethical misconduct
- January 22 - Madeleine Albright becomes the first female secretary of state after confirmation by the United States Senate.
- January 23 - Mir Aimal Kasi receives the death sentence for a 1993 assault rifle attack outside CIA headquarters that killed two and wounded three others.
- January 27 - It is revealed that French museums had nearly 2,000 pieces of art that were stolen by Nazis.
- January 28 - Clive Davis receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

February

- February 4
- O. J. Simpson is found in civil court to be liable for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Simpson is ordered to pay $35,000,000 in damages to the families of the two victims
- On their way to Lebanon two Israeli troop-transport helicopters collide killing 73
- After at first contesting the results, Serbian President Slobodan Milošević recognizes opposition victories in the November 1996 elections
- February 5
- The so-called "Big Three" banks in Switzerland announce the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families
- Morgan Stanley and Dean Witter investment banks announce a $10 billion merger.
- February 6 - British Diane Blood wins the right to use the sperm of her dead husband to have a child
- February 9 - The Simpsons surpasses The Flintstones as the longest-running prime-time animated series.
- February 10 - The United States Army suspends Sgt. Major Gene McKinney, its top-ranking enlisted soldier, after hearing allegations of sexual misconduct
- February 10 - Australian newspapers publish stories that the government of Papua New Guinea has brought mercenaries onto Bougainville - the Sandline affair goes public
- February 11 - Bill Parcells becomes head coach of New York Jets.
- February 13
- Tune-up and repair work on the Hubble Space Telescope is started by astronauts from the Space Shuttle Discovery
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 7,000 for the first time gaining 60.81 to 7,022.44.
- February 19 - The last of the People's Republic of China's major revolutionaries, Deng Xiaoping dies at 92, this was followed by weeks of mourning for the leader.
- February 22 - In Roslin, Scotland, scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly had been successfully cloned and was born in July 1996.
- February 23 - A large fire occurred in the Russian Space station, Mir.

March

- March 1 - Osaka Dome opens in Chiyozaki, Nishi-ku, Osaka, Japan.
- March 4 - United States President Bill Clinton bars federal funding for any research on human cloning.
- March 6 - Picasso's Tete de Femme is stolen from a London gallery (it was recovered a week later).
- March 6 - In Sri Lanka, Tamil Tigers overrun a military base and kill more than 200
- March 9 - Rap legend Notorious B.I.G. is murdered in Los Angeles, just six months after the killing of Tupac Shakur.
- March 10 - The main office of Fuji TV moves from Kawadacho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan to Odaiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
- March 11 - An explosion at a nuclear waste reprocessing plant in Japan exposes 35 workers to low-level radioactive contamination in the worst nuclear accident in Japan's history.
- March 12 - Mikail Markhasev is arrested in Los Angeles, California and charged with shooting Bill Cosby's 27-year-old son, Ennis Cosby.
- March 13 - India's Missionaries of Charity chooses Sister Nirmala to succeed Mother Teresa as its leader.
- March 16 - Sandline affair - On Bougainville, soldiers of commander Jerry Singirok arrest Tim Spicer and his mercenaries of the Sandline International
- March 18 - The tail of a Russian An-24 charter plane breaks off while en-route to Turkey causing the plane to crash killing all 50 on board and later the grounding of all An-24s.
- March 21 - In Zaire, Etienne Tshiksekedi is appointed new prime minister - he ejects supporters of Mobutu Sese Seko from his cabinet
- March 21 - Mercenaries of Sandline International withdraw from Papua New Guinea
- March 22 - 14 year, 10 month old Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest champion of the women's world figure skating competition.
- March 24 - Roberto Sanchez Vilella, the second Democratically Elected Governor of Puerto Rico, dies at age 84.
- March 26
- Thirty-nine bodies found in Heaven's Gate cult suicide.
- Survey of a claimed gold site of Bre-X Minerals in Indonesia reveals it is worthless; Bre-X complains and accuses Internet rumours.
- March 26 - Julius Chan resigns as a prime minister of Papua New Guinea - the Sandline affair ends.
- March 30 - The UK's fifth terrestrial television channel, Channel Five begins broadcasting at 6pm

April

- April 3 - Thalit massacre begins in Algeria; all but 1 of the 53 inhabitants of Thalit are killed by guerrillas.
- April 11 - Fire damages Turin Cathedral in Italy
- April 14
- Fire breaks out in a pilgrim camp on the Plain of Mena, seven miles form Mecca - 343 dead
- Former SS captain Erich Priebke is retried. On July 22 he is sentenced for five years in prison
- April 16 - Houston, Texas socialite Doris McGowen Beck Angleton is murdered in her River Oaks home. Roger Nicholas Angleton admits to the crime in the suicide note. Despite being found innocent of the crime by a Texas jury, he later gets arrested by the Department of Justice for similar charges.
- April 18 - The Red River of the North breaks through dikes and floods Grand Forks, North Dakota and East Grand Forks, Minnesota, causing 2 billion USD in damage.
- April 21 - First space burial, carrying the remains of 24 people on a Pegasus rocket into earth orbit.
- April 22 - Haouch Khemisti massacre in Algeria; 93 villagers killed.
- April 22 - A 126-day hostage crisis at the residence of the Japanese ambassador in Lima, Peru ends after government commandos storm and capture the building rescuing 71 hostages. One hostage dies of a heart attack, two soldiers are killed from rebel fire and all 14 Tupac Amaru rebels are slain
- April 22 - France supports new transitional government for Zaire, withdrawing its support of Zaire
- April 22 - In Lima, Peru, after four-month standoff, government troops storm the Japanese ambassador's residence - they release 71 hostages and kill one hostage and 14 captors
- April 23 - Omaria massacre in Algeria; 42 villagers killed.
- April 27 - Andrew Cunanan murders Jerffrey Trail, beginning a murder spree that will last until July and terminate with the murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace.
- April 31 - Mobutu and Laurent Kabila meet aboard South African warship Outenigus with Nelson Mandela and United Nations envoy Mohammad Sahnoun. They do not reach agreement

May

Mohammad Sahnoun on May 2, 1997]]
- May 1
- Tasmania becomes the last state in Australia to decriminalize homosexuality
- The UK's Labour Party end 18 years of Conservative rule in the 1997 UK general election
- HM Prison Pentridge in Melbourne, Australia is officially closed
- May 2 - Tony Blair appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- May 10 - An earthquake near Ardekul in northeastern Iran kills at least 2,400
- May 11 - IBM's Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, the first time a computer beat a chess World champion in a match.
- May 12
- Barnes and Noble Inc. filed a lawsuit against Amazon.com, a day before Amazon launched its initial public offering.
- The Russian-Chechen Peace Treaty signed.
- May 14 - The Star Alliance is formed between Air Canada, Lufthansa, SAS, Thai Airways International and United Airlines
- May 14 - Laurent Kabila does not attend a second meeting with Mobutu
- May 16- Mobutu Sese Seko leaves Kinshasa (eventually settles in Morocco)
- May 16 - US President Bill Clinton issues a formal apology to the surviving victims of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and their families, 25 years after the 40 year "study" was exposed by reporter Jean Heller.
- May 17 - Troops of Laurent Kabila march into Kinshasa
- May 22 - Women in the military: Kelly Flinn, US Air Force's first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepts a general discharge in order to avoid a court martial
- May 25
- Strom Thurmond becomes the longest serving member in the history of the United States Senate (41 years and 10 months)
- A military coup in Sierra Leone replaces President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah with Major Johnny Paul Koromah.
- May 27 - A strong tornado hits in Jarrell, Texas killing 27 people. It was the second deadliest tornado of the 1990s (see Jarrell Tornado).
- May 31 - Official opening of the Confederation Bridge, the longest bridge spanning ice covered waters.

June

- June - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi military escorts on board an UNSCOM helicopter try to physically prevent the UNSCOM pilot from flying the helicopter in the direction of its planned destination, threatening the safety of the aircraft and their crews.
- June 2 - Timothy McVeigh is convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- June 5 - Kim Hyun Chul, son of Kim Young Sam, president of South Korea, is charged with bribery and corruption related to the awarding of government contracts
- June 6 - Melissa Drexler kills her newborn baby in a toilet
- June 7 - A computer user known as "_eci" published his Microsoft C source code on a Windows 95 and Windows NT exploit, which would later become WinNuke. The source code gets wide distribution across the internet, and Microsoft is forced to release a security patch.
- June 7 - The Detroit Red Wings sweep the Philadelphia Flyers in 4 games in the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals.
- June 10 - Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot orders the killing of his defense chief Son Sen and 11 of Sen's family members before Pol Pot flees his northern stronghold (the news did not reach outside Cambodia for three days)
- June 11 - The British House of Commons votes for a total ban on handguns
- June 12 - The United States Department of the Treasury unveils a new $50 bill meant to be more counterfeit-resistant
- June 13 - A jury sentences Timothy McVeigh to the death penalty for his part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
- June 16 - Dairat Labguer massacre in Algeria; some 50 people killed.
- June 19 - Fast food chain McDonald's won a partial victory in its libel trial, known as the McLibel case, against two environmental campaigners. The judge decided it was true that McDonald's targeted its advertising at children, who pestered their parents into visiting company's restaurants.
- June 25 - An unmanned Progress spacecraft collided with the Russian Space station, Mir.

July

Mir.]]
- July 1 - The United Kingdom hands sovereignty of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China
- July 4 - NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.
- July 5 - In Cambodia, Hun Sen of the Cambodian People's Party overthrows Norodom Ranariddh in a coup
- July 8 - Mayo Clinic researchers warn that the dieting-drug "fen-phen" can cause severe heart and lung damage
- July 8 - NATO invites the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to join the alliance in 1999
- July 10 - In London, scientists report their DNA analysis findings from a Neanderthal skeleton which support the out of Africa theory of human evolution placing an "African Eve" at 100,000 to 200,000 years ago
- July 13 - The remains of Che Guevara are returned to Cuba for burial alongside some of his other comrades
- July 15 - Serial killer Andrew Phillip Cunanan shoots fashion designer Gianni Versace to death outside Versace's Miami, Florida residence.
- July 16 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 63.17 to close at 8,038.88. It is the Dow's first close above 8,000. The Dow has doubled its value in 30 months.
- July 17 - The F.W. Woolworth Company closes after 117 years in business
- July 21 - The fully restored USS Constitution (aka "Old Ironsides") celebrates her 200th birthday by setting sail for the first time in 116 years
- July 22 - The second Blue Water Bridge opens between Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario
- July 23 - Digital Equipment Corporation files antitrust charges against chipmaker Intel
- July 25 - K.R. Narayanan is sworn-in as India's 10th president and the first member of the Dalits caste to hold this office.
- July 27 - Si Zerrouk massacre in Algeria; about 50 people killed.

August

- August 1 - Boeing and McDonnell Douglas complete merger.
- August 2 - Australian ski instructor Stuart Diver is rescued as the sole survivor from the Thredbo landslide in New South Wales, Australia, in which 18 lives were lost.
- August 3 - Oued El-Had and Mezouara massacre in Algeria; 40-76 villagers killed.
- August 4
- 185,000 Teamsters union United Parcel Service drivers walk off the job.
- The first chapter of the manga One Piece is printed in Japan's Shonen Jump
- August 6 - Microsoft buys a $150 million share of financially troubled Apple Computer.
- August 13 - The animated American TV series South Park is aired.
- August 13 - In Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Cruzeiro wins Sporting Cristal of Peru by 1-0 and are Copa Libertadores de América champions by second time.
- August 20 - Souhane massacre in Algeria; over 60 people killed, 15 kidnapped.
- August 26 - Beni-Ali massacre in Algeria; 60-100 people killed.
- August 26 - The Independent International Commission on Decommissioning set up in Northern Ireland, as part of the peace process.
- August 29 - Rais massacre in Algeria; over 98 (and possibly up to 400) people killed.
- August 29 - Christopher Maier of Lexington, Kentucky is bludgeoned to death by serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz. Angel also rapes and beats Christopher's girlfriend, who survives. This is the first of a string of murders that Angel commits.
- August 31 - Diana, Princess of Wales is taken to a hospital after a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris. She is pronounced dead at 4:00 the next morning.

September

Paris from Kensington Palace.]]
- September 3 - Arizona Governor Fife Symington is convicted for various crimes tied to his real estate business, effectively forcing him out of office.
- September 4 - In Lorain, Ohio, the last Ford Thunderbird for three years rolls off the assembly line.
- September 5
- Beni-Messous massacre in Algeria; over 87 killed.
- The IOC picks Athens to be the host city for the 2004 Summer Olympics
- Death of Mother Teresa
- September 6 - The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales takes place at Westminster Abbey, watched by over 1 billion people worldwide.
- September 7 - First test flight of the F/A-22 Raptor.
- September 11 - Scotland votes to create its own Parliament after 290 years of union with England
- September 13 - Iraq disarmament crisis: An Iraqi military officer attacks an UNSCOM weapons inspector on board an UNSCOM helicopter while the inspector was attempting to take photographs of unauthorized movement of Iraqi vehicles inside a site designated for inspection
- September 15 - Norwegian parliamentary election, 1997
- September 17 - Iraq disarmament crisis: While waiting for access to a site, UNSCOM inspectors witness and videotape Iraqi guards moving files, burning documents, and dumping waste cans into a nearby river
- September 18 - Wales votes in favour of devolution and the formation of a National Assembly
- September 19 - Guelb El-Kebir massacre in Algeria; 53 killed.
- September 21 - The AIS, the FIS' armed wing, declares a unilateral ceasefire in Algeria.
- September 22 - Bentalha massacre in Algeria; over 200 villagers killed.
- September 25 - Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM inspector Dr. Diane Seaman catches several Iraqi men sneaking out the back door of an inspection site with log books for the creation of prohibited bacteria and chemicals.
- September 26 - 234 die in air crash in Indonesia. Probable cause is the smoke rising from numerous forest fires in the area

October

- October 1 - The main office of Kansai TV moves from Nishi-Temma, Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan to Ogimachi, Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan. Luke Woodham walked into Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi and opened fire killing two girls, after earlier in the morning killing his mother.
- October 2 – UK scientists Moira Bruce and John Collinge with their colleagues independently show that the new variant form of the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is the same disease as Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or "mad-cow disease"
- October 4 - One million men gather for Promise Keepers' Stand in the Gap event in Washington DC.
- October 12 - Sidi Daoud massacre in Algeria; 43 killed at a fake roadblock.
- October 15 - Andy Green sets the first supersonic land speed record for the ThrustSSC team, led by Richard Noble of the United Kingdom. ThrustSSC goes through the flying mile course at Black Rock Desert, Nevada at an average speed of 1,227.985 km/h (763.035 mph).
- October 17 - The remains of Che Guevara were laid to rest with full military honours in a specially built mausoleum in the city of Santa Clara, where he had won the decisive battle of the Cuban Revolution thirty-nine years before
- October 27 - Stock markets around the world crash because of a global economic crisis scare. The Dow Jones Industrial Average follows suit and plummets 554.26, or 7.18%, to 7,161.15. The points loss exceeds the loss from Black Monday. Officials at the New York Stock Exchange for the first time invoke the "circuit breaker" rule to stop trading (this was a very controversial move and prompted a quick change in the rule; trading stops will only occur when the DJIA drops at least 10 or 20 percent) (see October 27, 1997 mini-crash).
- October 28 - The bulls come running back as the Dow Jones Industrial Average gains a record 337.17 to 7,498.32. One billion shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange for the first time ever.
- October 29 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq says it will begin shooting down U-2 surveillance planes being used by UNSCOM inspectors
- October 30 - British au pair Louise Woodward is found guilty of the baby-shaking death of 8-month-old Matthew Eappen.

November

- November 3 - In France, striking truck drivers blockade ports during a dispute over pay
- November 10
- Telcoms WorldCom and MCI Communications announce a US$37 billion merger to form MCI WorldCom (the largest merger in US history).
- A jury in Fairfax, Virginia finds Mir Aimal Kasi guilty of the murder of two CIA employees in 1993.
- November 11
- Mary McAleese is elected the eighth President of Ireland
- The last Pentium 586 MMX cpu (233 MHz) made. (until the Pentium II)
- November 12 - Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
- November 16 - After nearly 18 years of incarceration, the People's Republic of China releases Wei Jingsheng, a pro-democracy dissident, from jail for medical reasons.
- November 17 - In Luxor, Egypt, 62 people are killed by 6 Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut (police killed the assailants)
- November 19 - In Carlisle, Iowa, Bobbi McCaughey gives birth to septuplets in the second known case where all seven babies were born alive.
- November 20 - Boeing 727 of Portuguese TAP airline crashes just before landing in Funchal airport in Madeira - 123 dead
- November 27 - Second Souhane massacre in Algeria; 25 killed.

December

- December 1 - Michel Carneal fires at students in West Paducah, Ky - 3 dead, five wounded.
- December 3 - In Ottawa, Canada, representatives from 121 countries sign a treaty prohibiting manufacture and deployment of anti-personnel landmines. The United States, People's Republic of China, and Russia do not sign the treaty, however.
- December 16 - An episode of Pokemon (called Electric Soldier Porygon) in Japan caused 685 children to have epileptic seizures.
- December 24 - Sid El-Antri massacre in Algeria; 50-100 villagers killed.
- December 27 - Loyalist paramilitary leader Billy Wright is assassinated in Northern Ireland, inside Long Kesh prison.
- December 29 - Hong Kong begins to kill all the chickens within its territory (1.25 million) to stop the spread of a potentially deadly influenza strain.
- December 30 - In the worst incident in Algeria's insurgency, the Wilaya of Relizane massacres of December 30, 1997, 400 people are killed from four villages in the wilaya of Relizane: Khrouba (176 deaths), Sahnoun (113 deaths), El-Abadel (73 deaths), and Ouled-Tayeb (50 deaths). Six days later they would be followed by another set of local massacres.
- December 31 - After 26 years in operation, Opryland USA theme park in Nashville, Tennessee closed to the public.

Unknown Dates

- Miami police arrests Russian criminal who tries to sell a Russian submarine to the Columbian drug cartels
- The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger in December 1997.
- The Toyota Prius comes to showrooms, only in Japan. The Prius was the first hybrid vehicle to go into full production. The Prius would come to US showrooms in 2000.

Fictional Events

- August 29: Judgment Day in the Schwarzenegger movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
- October 1: The "end day" in the SNK game, Crystalis for the NES and Game Boy Color.

Births

Deaths

January-May

- January 10 - Sheldon Leonard, American producer, actor, director
- January 10 - Alexander R. Todd, Baron Todd, Scottish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1907)
- January 12 - Charles B. Huggins, Canadian-born cancer researcher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1901)
- January 17 - Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer (b. 1906)
- January 19 - James Dickey, American poet and novelist (b. 1923)
- January 20 - Curt Flood, American baseball player (b. 1938)
- January 21 - Colonel Tom Parker, Dutch-born celebrity manager (b. 1909)
- February 1 - Herb Caen, American newspaper columnist (b. 1916)
- February 2 - Chico Science, Brazilian musician (automobile accident) (b. 1967)
- February 5 - Pamela Harriman, U.S. Ambassador to France (b. 1920)
- February 11 - Don Porter, American actor (b. 1912)
- February 19 - Deng Xiaoping, leader of the People's Republic of China (b. 1904)
- March 6 - Cheddi Jagan, President of Guyana (b. 1918)
- March 7 - Edward Mills Purcell, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1912)
- March 7 - Martin Kippenberger, German artist (b. 1953)
- March 9 - The Notorious B.I.G., American rapper (b. 1972)
- March 10 - La Vern Baker, American singer (b. 1929)
- March 14 - Fred Zinnemann, Austrian-born director (b. 1907)
- March 19 - Willem de Kooning, Dutch artist (b. 1904)
- March 20 - Tony Zale, American boxer (b. 1913)
- April 5 - Allen Ginsberg, American poet (b. 1926)
- April 7 - Witto Aloma, Cuban Major League Baseball player (b. 1923)
- April 7 - Georgi Shonin, cosmonaut (b. 1935)
- April 12 - George Wald, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1903)
- April 16 - Doris Angleton, American socialite (b. t.A.T.u. (Russian: Тату) is a Russian pop music duo consisting of Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova. The two girls were marketed as a lesbian couple, but their sexual orientation was the subject of much speculation, until in December 2003 they admitted on Russian television that they were not in a lesbian relationship together and it had been exploited as a marketing strategy devised by Ivan Shapovalov. They are notorious for shocking the public and trying to break taboos. __TOC__ The members of the duo are:
- Elena Sergeevna Katina (Елена Сергеевна Катина), or Lena Katina, born October 4, 1984, in Moscow, Russia. She is the youngest of three children born to Sergey Vasilyevich Katin, a renowned Russian pop music author, and Inessa Katina.
- Yulia Olegovna Volkova (Юлия Олеговна Волкова), or Julia Volkova, born February 20, 1985, also in Moscow, Russia, is the only daughter of Oleg Volkov and Larisa Volkova.

Origins

The original t.A.T.u. concept was developed by a former Russian child psychologist and marketing executive, Ivan Shapovalov (Иван Шаповалов), who has become a record producer. Katina and Volkova knew each other before starting t.A.T.u.; both sang in the popular Russian children's pop chorus, Neposedi (Непоседы), from which Volkova was allegedly banned for "inappropriate behaviour" (Volkova once implied that it was because she had molested the other girls in the chorus; later she said it was for smoking, drinking and swearing. Neposedi denied that she was expelled). Not long after Volkova left Neposedi, Katina did the same. Shapovalov originally chose Lena Katina at a casting in 1999 to sing a song about the war in Yugoslavia. Later, he decided to form a duo and added Yulia Volkova (who had been in the same casting as Katina). Both were 14 at the time. Shapovalov has claimed that the idea for t.A.T.u.'s image was his. Elena Kiper, Shapovalov's former lover and originally deputy manager of t.A.T.u., says that the idea was hers. She fell asleep at her dentist's, had a dream in which she kissed another woman and awoke remembering the words "Ya soshla s uma" (meaning "I've lost my mind"), the title of the song she then wrote the lyrics for that became t.A.T.u.'s first single. Kiper has also stated that their ideas for the group's image were influenced by the 1998 Swedish film Fucking Åmål, directed by Lukas Moodysson. Shapovalov and Kiper later fell out over his non-payment of her royalties. Originally, t.A.T.u. was named ТАТУ (Tatu). When they became popular outside Russia and it was discovered that there was already an Australian band with that name, the spelling was changed to t.A.T.u. outside Russia. It is still occasionally written in the Latin alphabet as Taty or Tatu. The original name comes from a collocation of "ta" and "tu" [pronounced 'too'], two forms of a Russian feminine demonstrative pronoun "ta" in its nominative and accusative cases. It can be translated as "This female [does something to] that female."

Public image and international success

accusative case The band is known for acting irreverently and having an insolent attitude towards the press. "People either love us or hate us", said Katina, "but no one ignores us". More than one of their videos have been banned; for instance, the video for the hit song "Prostye Dvizheniya (Простые движения)/Simple Motions" shows how simple moves are always in our lives, like drinking water, reading a book (which is what Katina does during most of the video) or masturbating (which is what Volkova does during most of the video). The video clip for t.A.T.u.'s first single (Ya Soshla S Uma (Я сошла с ума)/I've Lost My Mind) - the original version of their English song "All the Things She Said" - was banned by MTV Russia (after unbanning it won People's Choice Award at MTV's Russian Awards) and by the BBC and others. It shows them dressed up in high school outfits (similar to the Catholic school uniforms that are common fetish items), behind prison bars, screaming out in anguish, begging for their parents' forgiveness, trying to shake the bars, and kissing passionately. At the other side of the bars, older people and peers stare at them in disapproval. At the end of the video, Katina and Volkova turn around and leave hand in hand. The closing shot shows that the disapproving crowd are the ones lined up behind the barbed-wire fence, in a way, imprisoned in their own minds. After enormous success in Russia in 2000 and 2001, in 2002 t.A.T.u. released 200km/h in the Wrong Lane, an English-language version (co-produced by Trevor Horn) of their Russian debut album. The debut English-language album sold over five million copies around the world. In fact, their single "All the Things She Said" was used as the entrance theme of WWE Diva Victoria from late 2002 to early 2004. In order to play up the lesbian angle of their image, most of their performances usually included at least one instance in which they kissed passionately. This act was usually censored whenever the duo appeared on American television programs. The lyrics and videos of their songs suggested that the girls were in a lesbian relationship. Sometimes in interviews they stated that they were in real life in a lesbian relationship, often giving outrageous details of their supposed sex life, but more usually, questions in that direction were evaded by statements, such as "Don't be afraid to be yourself, don't be afraid to love", or that they did not like labels. t.A.T.u. represented Russia at the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest, considered the favourites to win. Volkova did not take part in rehearsals because of inflamed vocal cords and their performance turned out to be rough at first, but ended fairly well. t.A.T.u. would have won Eurovision if not for the Irish telephone votes not being counted,so they left Eurovision as 3rd officialy. And later stated "Eurovision is for beginners...since we're famous everywhere, we didn't need to win, we only did that because our country asked us"

Revelation, schism, and future

In December 2003, "The Anatomy of t.A.T.u.", made by the documentary film director Vitaly Mansky, appeared on the Russian television channel STS. In it, the girls stated that they were not lovers, never had been, and that the lesbian image had been about marketing. Katina said that she believed that what she was doing in t.A.T.u. was a big sin and she frequently saw a priest about it. Volkova said that before t.A.T.u. she had never thought about girls in that way, but during t.A.T.u. she had fallen in love with another girl, although the physical aspect had not developed beyond kissing. Volkova also stated that she had had an abortion earlier that year, as had been reported in some newspapers in February 2003, and that she had once taken heroin for a bet. In spring 2004, Katina and Volkova left their manager Ivan Shapovalov while they were supposed to be recording their second album because they believed that the quality of the material was too low. They had a contract with Universal Music Russia, but their new manager Boris Rensky (who was formerly Shapovalov's business partner) negotiated a new contract with Universal Music International. The new contract is for 4 more albums (which includes Dangerous and Moving). In May 2004, Volkova announced that she was pregnant with long-time boyfriend Pavel (Pasha) Sidorov's child. She gave birth to her first child, Viktoria, on September 23, 2004. Volkova split up with Sidorov in spring 2005. Volkova didn't stay single for long - while recording a new album for t.A.T.u. she started going out with a businessman living in Los Angeles named Tigran, who is of Russian and Caucasian descent. On June 3, 2005, t.A.T.u. performed a brand new song, Обезъянка-Ноль (Obezyanka Nol'/Monkey Zero) at the Russian Muz-TV Awards. This song is from t.A.T.u.'s second Russian album, Люди-Инвалиды (Lyudi-Invalidi/Handicapped People). t.A.T.u.'s second English album, Dangerous and Moving, was released on October 11, 2005 in North America, and on October 10, 2005 in the rest of the world. The first single from the Dangerous and Moving album is All About Us, written by Billy Steinberg and The Veronicas - a Duo of twin sisters, Jess and Lisa, from Brisbane Australia. Billy Steinberg is the man responsible for many 80s hits, including Madonna's Like A Virgin and the Bangles' Eternal Flame. The video for the single was shot by Hollywood director James Cox (Wonderland) and can be viewed at the official English website. The album also features Sting playing bass on the track Friend or Foe, which was written by the Eurythmics' Dave Stewart. The second single was initially going to be Dangerous and Moving but there was a change of plans. Instead, Friend or Foe became t.A.T.u's second single and Dangerous and Moving was bumped to be used as a third or maybe even fourth single. The video was filmed in Beverly Hills, LA by James Cox. The video was shot in Bronson Caves, the same caves used in the original Batman series and features Yulia showing her abilities on the piano.

Quotes

"I think parents will understand that we don't give a fuck." - Lena Katina in t.A.T.u.'s behind-the-scenes interview Yulia + Lena are t.A.T.u.. "We were not lesbians, but we were never hetero either" - Yulia Volkova, 2005 "I'm just bisexual, I like to change things up!" - Yulia Volkova, German interview, 2005 "We never said we were lesbians, but everyone said that we were and now everyone said that we lied. We simply love each other." - Lena Katina, 2005 "In Russia we look after the blind and the elderly but we don't send them to Eurovision, that seems to be the case in Germany!" - Yulia Volkova on 2003 Eurovison's German entry. "She looks like she's worn out more men in her life than we have vodka bottles. We would push her straight off the edge of the bed." - Lena Katina also on 2003 Eurovision's German entry. "We didn't tell that! That was gossip. Fucking gossip!" - Lena Katina on the Frank Skinner show (September 29, 2005) when being confronted about the "elderly" quote. ""Our bond is too strong to break. The title Dangerous & Moving is as there are a lot of fake people, and it is dangerous for real people - like me and Julia - to talk and deal with them. But Julia has me and I have Julia. Knowing that, we can survive anything." - Lena Katina on the Album Dangerous and Moving. "She has two mothers." - Lena Katina on Yulia Volkova's daughter, Vika. VIVA LIVE 2005. "What do you like about Julia's body? - interviewer "Everything - Lena, TVBSG, Mexico 2005

International Discography

Albums

- 2002 200 по встречной
- 2002 200 по встречной (2nd Edition)
- 2002 200km/h in the Wrong Lane #13 US (Gold), #12 UK (Gold), #13 Australia
- 2003 Remixes
- 2005 Dangerous and Moving #78 UK, #15 Italy, #6 Greece, #10 Japan, #28 Europe, #1 Russia
- 2005 Люди Инвалиды #1 Russia
Singles
From 200 по встречной:
- 2000 "Я сошла с ума (I've Lost My Mind)"
- 2001 "Нас не догонят (They Won't Catch Us)"
- 2001 "30 Минут (30 Minutes)" From 200km/h in the Wrong Lane:
- 2002 "All The Things She Said"
- 2003 "Not Gonna Get Us"
- 2003 "30 Minutes" (promo only)
- 2003 "How Soon Is Now?" From Eurovision 2003:
- 2003 "Не верь, не бойся, не проси (Don't Trust, Don't Fear, Don't Ask)" From Dangerous And Moving:
- 2005 "All About Us"
- 2005/6 "Friend or Foe" From Люди Инвалиды:
- 2005 "Люди Инвалиды" Unreleased:
- 2002 "Простые движения (Simple Motions)"
See also

- List of number-one dance hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
- TEMA - a similar Russian pop group
External links

- [http://www.tatugirls.com/ English official website] T.A.T.u. T.A.T.u. ja:T.A.T.u.

Yulia Olegovna Volkova

Yuliya Olegovna Volkova (Юлия Олеговна Волкова, born 20 February 1985) is a member of the two-girl group t.A.T.u., usually known as Julia Volkova. They are notorious for shocking the public and trying to break taboos by performing on stage in only their underwear. Volkova is known for being the "bad girl" of the group. Juila likes to play tennis and she can play piano. She's a classicaly trained musican. In May 2004, Volkova announced that she was pregnant with long-time boyfriend Pavel (Pasha) Sidorov's child. She gave birth to her first child, Viktoria, on September 23, 2004. Volkova split up with Sidorov in spring 2005, but didn't stay single for long - while recording a new album for t.A.T.u., she started dating Tigran - an American businessman.

External links

-
-
- [http://eng.tatysite.net Press portal of group TATU] Volkava, Yuliya Olegovna

T.A.T.u.

t.A.T.u. (Russian: Тату) is a Russian pop music duo consisting of Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova. The two girls were marketed as a lesbian couple, but their sexual orientation was the subject of much speculation, until in December 2003 they admitted on Russian television that they were not in a lesbian relationship together and it had been exploited as a marketing strategy devised by Ivan Shapovalov. They are notorious for shocking the public and trying to break taboos. __TOC__ The members of the duo are:
- Elena Sergeevna Katina (Елена Сергеевна Катина), or Lena Katina, born October 4, 1984, in Moscow, Russia. She is the youngest of three children born to Sergey Vasilyevich Katin, a renowned Russian pop music author, and Inessa Katina.
- Yulia Olegovna Volkova (Юлия Олеговна Волкова), or Julia Volkova, born February 20, 1985, also in Moscow, Russia, is the only daughter of Oleg Volkov and Larisa Volkova.