The year 1897 (MDCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday on the Gregorian calendar.

Events 
 March 4 – William McKinley becomes the 25th President of the United States, a title which he held from the retirement of Grover Cleveland until his assassination on September 14, 1901.
 March 13 – San Diego State University is founded.
 June 22 – The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria is celebrated in the United Kingdom, marking her 60th year as the Queen of the United Kingdom. She was the only British monarch to have celebrated a Diamond Jubilee until Queen Elizabeth II celebrated hers on June 2, 2012.
 July 17 – The Klondike Gold Rush begins.
 August 21 – The Oldsmobile is founded in Lansing, Michigan by Ransom E. Olds.
 September 1 – The Boston subway opens as the first rapid transit in North America.
 November 1 – The Juventus F.C. football club is founded.

Births 
 January 23 - Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Indian freedom fighter (d. 1945?)
 February 4 – Ludwig Erhard, German politician (d. 1977)
 March 1 – Shoghi Effendi (d. 1957)
 March 24 – Wilhelm Reich, Austrian-American psychiatrist & psychoanalyst (d. 1957)
 March 28 – Sepp Herberger, German football player (d. 1977)
 April 4 – Dina Manfredini, Italian-American supercentenarian (d. 2012)
 April 19 – Jiroemon Kimura, Japanese supercentenarian (d. 2013)
 April 23 – Lester B. Pearson, Canadian Prime Minister (1963-1968) (d. 1972)
 April 26 – Douglas Sirk, German movie director (d. 1987)
 April 30 – Walt Walsh, American baseball player (d. 1966)
 May 30 – Frank Wise, 16th Premier of Western Australia (1945-1947) (d. 1986)
 June 7 – George Szell, Hungarian-born conductor (d. 1970)
 June 10 – Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1918)
 June 12 – Anthony Eden, British Prime Minister (1955-1957) (d. 1977)
 June 19 – Moe Howard, American actor & comedian (d. 1975)
 July 4 – Jake Forbes, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1985)
 July 9 – Albert Coady Wedemeyer, American army officer (d. 1989)
 July 20 – Tadeus Reichstein, Polish-Swiss chemist (d. 1996)
 July 24 – Amelia Earhart, American aviator (d. 1937)
 August 2 – Max Weber Swiss politician (d. 1974)
 August 11 – Enid Blyton, children's writer (d. 1968)
 August 12 – Otto Struve, Russian astronomer (d. 1963)
 August 16 – Hersch Lauterpacht, Polish politician & judge (d. 1960)
 August 19 – Roman Vishniac, Russian-American photographer (d. 1990)
 August 26 – Yun Poson, President of South Korea (1960-1962) (d. 1990)
 August 31 – Fredric March, American actor (d. 1975)
 September 12 – Irène Joliot-Curie, French scientist (d. 1956)
 September 23 – Paul Delvaux, Belgian painter (d. 1994)
 September 23 – Walter Pidgeon, Canadian actor (d. 1984)
 September 25 – William Faulkner, American writer (d. 1962)
 September 26 – Pope Paul VI, (d. 1978)
 October 8 – Rouben Mamoulian, Armenian-American movie director (d. 1987)
 October 22 – Ettore Boiardi, Italian-American chef (d. 1985)
 October 29 – Joseph Goebbels, German politician (d. 1945)
 November 16 – Chaudhry Rahmat Ali, known for coining the name "Pakistan" (d. 1951)
 November 22 – Paul Oswald Ahnert, German astronomer (d. 1989)
 November 24 – Lucky Luciano, Sicilian mobster (d. 1962)
 December 7 – Lazare Ponticelli, French World War I veteran (d. 2008)
 December 14 – Kurt Schuschnigg, 15th Chancellor of Austria (d. 1977)
 December 24 – Koto Okubo, Japanese supercentenarian (d. 2013)
 A.R. Chughtai – Pakistani artist (d. 1975)
 Frank O'Connor – American actor & painter (d. 1979)
 Thích Quảng Đức – Buddhist monk (d. 1963)

Deaths 
 February 19 – Karl Weierstraß, German mathematician (b. 1815)