November 26, 1997

That fall of 1997, gas ran $1.23 a gallon and Clinton was in the White House — the Monica Lewinsky story was still months away, and most Americans were focused on balancing checkbooks and getting kids to school. On the cultural side, Elton John's "Candle In The Wind 1997/Something About The Way You Look Tonight" was the dominant song on the radio, a tribute to Princess Diana who had died in August, while John Grisham's "The Partner" was the legal thriller keeping readers up past their bedtimes. The Florida Marlins, just five years old as a franchise, won the World Series over the Cleveland Indians in seven games, and that same fall, "The New York Times" ran its first color photograph on the front page on October 16th, a milestone for the paper that had been publishing since 1851.