JANUARY

3 - Some 2,000 revelers ushered in the new year at Princeton's 11th annual Curtain Calls celebration. The event once again featured local and regional entertainers, who performed at 10 different sites.

A family of four narrowly escaped a New Year's tragedy after being accidentally exposed to high levels of carbon monoxide at their home on Stonelea Drive in West Windsor.

7 - Princeton Township Committeewoman Michele Tuck-Ponder was appointed to her third straight term as mayor at the committee's annual reorganization meeting. She pledged to work to help the township achieve "an identity independent from that of Princeton Borough."

Princeton Borough Mayor Marvin Reed said he had had several discussions over the past year with developers interested in creating four- or five-story mixed use buildings and multi-deck parking on the east side of Witherspoon Street in the Spring-Tulane Street area.

10 -The U.S. Environmental Agency recommended to the state Department of Environmental Protection that the N.J. Turnpike Authority be denied wetlands permits for the proposed construction of the 6.7-mile limited access road.

The street light poles that were installed across from the Morris Davidson Park in Plainsboro came three days too late for Matthew Schwartz, who was struck and critically injured by a car while crossing Plainsboro Road on crutches.

14 - About 400 undergraduates at Princeton University shed their clothes in the Nude Olympics, an annual tradition marking the first major snowfall of the year. The students, mostly sophomores, frolicked in the snow while hundreds of fully clothed, but equally raucous, spectators watched.

The Institute for Advanced Study offered to donate $1.2 million toward a Green Acres loan earmarked for the purchase of the development rights to the 589-acre Institute Woods.

17 - The largest drug bust in Princeton history resulted in the arrest of 30 street-level dealers. About 45 township and borough officers were involved in the pre-dawn raids.

21 - Marge Smith announced that she would be stepping down as executive director of the Princeton YWCA after seven years.

Landau's, a fixture for 35 years at 114 Nassau St., announced it would be moving five doors down the street to the former Norman's location at 102 Nassau St.

24 - In response to an outcry from Princeton residents and officials, the Mercer County Board of Freeholders voted unanimously to decline a $100,000 donation by Princeton University that would have been included in a larger $2.6 million donation from the county toward preservation of the Institute for Advanced Study woods. The university's donation was part of an agreement made earlier in the week between the university and the county executive's office that would give the university control of Washington Road in exchange for the donation.

Palmer Square Management announced it would be giving the Nassau Inn a $1 million facelift that would shut down the grand ballroom for nine days in February and expand the Tap Room in August to accommodate more customers and dancing.

28 - A 16-year-old West Windsor-Plainsboro High School junior was charged with supplying the heroin that caused the overdose death last spring of high school senior Elizabeth Danser.

Donald Stokes, dean of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs for 18 years and co-chairman of the Princeton Consolidation Study Commission, died of acute leukemia Jan. 26 at the age of 69.

Montgomery police Detective Gerard DiDonato, acquitted in December of sexually molesting a 20-year-old Haitian immigrant, rejoined the department following a 29-month suspension.

31 - The Princeton Regional school board appointed interim principal David DeVido to a one-year term as permanent principal at Princeton High School. Mr. DeVido became the fifth principal at the high school in the past seven years.

Police in West Windsor fielded 20 to 30 calls during the past week about residents concerned that a gang of burglars was targeting Asian-American homes in the township. Two houses in West Windsor owned by Chinese-Americans were burglarized.

FEBRUARY

4 - When a donated sculpture of Russian ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov arrived nude at Princeton Day School, school administrators ordered that it be covered up. "This is not the statue that we understood we were receiving, and we feel that it is simply too sophisticated for the entrance since it might upset or offend parents," said Andrew Hamlin, the school's director of fund raising.

7 - A chimney fire at the Nassau Inn forced the evacuation of about 70 people, including a group that was holding a "beach party" at the inn. The fire was caused by a buildup of soot in the chimney serving the Tap Room and kitchen facilities.

The Princeton Township Committee voted to scrap the design plans for a new municipal building, opting instead to spend nearly $20,000 to sponsor an architectural competition for an improved design.

11 -The Princeton Township Committee agreed to draft an ordinance that would restrict the use of gasoline-powered leaf blowers to April 15 to June 1 and Oct. 15 to Dec. 1.

14 -Twenty-four Princeton-area doctors - 19 with offices in Princeton - were included in a newly released book, "How to Find the Best Doctors: New York Metro Area. Listed were: D. Loren Southern, Andrew Costin, Alan Feldman, Martha Lansing, Peter Tierney, Jonathan R. Sachs, Harvey Rothberg, Peter Yi, Anthony Chiurco, Ian Livingstone, Fong Wei, Michael Kane, Richard Wong, Leon Costa, Michael Grenis, Ronald Li, John Cotton, Norman Katz, Samuel Schneider, Alexander Carney, Robert Pinals, Lawrence Jordon, Steven Kahn and Marc Schwarzman.

18 - More than 180 students applied for 72 seats in the new Princeton Charter School, due to open in the fall.

Four Vietnamese men were charged in connection with a string of burglaries in West Windsor, Plainsboro and Princeton.

21 - The 14-month contract dispute between Princeton Borough and the Patrolman's Benevolent Association ended with the ratification of a three-year contract providing 3.9 percent retroactive raises in 1996 and 3.9 percent increases in 199a7 and 1998.

25 - Sixteen candidates filed for 11 available seats in school board elections in Princeton, West Windsor-Plainsboro and Montgomery. In Princeton, Jack Marrero, William Sword, Merrill Biancosino, Cathy Loevner, Bucky Hayes and Therese Flaherty filed petitions. West Windsor candidates were Morad Abou-Sabe, Stephen Smith, Kashmiri Delory, Stan Katz and Carol Dugan; Plainsboro candidates were Arlene Goode and D.K. Weerasinghe. Three incumbents filed for the three available seats in Montgomery - Susan Carter, Ben Bernanke and Reginald Luke.

Only six of the 13 founders of the Princeton Charter School whose children were among the 186 in the lottery for the 72 spots in the new school won seats in the drawing.

28 - Grover Lumber at 194 Alexander St. in Princeton Township announced that it would be closing its doors in March after 75 years in business.

MARCH

4 - A proposed congressional transportation bill will include $16 million to restore commuter service on the defunct West Trenton rail line.

7 - An East Windsor woman, Cora Hathorn, 27, of Princeton Arms, was killed when her car and a pickup truck collided on a snowy Village Road West near Deerfield Drive.

In a victory for advocates of lower speed limits on Route 206, state Department of Transportation employees began installing signs alerting motorists to speed reductions of 5 to 10 mph along several stretches of the highway in Princeton Borough and Princeton Township.

11 - Helen Wise, 51, of 16 Fieldstone Road, Princeton Township, suffered a possible broken hip and concussion after she walked out between two parked cars on Nassau Street near CVS Pharmacy. She was the third person hit by a car in Princeton Borough in four days.

Edward Gross, executive director of the N.J. Turnpike Authority, said on a cable TV program that he expected the federal Environmental Protection Agency to reverse gears within the next 30 days and support construction of Route 92.

The Sensible Transportation Options Partnership, a grass roots organization opposed to the construction of the Millstone Bypass, threatened to sue the state Department of Transportation unless it could demonstrate to the public the purpose and need for the project as currently aligned.

18 - Per-pupil spending in the Princeton Regional School District decreased 5.2 percent in 1996-97 while per-pupil costs rose 2.2 percent in Montgomery and 1 percent in West Windsor-Plainsboro, according to a newly released state study. Princeton's per-pupil spending was 12.5 percent higher than the state average of $7,759. Of the 72 K-12 districts in its enrollment group, Princeton had the 60th highest per-pupil costs.

Latino students at Princeton High School were failing their classes at a rate 1.5 times greater than the overall student population, school records showed. Fifty-two of the schools 86 Latino students - 60.5 percent - received at least one grade of 'D' or 'F' for the second marking period.

21 - Far fewer black and Latino students at Princeton high School were enrolled in advanced placement and accelerated-level mathematics classes than their white and Asian counterparts, according to a report. Only eight of 143 black and Latino students - 5.6 percent - were taking upper-level mathematics classes, while students in those two groups were disproportionately enrolled in less rigorous classes.

Thursday's arrival of spring ended one of the Princeton area's mildest winters in more than 100 years. The average temperature in the winter of 1996-97 was the seventh warmest on record. The 15.5 inches of total snowfall was well under the average of 28.5 inches. It also was the 13th wettest winter in the past century.

25 - A 20-year-old Princeton University sophomore, one of 12 members of the Tigertones singing group that spent the spring break performing at schools and restaurants in Naples, Fla., was killed in an auto accident. The car in which Richard Modica was riding was rear-ended on Route 95 near St. Augustine, Fla.

The state Historic Preservation Office notified a group opposing the destruction of several Dutch elms along Washington Road that would be necessary to accommodate construction of the Millstone Bypass that the trees were eligible for historic status.

28 -Ray Bandlow, superintendent in the West Windsor-Plainsboro School District for the past six years, announced he was resigning his post prior to a scheduled board vote on the renewal of his contract.

The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory announced that it would be laying off 200 of the lab's 550 workers in mid-June and closing its Tokamak reactor due to federal budget cuts.

APRIL

1 - The Rev. Evasio DeMarcellis, pastor at St. Paul's R.C. Church in Princeton Borough for 17 years, died at the age of 62 following a 15-month battle with lung cancer.

Kate Warren, who led the group that fought to defeat consolidation of the Princetons, and Tommy Parker, chairman of the Joint Civil Rights Commission, announced plans to run for seats on the Princeton Borough Council against Democratic incumbents Mark Freda and Arthur Saylor.

4 - A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by West Windsor seeking to halt construction of the Hightstown Bypass.

Princeton Township purchased development rights to 600 acres at the Institute for Advanced Study for about $13 million.

Astrophysicist Lyman Spitzer, who achieved world renown first for launching the study of thermonuclear fusion and then for proposing large space telescopes that later became the Hubble Space Telescope, died at his Princeton Township home at the age of 82.

Scientists at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in Plainsboro turned off for the last time the $750 million Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor, which produced the hottest temperatures in the universe - 500 million degrees, more than 30 times the heat of the sun.

8 - The state Department of Environmental Protection asked the federal Environmental Protection Agency to hold a public hearing on whether the controversial Route 92 should be constructed, surprising opponents and proponents of the highway alike.

11 -Montgomery resident Richard Kluger won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for his non-fiction book, "Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris."

15 -A fast-spreading fire nearly destroyed a house on Randall Road in Princeton Township that its owners, Jeffrey and Lynn O'Grady, had spent the past 18 months renovating and had planned to occupy next month.

A Hun School sophomore, Chris Heinel, was paralyzed from the middle of his chest to his feet after suffering damage to three vertebrae in a junior varsity lacrosse game against St. Joseph's of Metuchen. Chris, the goaltender for the team, collided with a player on the opposing team while racing for a loose ball.

18 - The crime rates in Princeton Borough, Princeton Township and West Windsor rose in 1996 due largely to dramatic increases in the number of larcenies. Crime rose 12 percent in Princeton Township, 10.7 percent in West Windsor and 6.5 percent in Princeton Borough. Crime fell 2 percent in Plainsboro and was unchanged in Montgomery, according to figures supplied by local police departments.

Majority control of the Princeton Regional Board of Education shifted with the election of two of three candidates who were not supportive of Superintendent Marcia Bossart.

In a victory for Toll Brothers, Superior Court Judge Philip Carchman ruled that the developer could build 1,165 housing units at Bear Brook and Meadow roads in West Windsor.

22 - In response to two accidents involving pedestrians struck by vehicles in Princeton Borough, police announced they would begin a crackdown on jaywalking.

25 -The state announced it planned to release on parole a Montgomery physician convicted of molesting five boys in 1991. The doctor, Benjamin Levinson, 44, would not be returning to his family home on Dead Tree Run Road, officials said.

29 -A 70-year-old Princeton woman, Sonya Gutman of 200 Hun Road, was killed following an explosion and fire in the kitchen of her home.

An estimated 10,000 people filled Nassau and Witherspoon Streets for Princeton's annual Communiversity street fair.

MAY

2 - Three Montgomery Township employees filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Police Chief William Beachell, alleging that he improperly touched them, made comments about their clothes and hair, and summoned them by snapping his fingers and blowing on a whistle.

Chelsea Clinton, who had been courted by Princeton University, announced that she was planning to enroll at Stanford in the fall.

6 - Charles Marsee, headmaster of a boarding school in Willoughby, Ohio, was appointed the first director of the Princeton Charter School.

A Conrail freight train came within five feet of smashing into a motorist "playing chicken" on the tracks at the Spring Hill Road crossing in Montgomery.

13 - A Princeton University junior was sexually assaulted in the laundry room of the Henry Hall dormitory by a man who fled after another student triggered an emergency telephone.

16 - West Windsor Mayor Tom Frascella lost his re-election bid to Councilwoman Carole Carson by a 33-vote margin.

A rookie police officer in Montgomery helped deliver a 9-pound baby boy on the sofa of the mother, Karen Durik of Carriage Trail.

20 - Three weeks after Fiona Miller, a 1996 Princeton High School graduate suffering from manic depression, disappeared from a psychiatric clinic in Franklin Township, her body was found hanging from a tree about 150 yards from the facility. Ms. Miller's death was determined to be a suicide.

23 - A stubborn blaze gutted PJ's Pancake House on Nassau Street in Princeton Borough, forcing the evacuation of about 15 employees and residents from surrounding buildings. More than 100 firefighters battled the blaze, which flared several times before finally being brought under control.

30 - Thomas Butler, who served as superintendent in the Chester School District in Chester for 14 years, was named interim superintendent in the West Windsor-Plainsboro School District.

JUNE

3 - Evan Jones Miller, 100, one of four living members of the Princeton University Class of 1917 was among 6,000 alumni who returned to the campus for the P-rade, the annual reunion parade.

6 - Incumbent Democrat Arthur Saylor was defeated in the Princeton Borough primary, finishing behind Mark Freda, another incumbent, and challenger William Slover.

10 - Superior Court Judge Philip Carchman of Princeton Township was appointed to the 32-judge state Appellate Division, the state's second highest court.

Keith Wadsworth, who led the Princeton High School football team to four state playoff appearances in his seven years as head coach, resigned to become an assistant coach in the Princeton University lightweight football program.

For the second time in six weeks, the Princeton Township Committee rejected an ordinance to regulate the use of gas-powered leaf blowers.

13 - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency heard two distinctly different views about the proposed Route 92 during a six-hour hearing at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School.

17 - An elderly couple from Monmouth County who were traveling to a party in their honor at their daughter's home were killed in a motor vehicle accident at the intersection of Princeton-Hightstown and Southfield roads in West Windsor. The pair was identified as Helen and Ernest Heckert, both 89, of Marlboro.

20 - Kehrt Shatken Sharon Architects, the firm the Princeton Township Committee nearly hired to construct the new municipal complex four years ago, had the winning design in a competition for a new $9 million municipal building.

Princeton opponents of the Millstone Bypass attended a public hearing sponsored by a regional planning transportation commission to outline their objections to the proposed project.

24 - MarketFair in West Windsor announced plans for a $7 million renovation project that would include an expanded food court and a remodeled United Artists movie theater complex.

27 - A 14-year-old student at Montgomery Middle School who was home alone accidentally set his parents' house at 4 Braxton Drive on fire while playing with matches.

The Montgomery Board of Education approved a three-year contract with the teachers union that provided for salary increases of 3.9 percent each year and extended the school day by 20 minutes.