In what year was Gianni Versace murdered?

Gianni Versace was murdered in 1997.

The designer was shot on 15 July 1997 outside Casa Casuarina, his mansion on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach, Florida. He had returned from the nearby News Cafe, where he regularly collected magazines, when Andrew Cunanan attacked him on the front steps.

Versace was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital and pronounced dead at 9:21 a.m. He was 50 years old. Cunanan, already wanted for several murders, died by suicide eight days later without explaining why he targeted Versace.

The murder shocked the fashion world because Versace was an international celebrity and one of the designers who most successfully connected high fashion with music, film, and popular culture. His funeral at Milan Cathedral drew more than 2,000 mourners, including Princess Diana, Elton John, Naomi Campbell, and Whitney Houston.

The year is sometimes confused with 1998 because Donatella presented her first haute couture collection for Versace in July 1998, almost exactly one year after Gianni’s death.