what year were non-interference engines introduced?

[dderolph]

Hi everyone. I looked at at '97 Accord that's for sale by the current owner. It has 110K miles on it. The seller did not give a definite answer regarding whether the timing belt has been replaced. If it has not, I would get that replaced ASAP, especially if the engine is an "interference engine", meaning one where valves and pistons can be damaged if the timing belt breaks.

I would like to know what year Honda changed their engines to "non-interference" so that this damage will not occur. I did some searching on the Internet but did not find the answer. Can someone tell me whether this change by Honda occurred by '97 or did it come later?