Archive for the 'History' Category

Diana’s Public Role

Here is some more history of Diana you might like…

After her marriage, The Princess of Wales quickly became involved in the official duties of the Royal Family.

Her first tour with The Prince of Wales was a three-day visit to Wales in October 1981. In 1983 she accompanied the Prince on a tour of Australia and New Zealand, and they took the infant Prince William with them. Prince William, with Prince Harry, again joined The Prince and Princess of Wales at the end of their tour to Italy in 1985.

Other official overseas visits undertaken with the Prince included Australia (for the bicentenary celebrations in 1988), Brazil, India, Canada, Nigeria, Cameroon, Indonesia, Spain, Italy, France, Portugal and Japan (for the enthronement of Emperor Akihito). Their last joint overseas visit was to South Korea in 1992.

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Death of Diana, Princess of Wales

Here’s a brief history about the events surrounding Diana’s death…

On 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales was killed in a car crash in the Pont de l’Alma road tunnel in Paris, along with her lover Dodi Fayed, and their driver Henri Paul. Fayed’s bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was the only occupant of the car who survived the accident.

All reports and findings concluded that the cause was a car crash occasioned by a chauffeur who had consumed too much alcohol and had lost control speeding whilst trying to evade press photographers. There was controversy about the initial finding, and Dodi’s father Mohamed Fayed (the owner of the Hôtel Ritz for which the chauffeur worked) has spent several years attempting to obtain a full disclosure of the investigation. The police inquiry in France concluded that there was no evidence of conspiracy. A parallel inquiry in the UK, which reported in 2006, concluded that Fayed’s questions had no genuine basis for concern, and should be dismissed.

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Squidgygate II?

There is a curious coda to the “Squidgygate” affair. On 31 August 1997, most of the British press was caught in the spotlight.

A number of early editions of Sunday’s papers were already in circulation, and these carried stories that can only be described as both surprising and worrying. The majority of these were simply tasteless jokes about the princess’s persistent “dumb blonde” image, which must have caused their editors some nasty moments. A piece of “psychological profiling” about the princess’s ever-present role in public life, for The Sunday Times, featured a large picture of Diana, and began with the unfortunate words “There is something missing from all our lives today”.

The tabloid Sunday Mirror carried the story of how Palace Courtiers were ready to press the Queen to let the Royal warrants for Harrods lapse: “It would be a huge blow to the ego of store owner Mohamed al-Fayed - and would infuriate Diana but the Royal Family are furious about the frolics of Di, 36, and Dodi Fayed, 41, which they believe have further undermined the Monarchy.”

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Squidgygate

Squidgygate refers to the pre-1990 phone conversations between the United Kingdom’s Diana, Princess of Wales, and James Gilbey, a close friend, and to the controversy surrounding how those conversations were recorded. During the calls, Gilbey affectionately called Diana by the names “Squidgy” and “Squidge”. In 1992, The Sun newspaper publicly revealed the tapes’ existence in an article entitled “Squidgygate”, which is a cultural-reference to the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s. The publication of the tapes was a highpoint of the “War of the Waleses” that accelerated the separation and eventual divorce of HRH The Prince and Princess of Wales.

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Princess Diana’s Legacy

Diana’s interest in supporting and helping young people led to the establishment of the Diana Memorial Award, awarded to youths who have demonstrated the unselfish devotion and commitment to causes advocated by the Princess. In 2002, Diana was ranked 3rd in the 100 Greatest Britons poll, outranking Queen Elizabeth II and other British monarchs.

Can you believe it has been 10 years?

Princes William and Harry are organizing a concert to be held to celebrate their mother’s life and commemorate her work. The Concert for Diana will be staged on 1 July 2007, which would have been her 46th birthday, at London’s new 90,000-seater Wembley Stadium. Confirmed acts include Duran Duran, Joss Stone, Elton John, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Lily Allen, The English National Ballet, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, Natasha Bedingfield, Status Quo, The Feeling, Orson, James Morrison, Bryan Ferry, Anastacia and Lee Mead. A first batch of tickets went on sale on 13 December 2006 and were sold out within minutes. A further 10,000 seats were released for sale on 27 April 2007. Any proceeds will be shared equally by the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, the UK’s Centrepoint charity working with homeless people, of which the Princess was Patron at the time of her death, and Sentebale a charity in Lesotho, set up by that southern African kingdom’s Prince Seeiso and the Princess’s son Harry, to support the country’s disadvantaged young people and children, particularly those orphaned by HIV and AIDS. The concert will be shown on TV live - or in highlights shows - in 140 countries, as well as being videostreamed by VH1 and audiostreamed by BBC Radio 2 live to an audience of ‘millions’. “It’s going to be different and it’s going to be interesting. If it works it will be brilliant, if it doesn’t then we won’t be in the country!,” Prince William said. The princes have arranged a memorial service on 31 August 2007 to mark the 10th anniversary of their mother’s death.

Who could ever forget the day she died and the Elton John’s hauntingly rewritten, “Candle In The Wind” he sang at her funeral?