The Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana
On Wednesday the 29th of July, 1981 Charles, the future King of England married the 20 year old former kindergarten teacher, Lady Diana Spencer at St. Paul's Cathedral in central London. More than half a million people lined the streets between Buckingham Palace and St. Paul's to witness the procession and over three quarters of a billion watched on world wide television, including myself. It was 3:30 in the morning where I lived and if I hadn't been out of school for the summer, I probably would have missed the big event.
The bride arrived in a glass coach and the crowd roared when they caught the first glimpse of her dress. The hand enbroidered dress was covered with 10,000 pearls and sported a 25 foot train....
...imagine sitting inside a glass coach, wheeling through London with that dress in your lap.
The ceremony was relatively error-free.....if you discount the fact that an obviously nervous Diana accidentally changed the order of Charles's names (he has 4! and technically no last name) calling him Phillip Charles Arthur George. But in the end it was the fairy-tale wedding that the world wanted.
The Prince and Princess of Wales would go on to have two sons, William born in 1982 and Henry (nicknamed Harry) born in 1984.
Sadly, the marriage would be doomed. With both of the couple having affairs and eventually separating in 1992 and divorcing in 1996. Diana would die in an automobile accident in Paris in 1997 and her funeral would also be one of the most watched events on worldwide television, estimated to have a viewership of two billion people.
Watch the video below, its a bit longer than usual but covers the whole day. I will say this much, the British sure know how to do Pomp and Circumstance better than anyone.
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