Diana's Death: Week of Grief Shakes the Monarchy Wenty Years Ago on August 31, 1997, Britain's Princess Diana Died in a High-Speed Car Crash in Paris
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Lifestyle FRIDAY, AUGUST 18, 2017 This file photo shows Britain’s Diana, Princess of Wales, talking with a man infected This picture shows pictures and objects around the ‘Flamme de la Libert’ (Liberty Flame), an with the AIDS virus, during a visit to a hospital in Rio de Janeiro. — AFP photos original monument Princess Diana fans turned into a commemoration stele, in Paris. Diana's death: Week of grief shakes the monarchy wenty years ago on August 31, 1997, Britain's Princess Diana died in a high-speed car crash in Paris. For the next Tweek, up to her spectacular funeral, Britain was plunged into an unprecedented outpouring of popular grief which shook the monarchy. Here is how the week unfolded: High speed crash Divorced for the past year from heir to the throne Prince Charles, Diana, 36, and her new millionaire lover, Egyptian Dodi Al-Fayed, are stalked by a posse of press photographers over the summer as they holiday in the Mediterranean. They arrive in the afternoon of August 30 in Paris and dine in the evening at the Hotel Ritz, in the luxurious Place Vendome. They try to leave discreetly shortly after midnight in a Mercedes. Chased by paparazzi on motorcycles, the powerful sedan careers at high speed into a pillar in an underpass near the Alma Bridge opposite the Eiffel Tower on the north bank of the River Seine. Diana is pulled out of the Mercedes, which has been reduced to twisted metal, by rescue workers. Al-Fayed and their chauffeur, who the probe shows had a high level of alcohol in his blood, die instantly. Their bodyguard is seriously injured. Seven photographers are arrested. From the next day, photographs of the crash will be offered to magazines for a million dollars each. Diana is taken to Pitie- Salpetriere university hospital where at 4:00 am (0200 GMT) she dies of massive chest injuries after two hours of desperate sur- gery. France's ambassador to Britain telephones Queen Elizabeth II's aides at Balmoral, in Scotland, where the Queen, her husband the Duke of Edinburgh, Charles as well as the cou- ple's two children, William, 15 and Harry, 12, are holidaying over the summer. This file photo shows Britain’s Diana, the Princess of Wales, This file photo shows Britain’s Diana, Princess of Wales, left, and British fashion magazine editor Liz Tilberis arriving holding the face of an Indian boy during her visit to The people's princess at the fourteenth Annual Council of Fashion designers of Tamana Arts and Crafts School in New Dehli. Britain awakes in mourning. Under a grey sky hundreds of America Awards Gala at the Lincoln Center in New York. tearful Londoners start to lay flowers in front of Buckingham organization of the funeral proves complex. Since her divorce too," The Guardian broadsheet warns, as nearly a quarter of Palace and Kensington Palace, the princess's residence. A tearful Diana is no longer known as "Her Royal Highness" and does not Britons call for the abolition of the monarchy in a poll. young Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair pays homage to "the have the right to a state funeral, although she still had the title people's princess". The world reacts with dismay. US president of princess. But Britons call for a tribute worthy of their "queen Billions watch funeral Bill Clinton says he is "profoundly saddened". of hearts". The next day, nearly a million people watch as the funeral In India Mother Teresa prays for Diana, just days before her procession passes in a deep silence punctuated by sobs and own death, and US rock star Michael Jackson cancels a concert Royal silence tolling bells. Their heads bowed, the two princes follow the cof- in Belgium in shock. The press is the first to be accused. Diana's Anger mounts at the silence of the royal family, still holed up fin, accompanied by Prince Charles, the Duke of Edinburgh and brother Charles Spencer says newspapers have blood on their in Balmoral. Newspapers, furious that the Union Jack flag is not her brother Earl Spencer, under the eyes of 2.5 billion television hands. Embarrassed, the British tabloid press elevates Diana to flying at half-mast over Buckingham Palace, call on the Queen viewers around the world. the status of an icon. "Born a Lady. Became our Princess. Died a to address her subjects. The Sun tabloid asks: "Where is our At Westminster Abbey, 2,000 invitees, including US First Lady Saint," writes the Daily Mirror. Queen? Where is our flag?" It says not flying the flag is a "stark Hillary Clinton, Blair, opera singer Luciano Pavarotti, former insult to Diana's memory ". Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and US film star Popular grief The Queen decides on September 5 to pay homage to her Tom Cruise attend the ceremony. Elton John adapts his song The popular fervor grows. At Saint James's Palace, where former daughter-in-law, whom she did not like, in a televised "Candle in the Wind", rewriting the lyrics in homage to Diana. In Diana's body is taken, it takes eleven hours to reach condolence speech for only the second time in her reign. She then publicly the afternoon, the princess is buried discreetly on a small island books. "The vision of the bouquets of flowers is amazing: a veri- bows before Diana's coffin. "If they (the royals) fail to heed her at Althorp, Diana's ancestral home. — AFP table sea, almost a hundred meters long," AFP writes. The lesson, they will bury not just Diana on Saturday-but their future.