Today would have been the 40th wedding anniversary of Prince Charles and Princess Diana.
A little after 11.20am on July 29, 1981, millions of people around the world watched as Lady Diana Spencer, then 20, arrived at London's St Paul's Cathedral to marry Prince Charles, then 32, the heir to the British throne.
Of course, we now know their love story was not always a happy one. But less than a year after their wedding, they welcomed their first child, son Prince William on June 21, 1982. Two years later, Prince Harry was born, on September 15, 1984.
In 1981, the "wedding of the century", as it was dubbed, gripped the British nation and the world. It is estimated that 750 million people, in 72 countries, watched the ceremony when it was televised; a further 250 million listened to the events unfold on the radio.
It wasn't the first royal wedding to be aired on television – that honour was bestowed upon Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones 21 years earlier, on May 6, 1960. However, it was an occasion steeped with hope and celebration; at the time The New York Times described it as symbolising "the continuity of the monarchy".
The couple eschewed Westminster Abbey, the traditional location of British royal weddings, for St Paul's Cathedral, as it sat more guests and allowed a longer procession through the city. More than 3,500 people made up the wedding congregation, notably Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, the groom's parents, and international royalty, including then-kings and queens of Belgian, Sweden and Tonga.
Margaret Thatcher, UK prime minister, and Robert Muldoon, prime minister of New Zealand, were two politicians in attendance, while Nancy Reagan, US first lady, represented the country at the wedding.
There were also a number of entertainers on the guest list, including Irish actor Spike Milligan and Welsh comedian Harry Secombe.
Princess Diana's dress
The dress worn by Princess Diana on the day has gone down in wedding history.
Designed by David and Elizabeth Emanuel, the gown featured a fitted bodice overlaid with panels of antique Carrickmacross lace, which originally belonged to Queen Mary, Prince Charles’s great-grandmother, and the veil boasts 10,000 mother-of-pearl sequins. At 7.6 metres, the sequin-encrusted train is the longest in British royal history to date.
"The dress had to be something that was going to go down in history, but also something that Diana loved," designer Elizabeth Emanuel said in Diana: The Portrait, a 2004 book by Ros Coward.
"And we knew it was going to be at St Paul's, so it had to be something that would fill the aisle and be quite dramatic."
At the time the ivory silk taffeta gown was was valued at £9,000 ($12,500), which is worth roughly $41,000 today.
Prince Charles and Princess Diana's unconventional nuptials
While the wedding ceremony was certainly steeped in heritage, it also featured some significant breaks from tradition.
Princess Diana did not promise to "obey" Prince Charles, as is traditionally said in Christian wedding vows – after the groom promises to "love, cherish, and worship" and the bride to "love, cherish, and obey". The couple omitted the word from their vows, which caused a "sensation" at the time, according to Canadian-American political commentator, David Frum.
The couple also made mistakes in their vows. Princess Diana muddled Prince Charles's full name, calling him Philip Charles Arthur George, instead of Charles Philip Arthur George. Prince Charles also got his slightly wrong when he referred to "thy goods", not "my worldly goods".
The reception: balcony kiss, fireworks and 27 cakes
Following their nuptials, the couple went to Buckingham Palace for an "intimate" wedding breakfast with 120 guests. The breakfast was followed by a balcony appearance when the duo greeted the gathered crowd with other members of the royal family. The couple kissed on the balcony, which sparked a tradition of newly wed royal couples kissing for the crowd.
On the day there was a staggering total of 27 wedding cakes, but the official cake was made by David Avery, head baker at the Royal Naval cooking school in Chatham, Kent.
Standing tall at more than 150 centimetres and weighing more than 100 kilograms, the cake Avery made was a layered fruitcake and took 14 weeks. They created two in case one got damaged. Both the Prince of Wales's coat of arms and the Spencer family's crest were incorporated into the design.
On the night of the wedding, there was a fireworks display above London's Hyde Park and 100 beacons of light were shone across the country.
The years since Prince Charles and Princess Diana's wedding
Forty years on, we know that their marriage was not to last.
The couple separated in 1992, 11 years after their wedding. It was announced on December 9, 1992, by then-prime minister John Major, that the couple were separating “amicably”. They ultimately divorced in 1996, one year before Princess Diana's tragic death on August 31, 1997.
In their divorce agreement, Princess Diana was given the right to keep her Kensington Palace apartments and the title, the Princess of Wales. However, she relinquished Her Royal Highness title and a future claim to the British throne.
In the years following the wedding, Princess Diana did not speak of the day fondly. She once described feeling as though her younger self was a "lamb to the slaughter" on her wedding day.
"I don't think I was happy," she says in audio recorded for her biography, which was later used in documentary, Diana: In Her Own Words. "I never tried to call it off, in the sense of really doing that, but I think [it was] the worst day of my life."
In her controversial BBC Panorama interview with Martin Bashir in 1995, she said: "The day I walked down the aisle at St Paul's Cathedral, I felt that my personality was taken away from me, and I was taken over by the royal machine."
Vidaamuyarchi
Director: Magizh Thirumeni
Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra
Rating: 4/5
Silent Hill f
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Rating: 4.5/5
What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
Cinco in numbers
Dh3.7 million
The estimated cost of Victoria Swarovski’s gem-encrusted Michael Cinco wedding gown
46
The number, in kilograms, that Swarovski’s wedding gown weighed.
1,000
The hours it took to create Cinco’s vermillion petal gown, as seen in his atelier [note, is the one he’s playing with in the corner of a room]
50
How many looks Cinco has created in a new collection to celebrate Ballet Philippines’ 50th birthday
3,000
The hours needed to create the butterfly gown worn by Aishwarya Rai to the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
1.1 million
The number of followers that Michael Cinco’s Instagram account has garnered.
Company%20profile
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What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
Company%20profile
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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THE BIO: Martin Van Almsick
Hometown: Cologne, Germany
Family: Wife Hanan Ahmed and their three children, Marrah (23), Tibijan (19), Amon (13)
Favourite dessert: Umm Ali with dark camel milk chocolate flakes
Favourite hobby: Football
Breakfast routine: a tall glass of camel milk
RESULTS
5pm Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 1,600m
Winner Thabet Al Reef, Bernardo Pinheiro (jockey), Abdallah Al Hammadi (trainer)
5.30pm Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner Blue Diamond, Pat Cosgrave, Abdallah Al Hammadi
6pm Arabian Triple Crown Round-1 Listed (PA) Dh230,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner Hameem, Adrie de Vries, Abdallah Al Hammadi
6.30pm Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner Shoja’A Muscat, Szczepan Mazur, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
7pm Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,200m
Winner Heros De Lagarde, Szczepan Mazur, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
7.30pm Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 (T) 2,400m
Winner Good Tidings, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi
In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein
By Fiona Sampson
Profile
Cry Macho
Director: Clint Eastwood
Stars: Clint Eastwood, Dwight Yoakam
Rating:**
Tank warfare
Lt Gen Erik Petersen, deputy chief of programs, US Army, has argued it took a “three decade holiday” on modernising tanks.
“There clearly remains a significant armoured heavy ground manoeuvre threat in this world and maintaining a world class armoured force is absolutely vital,” the general said in London last week.
“We are developing next generation capabilities to compete with and deter adversaries to prevent opportunism or miscalculation, and, if necessary, defeat any foe decisively.”
Company%C2%A0profile
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The story of Edge
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, established Edge in 2019.
It brought together 25 state-owned and independent companies specialising in weapons systems, cyber protection and electronic warfare.
Edge has an annual revenue of $5 billion and employs more than 12,000 people.
Some of the companies include Nimr, a maker of armoured vehicles, Caracal, which manufactures guns and ammunitions company, Lahab
Punchy appearance
Roars of support buoyed Mr Johnson in an extremely confident and combative appearance
Book%20Details
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Results
5.30pm: Maiden Dh165,000 (Turf) 1,600m; Winner: Al Battar, Mickael Barzalona (jockey), Salem bin Ghadayer (trainer).
6.05pm: Maiden Dh165,000 (Dirt) 1,200m; Winner: Good Fighter, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.
6.40pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (T) 1,200m; Winner: Way Of Wisdom, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar.
7.15pm: Handicap Dh170,000 (D) 2,200m; Winner: Immortalised, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar.
7.50pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (T) 2,000m; Winner: Franz Kafka, James Doyle, Simon Crisford.
8.25pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (D) 1,200m; Winner: Mayadeen, Connor Beasley, Doug Watson.
9pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Chiefdom, Mickael Barzalona, Salem bin Ghadayer
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
AI traffic lights to ease congestion at seven points to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Street
The seven points are:
Shakhbout bin Sultan Street
Dhafeer Street
Hadbat Al Ghubainah Street (outbound)
Salama bint Butti Street
Al Dhafra Street
Rabdan Street
Umm Yifina Street exit (inbound)
THURSDAY'S ORDER OF PLAY
Centre Court
Starting at 10am:
Lucrezia Stefanini v Elena Rybakina (6)
Aryna Sabalenka (4) v Polona Hercog
Sofia Kenin (1) v Zhaoxuan Yan
Kristina Mladenovic v Garbine Muguruza (5)
Sorana Cirstea v Karolina Pliskova (3)
Jessica Pegula v Elina Svitolina (2)
Court 1
Starting at 10am:
Sara Sorribes Tormo v Nadia Podoroska
Marketa Vondrousova v Su-Wei Hsieh
Elise Mertens (7) v Alize Cornet
Tamara Zidansek v Jennifer Brady (11)
Heather Watson v Jodie Burrage
Vera Zvonareva v Amandine Hesse
Court 2
Starting at 10am:
Arantxa Rus v Xiyu Wang
Maria Kostyuk v Lucie Hradecka
Karolina Muchova v Danka Kovinic
Cori Gauff v Ulrikke Eikeri
Mona Barthel v Anastasia Gasanova
Court 3
Starting at 10am:
Kateryna Bondarenko v Yafan Wang
Aliaksandra Sasnovich v Anna Bondar
Bianca Turati v Yaroslava Shvedova
More on animal trafficking
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MATCH INFO
Newcastle United 1 (Carroll 82')
Leicester City 2 (Maddison 55', Tielemans 72')
Man of the match James Maddison (Leicester)
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
