In 1995, Queen Elizabeth requests a divorce from Prince Charles and Princess Diana.
Despite their disagreements, Princess Diana intended to remain married to Prince Charles for the rest of her life. Something changed, however, when the queen asked the late princess to divorce her son. Why did Queen Elizabeth want the Prince and Princess of Wales to be separated? In 1995, the late Princess of Wales went on the television and stated unequivocally that she did not wish to divorce her husband under any circumstances. But when she spoke her now-famous phrase, "well, there were three of us in the marriage, so it was a little crowded," she unwittingly sealed her destiny.
Related On This Day
Ashley Cole, an English football coach and former player who was born on December 20, 1980
In 1961, India liberates Goa and two other Portuguese colonies.
The Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950 forces Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, to leave.
In Menlo Park, California, Thomas Edison secretly tested incandescent light in 1879.
The $200 million epic "Titanic" by James Cameron premiered in American theatres on December 19, 1997.
Pratibha Patil, the first female President of India and Governor of Rajasthan, was born in Nadgaon, India, in 1934.
Jonah Hill, an American actor, was born in Los Angeles, California in 1983.
Richard Branson marries Joan Templeman in the British Virgin Islands in 1989.
Donald Trump marries former model Marla Maples at the Trump Plaza Hotel in 1993.
Jake Gyllenhaal, an American actor, was born in Los Angeles, California in 1980.
Emily Bronte, an English author, dies of TB at the age of 30 in 1848.
Ricky Thomas Ponting, AO, a cricket coach, commentator, and former player from Australia, was born on December 19, 1974.
Sacagawea, the Shoshone interpreter for the Lewis and Clark expedition, dies at the age of 24 in 1812.
Poet Robert Frost marries Elinor Miriam White in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1895.
Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984, pledging to return Hong Kong to China in 1997.