Diana’s death stunned the world, changed the royals

Above all, there was shock. That's the word people use when they remember Princess Diana's death in a Paris car crash 25 years ago this week.

The woman the world watched grow from a shy teenage nursery school teacher into a glamorous celebrity, who comforted AIDS patients and campaigned for land mine removal couldn't be dead at the age of 36.

"I think we need to remind ourselves that she was probably the best known woman in the English-speaking world, aside from perhaps Queen Elizabeth II herself," said historian Ed Owens.

A member of the aristocratic Spencer family, which had close ties to the royal family and a 500-year-old stately home in central England, Diana was known for flouncy bows, sensible skirts and a boyish blond bob when she started dating the future king. But she appeared to blossom, becoming an international style icon the moment she walked down the aisle of St. Paul's Cathedral on July 29, 1981, shrouded in lace and followed by a 25-foot train.

Reporters and photographers followed Diana wherever she went. While the princess hated the intrusion, she quickly learned the media was also a tool she could use to bring attention to a cause and to change public perceptions.
That impact was seen most famously when the princess opened the U.K.'s first specialized ward for AIDS patients on April 9, 1987.

Such ribbon-cutting ceremonies were a staple of royal duties. But Diana realized there was more at stake. She reached out and took the hands of a young patient, demonstrating the virus couldn't be transmitted by touch. The moment, captured by photos beamed worldwide, helped combat the fear, misinformation and stigma surrounding the AIDS epidemic.

Seven months before she died, Diana donned a protective visor and...