Photos From Every Year of His Royal Career

1972: After passing his RAF training, Charles embarked on a career in the Royal Navy. He joined his first ship, the guided missile destroyer HMS Norfolk, in 1972.

1973: The Prince of Wales, as he was then known, visited the Bahamas for the islands’ last days as a British colony. After more than 300 years of British sovereignty, the Bahamas became an independent nation on July 9.

1974: Charles made his maiden speech in the House of Lords this year, becoming the first royal to do so since his great-great-grandfather Edward VII in 1884.

Source: The New York Times

1975: Continuing to dip into military training, Charles returned to Cambridge to receive his masters degree.

1976: Prince Charles took command of his first ship, the coastal minehunter HMS Bronington. It was also his last year of active military service and the year he started his charity, The Prince’s Trust.

Source: The Prince’s Trust

1977: The prince appeared in a disastrous interview on Australian television. The host of the show “Countdown” suffered a complete meltdown on-air, even saying: “Your Royal Highness… oh, oh, I’m sweating like a pig.”

Watch the interview here.

1978: Prince Charles made the cover of TIME magazine. The publication described him as a “most uncommon bloke.”

Source: TIME

1979: Prince Charles attended the funeral of his great uncle and mentor, Lord Mountbatten of Burma, who was murdered by the IRA.

1980: Prince Charles met Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India. He also published a children’s book, “The Old Man of Lochnagar,” originally written for his younger brother Prince Edward.

Source: The Telegraph

1981: Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer, who became the Princess of Wales. At the time of their engagement in February, Diana was 19 years old while Charles was 31.

1982: Prince William of Wales was born, and Charles became the first royal father to be present at the birth of his son.

1983: The Prince and Princess of Wales toured Australia and New Zealand — a trip that was mirrored by newlyweds Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018.

1984: Prince Harry was born, making the Wales’ a family of four.

1985: Charles and Diana whipped the US into a frenzy when they visited Washington D.C. At the White House, the princess took to the dance floor with John Travolta.

Watch Travolta talking about his dance with Diana here.

1986: Charles and Diana visited Tokyo, Japan, and watched a sumo tournament.

1987: Charles and Diana were invited on a Majorcan holiday by the King of Spain. Charles later said his marriage had broken down completely by this point.

Source: The Guardian

1988: Charles diced with death while skiing with friends in Klosters, Switzerland, when an avalanche hit. The prince’s friend Major Hugh Lindsay was killed and another friend, Patti Palmer-Tomkinson, was seriously injured.

Source: The Telegraph

1989: Prince Charles gave a speech at the Saving the Ozone Layer World Conference in London, saying “human beings have been upsetting that balance [of nature], persistently” since the Industrial Revolution.

Source: The Telegraph

1990: In a very royal injury, the prince broke his arm after falling off his horse during a game of polo. Charles later required a second operation after the fracture failed to heal.

Source: The Telegraph

1991: Prince Charles became embroiled in another row over architecture. The prince resigned as the patron of Scotland’s national museum over a competition to design a new building. The royal said too much weight had been given to the opinion of “so-called experts.”

Source: BBC

1992: Andrew Morton published “Diana: Her True Story,” detailing the breakdown of Charles and Diana’s marriage. In December, the Prime Minister, John Major, announced to the House of Commons that The Prince and Princess of Wales had agreed to separate.

1997: Princess Diana is killed in a car crash in Paris. Charles flew to Paris with Diana’s two sisters to bring her body back to London.

2001: Charles launched a report warning that half of all British villages no longer have a pub. “Now, perhaps more than ever in their history, rural pubs must draw on their resourcefulness and resilience,” the prince said in a foreword to the document.

2020: It was a difficult year for Charles, who tested positive for COVID-19 in March shortly before his son, Prince William, also tested positive in April. “I thought to myself, if anybody is going to beat this, it’s going to be him,” William told the BBC of his father’s recovery.

Source: BBC