1971: Having become the first heir to the throne to graduate with a university degree (a 2:2 from Trinity College Cambridge), the then-titled Prince Charles flew himself to RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire to train as a jet pilot.
<img class=”lazy-image” src=”data:;base64,” alt=”In this handout file photo made available by the Royal Air Force on January 3, 2008, HRH Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is pictured at the end of his first circuit consolidation exercise on April 3, 1971. His son Prince William will follow in his footsteps and learn to fly at The Royal Air Force College from January 2008 in Cranwell, England.” data-content-type=”image/jpeg” data-srcs=”{“https://i.insider.com/5be3042148eb120296421512”:{“contentType”:”image/jpeg”,”aspectRatioW”:1600,”aspectRatioH”:2137}}” />
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.
1993: ‘Camillagate’ — The Daily Mirror leaked recordings of an explicit phone conversation between Charles and his mistress Camilla Parker Bowles in which the prince allegedly expressed his desire to live inside her trousers.
Source: The Daily Mirror
1994: In this photo taken in Sydney, Australia, Prince Charles is pushed to safety by security personnel after 24-year-old student David Kang fired two blank rounds from a starter gun at him. Kang was protesting the treatment of Cambodian asylum seekers in Australia.
Source: LA Times
1995: Diana gave an interview to Panorama, watched by 23 million people, wherein she claimed: “There were three of us in this marriage.” British press reported that the Queen had written to Charles and Diana urging them to agree to an early divorce.
Sources: The Guardian, BBC, The New York Times
1996: Charles and Diana’s marriage is dissolved after 15 years. According to the Prince of Wales’ website, the princess was still regarded as a member of the royal family and continued to live in Kensington Palace.
Source: The Prince of Wales
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.
1999: Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles made their first public appearance together at The Ritz in London.
2000: Camilla met with the Queen for the first time at Highgrove House in Gloucestershire. The meeting was a sign that Camilla was finally being accepted into the royal folds and by the public.
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.
2003: Prince Charles posed for a photograph with his mother Queen Elizabeth II and his eldest son Prince William. The royal family was gathered for a dinner to mark the 50th anniversary of the Queen’s Coronation.
2004: Charles shared a laugh with son Prince William during the family’s annual skiing holiday in the Swiss Alps in March.
2005: Prince Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles in a civil ceremony at the Guildhall, Windsor, on April 9. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh did not attend, although they did host a reception.
2006: Prince Charles greets former Spice Girls Emma Bunton and Geri Halliwell during a garden party at Buckingham Palace to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Prince’s Trust.
Source: BBC
2007: The Prince of Wales was awarded the Global Environmental Citizen Award from Harvard Medical School’s Center for Health and the Global Environment on January 28, in recognition of his work voicing his concerns about the natural environment.
Source: The Harvard Gazette
2009: Charles’ mother, Queen Elizabeth II, presented him with the the Royal Horticultural Society’s Victoria Medal of Honour on May 18, 2009 — the highest accolade the society can give.
2010: The Prince of Wales dabbled in a putt or two ahead of the Ryder Cup golf tournament in Newport, Wales.
2011: Charles’ son Prince William, Duke of Cambridge married Kate Middleton on April 29, 2011 in a celebration that caught the attention of the entire world. It was also the year that Prince Charles became the oldest heir apparent to bear the title Prince of Wales.
2012: The whole country — and the world — celebrated throughout the year to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II, the 60th anniversary of her accession to the throne.
2013: Prince Charles became a grandfather for the first time on July 22, 2013, when Kate Middleton gave birth to Prince George. He looked pretty delighted to receive a teddy bear to give to his new grandson a few days later.
2014: The Invictus Games, an international sports event for wounded warriors that was founded by Prince Harry, took place in London in September of 2014.
2016: As part of a celebration for the 500th Anniversary of the Royal Mail, Prince Charles took a ride on a motorbike that was once used for delivering telegrams.
2017: In November, Charles spent three days visiting the Caribbean islands that were hit by earthquakes in September. Here, he surveys the devastation in Barbuda.
2018: Prince Charles took Meghan Markle’s arm as he prepared to walk her down the aisle on May 19, when she married his son, Prince Harry. The Duchess of Sussex did not have her own father present at the wedding.
2015: During a 12-day tour of New Zealand and Australia, the Prince of Wales placed a poppy on the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
2019: Charles became a grandfather again, this time to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s first son, Archie Harrison. He attended the christening ceremony alongside the royal family in July.
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
2022: Charles became King Charles III upon the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, on September 8. He led the procession at the Queen’s funeral at Westminster Abbey on September 19.