Princess Diana dances with John Travolta

It's the 25th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana, who was killed in a car crash in an underground tunnel in central Paris on the 31st August 1997.She was one of the most famous and glamorous women in the world - a mega star. In 1985, Princess Diana and Prince Charles made their first joint visit to the US. The highlight of the tour was a gala dinner at the White House where the young princess danced with the star of Saturday Night Fever John Travolta. Speaking in 2011, the Daily Mirror’s royal correspondent James Whitaker told Kirsty Reid about the glamorous night.Image: John Travolta dances with Princess Diana at a White House dinner, November 9th 1985 (Credit: Reuters/File photo)

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Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest, the disastrous D-Day rehearsal, and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.