Newsweek December 03-10, 2021

1995 “When Diana said that she doubted if she would ever be queen, but that ‘I’d like to be queen of people’s hearts,’ she knew what she was doing: she already is,” Newsweek reported on BBC’s groundbreaking interview with Martin Bashir and Princess Diana. It revealed the true state of her marriage with Prince Charles less than two years before her tragic death. Newsweek cover stories have chronicled the royal family since as early as 1936. See 10 of these many covers showing Diana and the history of the royal family in this week’s cover story, “God Save the Queen.” 1973 “With global oil shortages threatening to plunge the U.S. and other industrial nations into a recession,” the energy squeeze was featured on Newsweek’s cover—for the fourth time that year. Oil prices recently…

WHEN THE FIRST BOEING 737 MAX PLANE CAME OFF THE PRODUCTION LINE IN DECEMBER 2015, IT WAS THE beginning of a highly anticipated new line of aircraft for the storied company. It incorporated the latest technology and was billed by Boeing as “deliver[ing] the highest efficiency, reliability and passenger comfort in the single-aisle market.” Tragically, that promise came to a glaring halt with two back-to-back disasters in which flight control software known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) incorrectly gauged the aircrafts’ angles of ascent and prevented the pilots from manually overriding it. In total, 346 people on board Lion Air flight 610 on October 28, 2018 and Ethiopian Air flight 302 on March 10, 2019 were killed after only about 13 minutes and 6 minutes in the air,…

Why did you choose to write this book? How did you get involved in researching it? PETER ROBISON: I was the beat reporter for Bloomberg News covering Boeing 1998 to 2002, a consequential period in the company’s history. It had just purchased McDonnell Douglas, a defense contractor and failed commercial-jet builder that had always pushed more aggressively than Boeing for shareholder returns. The McDonnell Douglas executives took on powerful roles at the combined company, and people from Boeing considered it a reverse takeover. This culminated in a 40-day engineers’ strike in 2000, the largest white-collar walkout in U.S. history. Their differences over money were vanishingly small—one engineer told me at the time that Boeing’s proposed cuts in medical benefits would cost him $300 a year. The engineers framed their strike as a…

“If that young man has Taylor’s scarf he should return it.”—DIONNE WARWICK“THE PAY DISPARITY BETWEEN ME AND SPIDER-MAN WAS VERY EXTREME.”—KIRSTEN DUNST ON THE 2002 MOVIE“I could be talking about the Iran nuclear deal, and I’ll get a response from somebody on email or Twitter or Facebook or wherever saying, ‘You fat S.O.B.’”—CHRIS CHRISTIE“I stand ready to work with you, Mr. President, to build consensus, take active steps and move China-U.S. relations forward in a positive direction.”—CHINA’S PRESIDENT XI JINPING TO JOE BIDEN“OFF THE COURT, I THINK I’M A VERY NICE MAN, A NICE PERSON. ON THE COURT, I HAVE A MEAN STREAK.”—Retired NBA star Dwayne Wade on breaking Kobe Bryant’s nose in the 2012 All-Star Game“I’m just embarrassed that I didn’t make my marriage work, you know?”—ADELE“NOBODY WANTS TO…

WHEN QUEEN ELIZABETH II ASCENDED TO THE throne in 1952, Harry Truman was in the White House. Joe Biden, who would become president 13 administrations later, was in elementary school, and around 85 percent of Elizabeth’s 68 million present-day subjects weren’t even born yet. If the 95-year-old queen—whose mother, the beloved “Queen Mum,” lived to the age of 101—remains on the throne for another 30 months or so, she will surpass Louis XIV of France as the longest-reigning sovereign in recorded history. As it happened, Louis was also one of the last Bourbon kings of France before the Revolution swept away his great-great-great-grandson Louis XVI. When the last chorus of “God Save the Queen” is sung, the British throne will pass to Elizabeth’s first-born son, Charles, the brooding, diffident Prince of…

1936 The November 28 cover—Newsweek’s first with royals—shows King Edward VIII; Prince George VI; and Queen Mother Mary before Edward abdicated in December. 1939 When King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited the United States from June 7 to 12, it was the first time a British monarch ever stepped foot in the U.S. 1953 Queen Elizabeth II’s official coronation was on June 2, at the age of 27, almost a year after she ascended to the throne following her father’s death. 1969 Prince Charles was officially named the heir apparent to the British throne at his investiture ceremony on July 1, when he was crowned the Prince of Wales. 1981 Charles and Diana’s $2 million wedding at St. Paul’s Cathedral on July 29 was, at the time, hailed as a “fairy-tale romance” for” Britain’s storybook couple.” 1996 After a four-year…