On September 6th, 1997, the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, took place in London, England. The funeral cost roughly 5 million pounds (about $8 million USD in 1997), and while the ceremony was hosted at Westminster Abbey, much of the budget went to the massive security operation required for the 2,000 guests and an estimated 1 million people who lined the four-mile route from Kensington Palace. The funeral was also broadcast globally, with an estimated 2.5 billion people watching the service worldwide, which was nearly half the planet's population at the time. In the UK alone, the funeral was watched by 32.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched TV event in British history. Elton John famously performed a rewritten version of "Candle in the Wind" at the ceremony, which was released as a single and became the best-selling physical single of all time, earning over 38 million pounds for the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.
