LONDON -- Britain put on a display of birthday pageantry Saturday for King Charles III, a military parade that marked the Princess of Wales ' first public appearance since her cancer diagnosis early this year.
It was the first time Kate has appeared in public since December. She disclosed in March that she was undergoing chemotherapy for an unspecified form of cancer. Huge crowds turn out each June to watch the birthday parade, also known as Trooping the Color, which begins with a procession involving horses, musicians and hundreds of soldiers in ceremonial uniform from Buckingham Palace.
Prince William, in military dress uniform, rode on horseback for the ceremony, in which troops parade past the king with their regimental flag, or "color." The display of precision marching and martial music stems from the days when a regiment's flag was an essential rallying point in the fog of battle.
Charles, 75, disclosed his cancer in February, and has recently eased back into public duties. He attended commemorations last week for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe on June 6, 1944. Blue sky returned as the family emerged onto the balcony to watch a flyby that included the Royal Air Force aerobatic team, the Red Arrows, trailing red, white and blue plumes of vapor.