The true name of the Statue of Liberty is 'La Liberté éclairant le monde' (Liberty Enlightening the World). Although presented as a gift upon completion in 1886, the designer Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi also hoped to celebrate the US's abolition of slavery in 1963, and that France would take note and impact change upon its colonies. The statue itself may have drawn inspiration from the Colossus of Rhodes, which was roughly the same size, and greeted ships coming into Rhodes (until it was destroyed by an earthquake in 226 BC). In 1987, the International Herald Tribune decided to dedicate a full scale replica of the Statue of Liberty's flame to Paris, to celebrate both 100 years of English language publication in Paris, as well as restoration work France had carried out on the Statue of Liberty three years earlier. The Flame of Liberty, completed in 1989, highlighted the fraternity between the US and France. However, in 1997 Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in a tunnel that passed directly below the statue, re-appropriating it as a memorial. Today most tourists assume it was built for her.
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