Today marks the birthday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Her Majesty will be celebrating turning 94 at Windsor.
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born in London on 21 April 1926, the first child of Albert and Elizabeth, then Duke and Duchess of York.
When Elizabeth’s uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated the throne in December 1936, his brother and Elizabeth’s father became King George VI, making Elizabeth the heir presumptive. Princess Elizabeth made public appearances from an early age, often supervised by her grandmother Queen Mary, and he took on more official and royal duties during World War II.
Princess Elizabeth met her future husband in 1934 and 1937. The two reconnected after a meeting at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth in July of 1939. While only 13-years-old at the time, Elizabeth fell in love with Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, and they began to exchange letters. Their engagement was announced on 9 July 1947 when Elizabeth was 21.
Their engagement wasn’t without controversy. Philip had served with the British Navy during World War Two but his family had connections to the Nazi regime. The prince was also relatively poor. Just before their marriage, Philip renounced his Greek and Danish titles and officially converted from Greek Orthodoxy to Anglicanism. He then adopted the surname of his mother’s British family and became Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten.
[getty src=”3294872″ width=”594″ height=”463″ tld=”com”]Elizabeth and Philip – who had been made Duke of Edinburgh – married on 20 November 1947 at Westminster Abbey. Nearly a year later, the then Duchess of Edinburgh gave birth to their first child, Charles, on 14 November 1948. Prior to the baby’s birth, King George VI had issued letters patent allowing Elizabeth’s children to be named using the style or title of a royal prince or princess. Their daughter, Princess Anne, was born on 15 August 1950.
During a Commonwealth tour and five days into their trip to Kenya, Princess Elizabeth learned of her father’s death. King George VI passed away on February 6th 1952, turning his daughter into the UK’s first female regnant in over fifty years and making her queen of seven Commonwealth nations as well as Head of the Commonwealth. The news of her loss and her accession was broken to her by Prince Philip. When asked what she wanted as her regnal name, she chose to remain Elizabeth.
[getty src=”591017087″ width=”594″ height=”410″ tld=”com”]While all of this was going on during The Queen’s accession, these events marked a turning point for the world. Having lived an extraordinary life so far we take a look at a few notable events that have happened during The Queen’s reign.
Notable moments during The Queen’s Reign
2 June 1953
[getty src=”50799710″ width=”594″ height=”391″ tld=”com”]2 June 1953, the coronation of Elizabeth II took place at Westminster Abbey in London. The Queen was just 25-years-old when she acceded to the throne upon her father’s death in February 1952. The coronation ceremony was held more than one year later because of the tradition of allowing an appropriate length of time to pass after a monarch dies.
During the service, Queen Elizabeth took an oath, was anointed with holy oil, and was invested with robes and regalia. Once crowned, Elizabeth became the Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon, which is now known as Sri Lanka.
Queen Elizabeth’s coronation was the first British coronation to be fully televised. Since her father’s coronation in 1937, television cameras had not been allowed in Westminster Abbey. The event marked the fourth and last British coronation of the 20th century. It’s estimated that the event cost £1.57 million, about £43,427,400 in 2019 currency.
18 April 1956
[getty src=”487818425″ width=”594″ height=”429″ tld=”com”]On this date, Prince Rainier of Monaco married American actress and Academy-award winner Grace Kelly. The 16-minute civil ceremony took place in the Throne Room of the Prince’s Palace of Monaco, a reception was later held with about 3,000 Monégasque citizens. To cap off the ceremony, the 142 official titles that Kelly had acquired in the union were formally recited with some of those titles, coming as part of her husband’s counterparts.
6 February 1958
[getty src=”78967440″ width=”594″ height=”458″ tld=”com”]The Munich air disaster occurred on this date when British European Airways Flight 609 crashed on its third attempt to take off from a slush-covered runway at Munich’s Munich-Riem Airport in West Germany. Aborad the plane was the Manchester United football team along with supporters and journalists; 20 of the 44 passengers on the aircraft died at the scene. The injured and some unconscious passengers were taken to the Rechts der Isar Hospital in Munich where three more people later died. In total, the incident resulted in 23 fatalities with 21 survivors.
2 November 1959
[getty src=”805453310″ width=”594″ height=”460″ tld=”com”]This date marks the day that transportation in England changed forever. The M1 motorway was opened as the London-Yorkshire motorway. It took about 5,000 workers to finish the first section, which was a 62 mile stretch from junction 5 near Watford to junction 18 at Crick near Rugby.
When the motorways opened, they had no speed limit. In 1967, the 70 mph limit was brought in permanently. With congestion on an average day, typically vehicles go about 47.5 mph.
20 February 1962
John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth. In just 4 hours and 55 minutes, he circled the globe three times in his space capsule, Friendship 7. Glenn’s achievements would later lead him to be honoured by U.S. President John F, Kennedy. Kennedy and his wife, First Lady Jackie Kennedy had visited Her Majesty the year prior.
[getty src=”79655075″ width=”594″ height=”472″ tld=”com”]Kennedy was assassinated in November of 1963 while travelling in a presidential motorcade in Dallas, Texas.
1963/February 1964
Beatlemania has begun. In February of 1964, the band arrives in the United States and performs on The Ed Sullivan Show; the performance is said to be watched by approximately 73 million people. The appearance created instant popularity and established the band’s international stature. In 1966, John Lennon controversially remarked that the group had become “more popular than Jesus.”
[getty src=”3376514″ width=”594″ height=”392″ tld=”com”]In 1965, upon request of Prime Minister Harold Wilson, John, Paul, George, and Ringo were named Members of the Order of the British Empire.
11 February 1975
[getty src=”515124614″ width=”594″ height=”482″ tld=”com”]Margaret Thatcher became the Conservative Party leader and leader of the Opposition. From 1979 to 1990, Thatcher would serve as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold that office. A Soviet journalist dubbed her “The Iron Lady” due to her uncompromising politics and leadership style.
13 July 1985
Live Aid was a dual-venue benefit concert held in support of raising funds for the relief of the ongoing Ethiopian famine. Organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, the event was held at London’s Wembley Stadium (attended by about 72,000 people) and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (attended by 89,484 people.) The event would be one of the largest-scale satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time.
U2, Queen, David Bowie, and Elton John were just some of the names to perform in London while Pennsylvania had performers such as Madonna, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, and Bob Dylan.
[getty src=”79030863″ width=”594″ height=”391″ tld=”com”]As a direct result of the concerts, it’s estimated about £150 million in total had been raised for the famine. While The Queen was not in attendance, her son, the Prince of Wales and his wife, the Princess of Wales did attend.
1992
[getty src=”52105454″ width=”594″ height=”401″ tld=”com”]1992 was known as a difficult year for The Queen, which she called her “annus horribilis.”
The Princess Royal and Captain Mark Philips divorced. The Prince and Princess of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of York separated. A fire also broke out at Windsor Castle on 20 November of that year. The castle suffered extensive damage and was fully repaired within just a few years. The repairs are estimated to have cost £36.5 million.
To help pay for restoration work, The Queen agreed to pay tax on her income, and Buckingham Palace was opened to the public.
31 August 1997
Diana, Princess of Wales died in a car crash in Paris while fleeing from the paparazzi. The crash also resulted in the deaths of her companion, Dodi Fayed, and the driver.
On 5 September, The Queen paid tribute to the late Princess in a live television broadcast. While Diana was no longer a member of the Royal Family, her funeral was held at Westminster Abbey.
4 August 2000
Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, celebrated her 100th birthday.
She celebrated in a number of ways, a parade that celebrated the highlights of her life was held, and her image appeared on a special commemorative £20 note that was issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland.
[getty src=”755101″ width=”527″ height=”354″ tld=”com”]A 41-gun salute would be held in the Queen Mother’s honour where she then took to the balcony of Buckingham Palace with her two daughters, The Queen, and Princess Margaret before being joined by other members of the Royal Family.
11 September 2000
The September 11 attacks were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaeda. The twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York collapsed after being hit with two passenger airliners. A third plane crashed into the Pentagon, the U.S. Department of Defense while a fourth plane – headed for Washington D.C. – crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. 2,977 people lost their lives that day while there were over 25,000 reported injuries.
Following the attacks, Her Majesty made the bold move of breaking royal tradition and authorising that the American national anthem “The Star-Spangled Banner” was played during Buckingham Palace’s Changing of the Guard on 13 September 2001.
[getty src=”102666403″ width=”417″ height=”594″ tld=”com”]On a trip to New York in 2010, The Queen placed a weather at Ground Zero to honour the victims of the attacks.
9 February 2002
The Queen’s younger sister, Princess Margaret dies at King Edward VII Hospital, London after having a stroke that resulted in cardiac problems. Her coffin was draped in her personal standard before being taken from Kensington Palace to St James’s Palace before her funeral.
[getty src=”52108996″ width=”448″ height=”594″ tld=”com”]15 February 2002, Margaret’s funeral was held on the 50th anniversary of her father’s funeral. The Princess was cremated, and her ashes would be placed in the tomb of her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother (who would die seven weeks later.)
4 November 2008
Barack Obama becomes the first black U.S. president.
During a state visit the following year, the first lady, Michelle Obama made headlines as she gave The Queen a hug in a break with royal ‘protocol.’
Regarding a 2016 encounter where the First Lady was to be picked up by the monarch in her car during a visit to Windsor Castle, the UK Press Association reported:
“So I had all this protocol buzzing in my head, and I was like ‘don’t trip down the stairs and don’t touch anybody, whatever you do,” Mrs Obama said.
“And so The Queen says ‘just get in, sit wherever’ and she’s telling you one thing and you’re remembering protocol and she says ‘Oh, it’s all rubbish, just get in.'”
June 2012
The year 2012 marked the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. The only other Diamond Jubilee celebration for any of her predecessors was in 1897 which marked 60 years since Queen Victoria’s 1837 accession.
[getty src=”145725017″ width=”594″ height=”388″ tld=”com”]Many events were held in The Queen’s honour such as a Diamond Jubilee Concert and the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant. A parade of 670 boats took to the Thames as Her Majesty and other members of the Royal Family watched from vessels.
[getty src=”149620710″ width=”594″ height=”417″ tld=”com”]Summer 2012
London hosts the 2012 Olympic Summer games from 21 July to 12 August. London had been elected as the host city on 6 July 2005, defeating bids from Moscow, New York City, Madrid, and Paris.
[getty src=”149369699″ width=”594″ height=”413″ tld=”com”]London became the first city to host the modern Olympics three times, having previously hosted the summer games in 1908 and in 1948. The Queen’s daughter, the Princess Royal, is part of the British Olympic Association and a member of the International Olympic Committee.
The Queen famously appeared with ‘James Bond’ during the Opening Ceremony where she (her stunt double) jumped out of a helicopter to enter Olympic Stadium. The Queen’s arrival was then announced to thundering applause as she entered with the Duke of Edinburgh.
23 April 2019
The Queen becomes the oldest living monarch following the death of Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg.
