Page 10 - Issue 72 Online

SOME OF THE MANY HIGHLIGHTS DURING 70 YEARS OF THE QUEEN’S REIGN

Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor
was born on 21st April 1926
She is the eldest daughter of King George
VI, who was the second son of King George
V. It’s easy to forget that The Queen wasn’t
supposed to have become queen at all!
King Edward VIII succeeded his father King
George V, but subsequently abdicated
in 1936 to marry the American divorcee
Wallis Simpson. His brother, the Queen’s
father, consequently became King George
VI when the Queen was 11 years old.

She married her third cousin, Philip
Mountbatten (latterly Prince Philip) on 20th
November 1947 in Westminster Abbey.

The Death of King George VI in The First State Visit to West
February 1952 Germany in 1965
Upon the death of her father, at A 10-day visit to the Federal Republic of
Sandringham on 6th February 1952, Germany (West Germany as it is now)
Princess Elizabeth was called upon to began on 27th May 1965. It was the first
assume the throne at the age of 25. She official visit there by a British royal since
was staying at the Treetops Hotel in the 1913 and marked the 20-year anniversary
foothills of Mount Kenya when she was of the end of the Second World War.
told the news. At only 25, she was actually
seven years older than Queen Victoria, who
became queen at just 18. The Aberfan Disaster 1966
On 21st October 1966, an avalanche
The Queen’s Coronation 1953 of almost 140,000 cubic yards of black
The coronation ceremony was held at slurry from a coal mine cascaded down
the hill above the South Wales village of
Westminster Abbey on 2nd June 1953 Aberfan, destroying everything in its path.
and was the first to be broadcast live on It buried an elementary school killing 116
television. The population of the UK was children and 28 adults. Prince Philip went
36 million at the time and it’s estimated to Aberfan the following day but The Queen
that 27 million watched the ceremony with delayed her visit for over a week as she
millions more listening on the radio. After felt her presence would distract from the
the ceremony, some 3 million people lined rescue efforts. It is well-documented that
the route between Westminster Abbey and she has regretted that decision more than
Buckingham Palace. any other in her reign.

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