IN PHOTOS | Remembering Queen Elizabeth: End to the longest reign in the history of UK
Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch and a rock of stability across much of a turbulent century, died on Thursday after 70 years on the throne. She was 96.
Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch and a rock of stability across much of a turbulent century, died on Thursday after 70 years on the throne. She was 96. (Photo | AP)
The palace announced she died at Balmoral Castle, her summer residence in Scotland, where members of the royal family had rushed to her side after her health took a turn for the worse. (Photo | AP)
People gather outside Buckingham Palace in London on Thursday, September 8, 2022, after the death of Queen Elizabeth II was announced. (Photo | AP)
When Elizabeth was 21, almost five years before she became queen, she promised the people of Britain and the Commonwealth that “my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service.” (Photo | AP)
Her death brings to an end the longest reign in the history of the United Kingdom, and one of the longest reigns by any head of state. (Photo | AP)
British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who was appointed by Queen Elizabeth II just 48 hours earlier, said on Thursday that the UK is 'devastated' by her death and described the late monarch as “the rock on which modern Britain was built'. (Photo | AP)
Apart from Elizabeth and Victoria, only four other monarchs in British history have reigned for 50 years or more: George III (59 years), Henry III (56 years), Edward III (50 years) and James VI of Scotland (58 years.) (Photo | AP)
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was born in London on April 21, 1926, the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York. She was not born to be queen -- her father’s elder brother, Prince Edward, was destined for the crown, to be followed by any children he had. (Photo | AP)
It’s widely known that Elizabeth loved corgi dogs, Princess Diana reportedly called the animals the queen’s “moving carpet” because they accompanied her everywhere. She owned more than 30 corgis over the years. She also had two 'dorgis' crossbreeds of dachshund and corgi - named Candy and Vulcan. (Photo | AP)
Like many royals of her time and before, Elizabeth never went to a public school and was never exposed to other students. Instead, she was educated at home with Margaret, her younger sister. (Photo | AP)
In 1945, after months of campaigning for her parents’ permission to do something for the war effort, the heir to the throne became Second Subaltern Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. She enthusiastically learned to drive and service heavy vehicles. (Photo | AP)
Queen Elizabeth II, the then Princess, was at the famed Treetops hotel in Kenya with her husband Prince Philip on February 6, 1952, when King George VI died at the royal Sandringham residence in Norfolk. The Treetops Hotel became the fabled locale where a young girl climbed into a tree as Princess and stepped down from the tree the next day as a Queen. (Photo | AP)
At Westminster Abbey in November 1947 she married Royal Navy officer Philip Mountbatten, a prince of Greece and Denmark whom she had first met in 1939 when she was 13 and he 18. (Photo | AP)
The first of their four children, Prince Charles, was born on November 14, 1948. He was followed by Princess Anne on August 15, 1950, Prince Andrew on February 19, 1960, and Prince Edward on March 10, 1964. (Photo | AP)
Diana, Princess of Wales and Queen Elizabeth II smile to well-wishers outside Clarence House in London on Aug. 4, 1987. The public split of Charles and Diana was followed by the shock of Diana’s death in a Paris car crash in 1997. (Photo | AP)
She may have been the queen, but she paid taxes too, at least since 1992. When Windsor Castle, the queen's weekend residence, was ravaged by fire in 1992, the public rebelled against paying millions of pounds for repairs. (Photo | AP)
In September 2015 she surpassed her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria, who reigned for 63 years and seven months. In 2016, Elizabeth also became the longest-reigning monarch in the world with the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand. (Photo | AP)
With the death of the queen, her 73-year-old son Charles automatically becomes monarch, though the coronation might not take place for months. It is not known whether he will choose to call himself King Charles III or some other name. (Photo | AP)
In April 2020 -- with the country in lockdown and Prime Minister Boris Johnson hospitalized with the virus -- she made a rare video address, urging people to stick together. She summoned the spirit of World War II, that vital time in her life, and the nation’s, by echoing Vera Lynn’s wartime anthem “We’ll Meet Again.” (Photo | AP)
The impact of her loss will be huge and unpredictable, both for the nation and for the monarchy, an institution she helped stabilize and modernize across decades of huge social change and family scandals. (Photo | AP)
