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In honor of Her Majesty’s 89th birthday, all the details you need to know about Queen Elizabeth II

April 21, 2015

The Queen was born at 2.40am on 21 April 1926 at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, London.

She was the first child of The Duke and Duchess of York, who later became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

At the time she stood third in line of succession to the throne after Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII), and her father, The Duke of York. But it was not expected that her father would become King, or that she would become Queen.

The Princess was christened Elizabeth Alexandra Mary in the private chapel at Buckingham Palace. She was named after her mother, while her two middle names are those of her paternal great-grandmother, Queen Alexandra, and paternal grandmother, Queen Mary.

Of course , The Duchess of Cambridge is a style icon, as Diana, Princess of Wales was before her…but a Young Queen Elizabeth II was equally as glamorous and a style icon in her own right! Here she is on tour in Australia in 1954.


The Princess’s early years were spent at 145 Piccadilly, the London house taken by her parents shortly after her birth, and at White Lodge in Richmond Park.

She also spent time at the country homes of her paternal grandparents, King George V and Queen Mary, and her mother’s parents, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore.

In 1930, Princess Elizabeth gained a sister, with the birth of Princess Margaret Rose. The family of four was very close.

When she was six years old, her parents took over Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park as their own country home. In the grounds of Royal Lodge Princess Elizabeth had her own small house, Y Bwthyn Bach (the Little Cottage), which was given to her by the people of Wales in 1932.

Princess Elizabeth’s quiet family life came to an end in 1936, when her grandfather, King George V, died. His eldest son came to the throne as King Edward VIII, but, before the end of the year, King Edward VIII had decided to give up the throne in order to marry the woman he loved, Mrs Wallis Simpson.

Upon his abdication, Princess Elizabeth’s father acceded to the throne as King George VI, and in 1937 the two Princesses attended their parents’ coronation in Westminster Abbey.

Princess Elizabeth was now first in line to the throne, and a figure of even more intense public interest.

In honor of Her Majesty’s 89th birthday, 30 things you need to know about Queen Elizabeth II

via Harper’s Bazzar

1. She backs over 600 charities and organizations.

2. Queen Elizabeth has received over 3.5 million items of correspondence over the length of her reign.

3. She speaks fluent French.

4. In 2005, the Queen claimed ownership of 88 cygnets, or young swans, on the River Thames. The swans are now looked over by a royal swan keeper.

5. She joined Facebook in 2010, through a page called The British Monarchy. It is not possible to poke her. She joined Twitter in 2009; a social media team at Buckingham Palace sends daily tweets.

 

6. Queen Elizabeth was the first British monarch to celebrate her diamond wedding anniversary.

7. She is the only person in Britain who can drive without a license plate on her car.

8. She has visited Australia 16 times.

9. She has received a variety of live animals—jaguars and sloths from Brazil and black beavers from Canada—as gifts. They are now in the care of the London zoo.

10. She has sent over 540,000 telegrams to couples in the Commonwealth and the U.K. in honor of their diamond anniversaries.

11. Although her birthday is April 21, she officially celebrates it in June.

12. She hosts an average of 50,000 people every year at receptions, banquets, lunches, dinners, and garden parties at Buckingham Palace.

13. She and the Duke of Edinburgh has sent out over 37,500 Christmas cards throughout her reign.

14. There have been six Roman Catholic Popes during the Queen Elizabeth’s reign (Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II and Benedict XVI).

15. She learned to drive in 1945, when she, along with Winston Churchill’s daughter, joined the women’s branch of the British army.

16. She used the London Tube for the first time in May 1939, accompanied by her sister Princess Margaret and her governess Marion Crawford.

17. Queen Elizabeth has 30 godchildren.

18. She has sat for over 129 official portraits; two with the Duke of Edinburgh. In 1933, she was 7 years old when she sat for her first portrait, painted by the Hungarian artist Philip Alexius de Laszlo.

 

19. In 2003, the Queen sat for a hologram portrait, made up of 10,000 layered images.

20. She has opened Parliament every year except 1959, for Prince Andrew’s birth, and 1963, for Prince Edward’s birth.

21. She was the first British monarch to visit China, in 1986.

22. She sent her first email in 1976 from a British army base.

23. She loves corgis, and has owned over 30 during her reign. Her first corgi, Susan, was a gift for her 18th birthday in 1944. She currently owns four of the dogs: Emma, Willow, Linnet, and Holly.

24. She introduced a new breed of dogs, dorgis, when one of her corgis mated with Princess Margaret’s dachshund, Pipkin. The Queen has four dorgis: Cider, Berry, Vulcan, and Candy.

25. She owns the largest pink diamond in the world.

26. To celebrate her Golden Jubilee in 2002, the Queen hosted the first-ever public concerts in the Buckingham Palace gardens. The show, Party and the Palace, was one of the most-watched pop concerts in history, attracting over 200 million viewers.

27. She demoted a footman for giving whiskey to her corgis.

28. In March 2004, she hosted Buckingham Palace’s first women-only event, “Women of Achievement.”

29. She received her first pony, a Shetland named Peggy, from her grandfather King George V when she was four years old. She still rides at Windsor, Sandringham, and Balmoral.

30. The Queen breeds horses, and has about 25 horses training at the royal studs every season.

We wish her Majestry all the Best ! She is an Amazing Woman !

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