Queen becomes longest living British monarch

Queen Elizabeth II became the longest living monarch in British history today.

AT 1700 GMT the Queen surpassed the 81 years and 243 days of Queen Victoria, her great-great-grandmother, but there was no special event to commemorate the historic landmark.

??????There??????s nothing the Queen is doing to mark the occasion, others have noticed the date but it??????s nothing that we were thinking about marking. This is just another normal working day,?????? said a Buckingham Palace spokeswoman.

Just as she has done almost every day for the last 54 years, the Queen worked her way through official red boxes of letters, schedules and updates from her Government.

Perhaps the Queen will break off from her routine paperwork on September 9, 2015 when she will beat another of Queen Victoria??????s records and become the Britain??????s longest-reigning monarch.

She was born on April 21, 1926 and crowned Queen Elizabeth II on June 2, 1953 to become the 40th British monarch since William I in 1066. She is the world??????s second-longest serving monarch alive, after Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

In more than half a century she has outlasted 11 Prime Ministers and celebrated the birth of eight grandchildren including a baby boy born to the Earl and Countess of Wessex on Monday.

Elizabeth was originally third in line to the throne behind her uncle Edward, Prince of Wales, and her father, George, Duke of York. She became the heir after Edward, then King Edward VIII, abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee, and her father became King George VI.

In 1947, she married Philip Mountbatten, her third cousin and a British naval commander. He renounced his titles as prince of Greece and Denmark to marry her.

The couple??????s first son, Charles, was born in 1948, followed by Anne in 1950, Andrew in 1960 and Edward in 1964.

Elizabeth was in Kenya when her father died in February 1952, making her queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

In 2002 the Queen embarked on a hugely successful 13-week world tour to celebrate 50 years on the throne. She visited 70 cities and towns in 50 counties throughout the UK and making a jubilee circumnavigation of the globe to visit Jamaica, New Zealand and Australia.

During her reign, the Queen has set records including being the first British monarch to send an e-mail, have a message put on the moon and hold a public concert in her back garden.

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Long live the queen!
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Yay for the queen!
<3

long live the queen and the monercy.

Long live economy-sapping figureheads!!!

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/q ... will_leave

[jayman]

you have a queen, we have a flag.. flags are cheaper and much nicer to look at when they get old. and the concept of a monarchy is too indicative of something akin to a caste system...oh, and then theres that thing where America is the bitchenest country in the world, largely due to our rejection of monarchy.. [:D]
however, that's pretty cool, and i do understand that the uk does have a democracy for government and that the royals are a living symbol of brittish pride in tradition..

A one word question immediately comes to mind: "So?"

Anyway, I guess it's cool in some odd historic POV, but since she is not celebrating the date, I think perhaps her example of this event is spot on.

Edit: to "The Onion" broadcast.

Elton John will end up de-throning her to become the oldest living queen anyway.

Originally posted by TConwell

A one word question immediately comes to mind: "So?"

That was honestly what I was thinking when i read the thread title.

[jayman]

Originally posted by Spongemonkey74

Elton John will end up de-throning her to become the oldest living queen anyway.

YAY some besides me,said it.. was thinking the same thing

Ok well this is for all of us over on this side of the pond, you american's woudn't understand

Long live "The Onion"!

What the hell is it with these American news channels. The 'English' people they have speaking always have the typical American sterotype of the English accent. I swear to go that the people they get in are simply actors, I never here anyone speak like that in the UK. Try spending more than 5 minutes in Birmingham here, every other word is either 'chuff' or 'shiz'

Originally posted by Edge

I swear to go that the people they get in are simply actors, I never here anyone speak like that in the UK. Try spending more than 5 minutes in Birmingham here, every other word is either 'chuff' or 'shiz'

Every other word is fu-- or shi-? So are you saying that the English reporters should be like; "In other news, the Queen is fu--ing 81 years old. That's great! When I'm that old, I'll be shi--ing in a diaper." [:p]

[gouldy]

interesting... I say that, but it's really not

I sort of fail to see the relevance of the monarchy in the modern day and age, it just seems... a giant waste of my money.

I too, get pissed off about the English speaking people on American programming. Have you ever watched one of those "Worlds Most Amazing Videos" type of things? When they go to a clip of like a police chase in England, there's always some sound effect over the top of it like some really old stereotypical nee nah nee nah sound. Police cars just do not sound like that here. I don't understand that, it's as if the editors think that people in America wouldn't understand that it was actually from England if it sounded a different way to what they'd expect [confused] I watched a film the other day too, in which someone had to do something involving countries, christ knows what, but next to "England" was the Union Jack, as the flag.... I nearly destroyed something.

Gouldy ... "I nearly destroyed something." - you gotta lot of anger issues brother.

I saw the Queen's office on National Treasure yesterday. I wonder if the Resolute Desk's drawers play as tumblers!