Queen Elizabeth II is only the second UK monarch to mark 60 years on the throne. |
OTTAWA - On Monday, it will be 60 years since the Queen ascended to the throne. But what do we really know about her? Well, she owns all the porpoises surrounding Britain, and is patron of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association. She's been trained in how to replace spark plugs, once needed a push from the Archbishop of Canterbury, and reportedly claimed to find one of our prime ministers "rather disappointing.'' Which one? Read on.
1. Her reign of 60 years is the second-longest of any British monarch, behind Queen Victoria's 63 years, 216 days.
2. The suggestion that she and her sister, Margaret, be evacuated to Canada during the Second World War was dismissed by her mother, who said: ``The children won't go without me.
3. She was born by caesarean section.
4. When she reaches the 60-year mark on Monday, she'll be tied in 66th place with former Indonesian ruler Pakubuwono XII for the longest verifiable reign in history. Swaziland's Sobhuza II leads the pack with a reign of 82 years, 254 days.
5. In 1928, Winston Churchill wrote of the two-year-old Elizabeth: ``She has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant.''
6. Her coronation in 1953 was the first to be televised. An estimated 20 million people in Britain tuned in, while 100 million in North America reportedly watched the recorded ceremony.
7. The 1st Buckingham Palace Company, a Girl Guides group, was formed when she was 11, specifically so she could socialize with girls her age.
8. When she was a youngster, her family called her "Lilibet.''
9. She joined the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service in February 1945, and trained as a driver and mechanic.
10. She fell in love with Prince Philip when she was 13 years old. He was 18 at the time.
11. She was in Kenya, en route with Philip to a tour of Australia and New Zealand, when her father, King George VI, died in 1952 and she became Queen.
12. Elizabeth used ration coupons to buy the material for her wedding dress. Many people sent her their clothing coupons; she returned them, however, as it was illegal to give them away. The dress was made of Chinese silk.
13. Philip's three surviving sisters at the time of his wedding - all married to German noblemen with Nazi links - and former king Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne to marry socialite Wallis Simpson, were not invited to Elizabeth and Philip's wedding on Nov. 20, 1947.
14. Her coronation gown was embroidered with the floral emblems of the Commonwealth countries, including Canada's Maple Leaf.
15. According to former British MP and cabinet minister Tony Benn, the Queen found former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau ``rather disappointing.''
16. In 1981 during the Trooping the Colour ceremony, six gunshots were fired at Elizabeth at close range while she rode down The Mall on her horse. They were found to be blanks, and her assailant, 17-year-old Marcus Sarjeant, was sentenced to five years in jail. He served three.
17. She has received more than three million pieces of correspondence during her reign.
18. In a November 1992 speech marking the 40th (ruby) anniversary of her reign, she referred to the year as her annus horribilis, or horrible year. That year, her son Andrew separated from his wife, Sarah; her daughter, Anne, divorced Mark Phillips; Windsor Castle was damaged in a fire; German protesters threw eggs at her; and then-prime minister John Major announced that, beginning the following year, she would have to pay income tax for the first time. Before the year was out, her son Charles formally separated from Diana.
19. In 2003, she underwent laparoscopic surgery to both knees.
20. In welcoming the Queen to the UN General Assembly in 2010, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called her "an anchor for our age.''
21. A security guard denied her entry to a private stand at the Royal Windsor Horse Show in 1991, later noting: "I thought she was some old dear who had got lost.''
22. Two years ago, Forbes magazine estimated her net worth at $450 million US.
23. In conversation with her, she should initially be addressed as "Your Majesty,'' and thereafter "Ma'am.''
24. Her birthday is officially celebrated in Canada on the last Monday before May 25. She has spent her official birthday in Canada only once, in 2005.
25. Combined, her four children - Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward - have been married six times. Only Edward, who married Sophie Rhys-Jones in 1999, has not divorced.
26. She is the patron of more than 600 charities and organizations, including the Royal Pigeon Racing Association.
27. Since 1952, she has conferred close to 400,000 titles and awards.
28. She shares a birthday - April 21 - with author Charlotte Bronte, actors Anthony Quinn, Charles Grodin and Tony Danza, singers Michael Franti and Iggy Pop, and swimmer Alex Baumann.
29. She is the most widely travelled ruler, having visited more than 125 countries.
30. Among the gifts she has received are jaguars and sloths from Brazil and two black beavers from Canada. She has also received pineapples, eggs, snail shells, maple trees, prawns and a feather cape.
31. She has sat for approximately 140 portraits, including a holographic one in 2003.
32. In 1969, she sent a congratulatory message to the Apollo 11 astronauts to commemorate the first moon landing. The message was micro-filmed and placed on the moon in a metal container.
33. She sent her first email in 1976.
34. For her 18th birthday in 1944, she was given her first corgi, named Susan. Since then, she has owned more than 30 corgis. Susan accompanied the Queen and Prince Philip on their honeymoon.
35. She has visited the sets of British soap operas Coronation Street, East Enders and Emmerdale.
36. As declared in a statute enacted in 1324, the Queen technically still owns the sturgeons, whales and dolphins (aka ``Royal Fishes'') in the waters within five kilometres of Britain.
37. Since her accession to the throne, four likenesses of the Queen have appeared on Canadian coins. The first was drawn by Mary Gillick in 1953. Arnold Machin's 1965 portrait depicted her wearing a jewel-studded tiara. In 1990, a new royal portrait was commissioned from Dora de Pedery-Hunt, the first of a reigning monarch by a Canadian artist. The current effigy was produced in 2003 by Susanna Blunt of Vancouver.
38. Her mother was initially against Elizabeth's marriage to Philip, and reportedly referred to him as "The Hun.''
39. The Queen uses her handbag to signal staff. If she wants to leave a dinner in five minutes, she'll put it on the table. She moves it from arm to arm to let aides know she's tired of talking to someone.
40. She once demoted a footman for feeding whisky to her corgis.
41. Who loves ya', baby? She was a fan of the 1970s TV drama Kojak, starring Telly Savalas.
42. When Australian prime minister Paul Keating broke protocol and put his arm around her in 1992, he was dubbed "The Lizard of Oz.''
43. It's estimated she's worn more than 5,000 different hats during her reign. She typically wears her favourites 20 or 30 times.
44. She loves to read crime thrillers by P.D. James, Agatha Christie and Dick Francis.
45. In 1982, Irishman Michael Fagan broke into her bedroom at Buckingham Palace and sat at the end of her bed for seven minutes as she engaged him in conversation. Help finally arrived when he asked for a cigarette.
46. She has launched 23 ships. The first was the HMS Vanguard, in November 1944. In 1967, she christened and launched the eponymous Cunard liner RMS Queen Elizabeth 2.
47. She was awarded a gold disc after 100,000 copies of the 2006 CD Party at the Palace, featuring children's music performed by the Band of the Welsh Guards, were sold.
48. Prince Philip's pet names for the Queen are said to include "sausage'' and "cabbage.''
49. Her engagement ring was made using diamonds from a tiara belonging to Philip's mother. Following their wedding in 1947, the couple received more than 10,000 congratulatory telegrams and 2,500 presents.
50. The Queen and Prince Philip share the same great-great-grandmother: Queen Victoria.
51. The Queen sued The Sun newspaper after it published the full text of her 1992 broadcast two days before it aired. She later accepted an apology and a £200,000 donation to charity.
52. She is the only person in Britain who can drive without a licence or a registration number on her car. She also doesn't have a passport.
53. She has been in Canada more than 30 times. Twenty-three of those occasions were official visits; the remainder were largely refuelling stopovers.
54. She is reportedly the only British monarch in history properly trained to change a spark plug.
55. She introduced a new breed of dog known as the ``dorgi,'' after one of her corgis mated with a dachshund named Pipkin.
56. At her coronation in 1953, her robes were so heavy that she asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to give her a push, saying, "Get me started.''
57. She has nine royal thrones - one at the House of Lords, two at Westminster Abbey, and six in the throne room at Buckingham Palace.
58. She stands 5-foot-4. Actress Helen Mirren, who portrayed her in the 2006 film The Queen, is also 5-foot-4.
59. When her father unexpectedly became king in 1936 following Edward VIII's abdication, Margaret, then six, said to Elizabeth: "Does that mean you're going to be queen? Poor you.''
60. The Queen, or at least "The British Monarchy,'' joined Facebook in 2010. More than half a million people currently "like'' her, but none is her "friend.''
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