Meet the Queen at 90 – 31 fascinating tit bits about England’s longest reigning monarch

The Queen of England celebrates her 90th birthday today (Thursday, April 21, 2016) with remarkable rich heritage. Here are some facts about Queen Elizabeth for your enjoyment:

1. She was born by caesarean section – described at the time in a statement by royal doctors as “a certain line of treatment”, and was christened on 29 May, 1926, in the private chapel at Buckingham Palace.

 

2. She was educated at home with her sister Margaret by tutors including their father and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

 

3. She married Prince Philip on 20 November, 1947, at Westminster Abbey in London, and paraded eight bridesmaids. The Queen did her own make-up for her wedding.

 

4. Princess Elizabeth became Queen at the age of 25.

 

5. In 1981, she was shot at by a teenager with a replica gun as she rode past crowds on horseback near Buckingham Palace

 

6. She became Britain’s longest-reigning monarch on 9 September, 2015, breaking the record previously set by her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria.

 

7. Madame Tussauds has showcased 23 different waxworks of Her Majesty to date.

 

8. Tony Blair was the first Prime Minister to have been born during the Queen’s reign. He was born in 1953.

 

9. The reason she usually wears a single-colour outfit and decorative hat is to make sure she can be seen in a crowd.

 

10. Her Majesty has sat for 129 portraits.

 

11. She has answered around 3.5 million pieces of correspondence.

 

12. She has attended every opening of Parliament except those in 1959 and 1963 when she was expecting Prince Andrew and Prince Edward.

 

13. She was originally third in line to the throne and was never expected to be Queen. That all changed when her uncle, Edward VIII, abdicated in 1936

 

14. There have been 12 Prime Ministers during her reign –  Winston Churchill; Sir Anthony Eden; Harold Macmillan; Sir Alec Douglas-Home; Harold Wilson; Edward Heath; James Callaghan; Margaret Thatcher; John Major; Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron.

 

15. There have also been 12 US presidents during her reign – Harry S Truman; Dwight D Eisenhower; John F Kennedy; Lyndon B Johnson; Richard Nixon; Gerald Ford; Jimmy Carter; Ronald Reagan; George H W Bush; Bill Clinton; George W Bush and Barack Obama

 

16. 16. She has a big family of fourchildren, eight grandchildren and (to date) five great-grandchildren.

 

17. She was a budding actress. As a teenager she performed alongside her younger sister Margaret in a number of pantomimes. She played Price Florizel in Cinderella in 1941

 

18. She is also a keen photographer

 

19. When she gave birth to Prince Andrew in 1960 she became the first reigning sovereign to have a child since 1857 since Queen Victoria celebrated the arrival of Princess Beatrice

 

20. The Queen has visited 117 countries. According to the official count, and has travelled at least 1,032,513 miles during her reign

 

21. Pub hours are to be extended for her official 90th birthday. Pubs will be able to stay open an extra two hours on June 10 and 11 until 1am

 

22. The Queen has a sweet tooth, and one of her favourite cakes is honey and cream sponge

 

23. Queen Elizabeth overtook Victoria’s record on the evening of September 9, 2015 as the longest reigning monarch. Having reigned for 23,226 days, 16 hours and 30 minutes

 

24. Her Coronation was the first ever to be televised

 

25. Prince George (Prince Williams’ son) calls his great-grandmother “Gan-Gan”

 

26. She is the reigning monarch in 16 countries. There are 15 Commonwealth Realms in addition to the UK: Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Papua New Guinea, St Christopher and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Tuvalu, Barbados, Grenada, Solomon Islands, St Lucia and The Bahamas

 

27. The Queen is believed to be the only monarch in British History to have been properly trained to change a flat tyre.

When she served with the Number 1 Beaufront Company, Auxiliary Territorial Service during the Second World War

 

28. The Queen is fluent in French. She first learned it from a number of French and Belgian governesses when she in her teens. She has often used it when speaking to ambassadors and heads of state from French-speaking countries, and when visiting French-speaking areas of Canada

 

29. She is the oldest monarch to have celebrated a Golden Jubilee. In 2002, at the age of 76

 

30. She was the first British Monarch to celebrate her diamond wedding anniversary (60 years) on November 20, 2007

 

31. She has overseen a massive population increase since she was born. The UK’s population has grown from 45.2m in 1926 to 65.1m today. And London has grown from 7.5m through to 8.6m