On Monday, Queen Elizabeth II marks her Sapphire Jubilee, becoming the first British monarch to reign for 65 years. It’s just one of many milestones the queen has marked in her nine decades. Here’s are some other significant numbers about her record-breaking life and reign:
— Elizabeth assumed the throne on the death of her father, King George VI, on Feb. 6, 1952. On September 9, 2015, she became Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, passing her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.
— She turned 90 on April 21, 2016, and has been the world’s oldest monarch since the death of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah in 2015.
— She has had 13 British prime ministers serve during her reign, from Winston Churchill to Theresa May.
— She has met 12 U.S. presidents, from Herbert Hoover (after he had left office) to Barack Obama — more than a quarter of all the U.S. presidents since Independence. The only president during her reign that she did not meet was Lyndon B. Johnson. She is due to meet President Donald Trump when he comes to Britain for a controversial state visit later this year.
— She has traveled more than 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) on official trips, visiting 106 of the 193 current official members of the United Nations. She has visited Canada 22 times — the largest number of trips to any nation.
— She has four children, eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
— She has cut back on her official duties in the past few years, but Elizabeth still conducted 341 official engagements in 2015.
(AP)
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13 Responses
And to think this is all because of medical malpractice. her father’s doctors incompetently told him to start smoking as a remedy for stuttering and it killed him at a relatively young age. Based on the life expectancy of King George’s brother, Elizabeth probably would not have become Queen for another 25 years.
And to someone who is going to complain that the Queen does nothing political, I am answering that the Queen (and the royal family) are apolitical, and they are the only apolitical people in all of Britain. In America, the only apolitical people are found in hospitals and nursing homes, as the only apolitical Americans tend also to be comatose – and our political system clearly suffers for the lack of having someone “neutral” on top (as our last few presidents, and the hatred they engender among the opposition, illustrate).
But yet in her busy busy schedule she just couldn’t find the time to visit Israel. Makes one wonder. Apolitical my foot.
Sapphire jubilee … 1.6 million kilometers on official trips … holy mackerel.
Who cares? I’d rather read about our gedolim and their limud HaTorah, tzedaka and chessed.
In response to comment 4: u r correct
#3- The Queen’s visits, even for family visits, are determined by the Prime Minister. On the rare occasion of a family member making a private visit to the Queens’s mother-in-law (who is buried in Jerusalem, and honored at Yad Ve-Shem for her activities during World War II), they make it clear it is “private”.
So the question is why the various prime ministers object to the Queen visiting Israel. That probably has to do with the fact that Israel is one of two countries that drove the British out by force and that the Arab-Israeli war started off as a not-very-bright idea by the British government as a device to maintain British control of the region.
70 ago very few people thought smoking was really harmful. King George also drank quite heavily, although he didn’t let it affect his duties (unlike Churchill).
You can’t really copy the British set up to another country. What the Founding Fathers did was way ahead of their tine – and it has mostly worked for the US. Believe it or not George Washington wanted the title His High Mightiness! Instead he got Mr President.
#not getting involved- the Queen doesn’t make her own travel arrangements. It’s not up to her if she visits Israel.
Happens to be she is patron to a number of Jewish causes and has been a great friend to the Jewish community. Every shul -even chareidi- say a special tefilla for her well-being every shabbos.
Whatever her “politics” (and I don’t believe she is anti-EY) she conducts herself with a dignity sorely missing among our own leadership in the U.S. and EY. And to No. 5, hearing about the leadership of the world’s major countries is not mutually exclusive with reading and seeing here on VIN stories and photo albums about our own gedolim. Sorry you have difficulty in multi-tasking. YWN keeps us well informed on BOTH.
#3 Read up about her “tzidkus” and you’ll understand why Hashem orchestrated she not visit the Holy Land.
some old lady. who cares either way
Prince Charles is a very lucky man to still have have 2 living parents @68 years old.