La Queen Elizabeth II, who celebrated 20 years of marriage to Prince Philip last November 72, celebrates today the 68th anniversary of the day she became sovereign of the United Kingdom.
Born on April 21, 1926, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was not yet 26 years old the 6 February 1952when his father King George VI died of a heart attack.
Elizabeth - who automatically became Queen - was reached by the news while she was on an official visit to Kenya, an intermediate stage of a long journey that should have taken her, together with Philip, to the borders of the Commonwealth, to Australia and New Zealand. But plans changed, and the royal couple was forced to hastily return to London.
In theory, the rules would have meant that the English royal house changed its name, assuming that of the ruler's husband (Mountbatten). But the British Prime Minister at the time, none other than Sir Winston Churchill objected, supported by Elizabeth's grandmother, Mary of Teck. Thus, on April 9, 1952, Elizabeth announced that the English royal family would continue to call each other Windsor.
The choice annoyed Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who complained with impeccable aplomb British: “I am the only man in the whole nation – he said – who cannot give his name to his own children”. A few years later it was partially compensated: in 1960, after the death of Mary of Teck and the resignation of Churchill, the descendants of the royal spouses who were not holders of royal titles were allowed to adopt the surname Mountbatten-Windsor.
Elizabeth was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953. The ceremony was televised for the first time, with the exception of the anointing and communion moments. After the Coronation, the Queen and Philip they moved to Buckingham Palace.
To get an idea of the time that has passed since then, just think that, during her reign, Elizabeth II officially met well 11 presidents of the United States. From Truman to Trump.
