Queen Elizabeth II, who will mark 60 years on throne on Monday, with two public meetings although she usually spends the day privately.
The Queen’s accession to the throne was on February 6, 1952 on the passing away of her father King George VI, who died in his sleep. She was just 25 at the time. However, her ceremonial coronation took place on June 2, 1953 at the Westminster Abbey in London.
Queen Elizabeth II will be the second British monarch to celebrate a diamond jubilee after Queen Victoria in 1897. Born on April 21, 1926, she was the first child of the then Duke and Duchess of York. She got married to her husband Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, on November 20, 1947 and they marked their diamond wedding anniversary in 2007.
The diamond jubilee celebrations in the UK will formally start at noon on Monday with a 41-gun Royal Salute by members of King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery wearing full dress uniform. The salute will be performed with the help of 71 horses pulling six guns.
The 85-year-old queen, who along with Prince Philip attended the Sunday service at West Newton Church in her Sandringham estate in Norfolk, will hold public engagements on Monday at Dersingham Infant and Nursery School and King’s Lynn Town Hall in the region.
Britain will formally hold four-day celebrations in June for the diamond jubilee, including a pageant on the river Thames. The queen will lead a flotilla of 1,000 vessels and will lead the fleet made up of boats from the UK, Commonwealth countries, including India. The four-day celebrations, just before the London Olympics, will come to a close with a Service of Thanksgiving at St. Paul’s Cathedral and a formal carriage procession by the queen.
The Queen and her husband will also travel widely within the UK across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland from March 29 to July 19.
Her family will represent her in travels abroad. Prince William and his wife Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, will visit Malaysia, Singapore, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.
The Queen will be represented by her second son, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, in India.
Her youngest son, Prince Edward, and his wife Sophie, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, will visit the Caribbean.