Queen Elizabeth Set To Break Longevity Record

On September 9th Queen Elizabeth will break the record held by her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, and become Britain’s longest-ruling monarch. Via Yahoo News:

Elizabeth only became queen due to a quirk of history after her uncle Edward VIII abdicated because of his love for American divorcee Wallis Simpson and the crown passed to her father George VI when she was 10 years old. She was just 25 when she became Queen Elizabeth II on Feb. 6, 1952 on the death of her father. At the time she was on tour in Kenya with her husband Prince Philip, who has been by her side throughout her reign. “In a way I didn’t have an apprenticeship. My father died much too young and so it was all a very sudden kind of taking on and making the best job you can,” she said 40 years later. She was crowned queen of Britain and other realms, including Australia and Canada, on June 2, 1953, in a televised ceremony in Westminster Abbey. She became the 40th monarch in a royal line that goes back to William the Conqueror, who took the throne in 1066 after winning the Battle of Hastings. The longest-reigning monarch of all time – King Sobhuza II of Swaziland – ruled for almost 83 years until his death in 1982, while King Louis XIV of France ruled for 72 years, the longest period for any major European country.

Britain has seen twelve prime ministers during the reign of Queen Elizabeth.