April 21, 1926, the birth of Her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth of York. The heir to the throne after her father, and elder sister to the late Princess Margaret, she had many expectations for her. Growing up Queen Elizabeth was pampered, she was taught by private tutors in her household and enjoyed leisurely activities like riding horses, however she was not spoiled. It was recorded that many of the guests that met the Queen were surprised and impressed at how mature and grounded she was at such a young age. But lots of things changed for her when her grandfather the late King George V passed away and her uncle King Edward VIII took the throne. This made her third in line, after her father.

But quickly after Edward took the throne, he abdicated it, and Elizabeth’s father took the throne. She was next up. Elizabeth’s father had bad health. With his extensive addiction to smoking he contracted cancer which then spread to his lungs. He had to get a lung removed. Back then those procedures were extremely dangerous and expensive. This procedure was recreated at the beginning of the Netflix show, The Crown. Although the procedure was successful, the king still had extensive complications and later died peacefully in his sleep. It was now Elizabeth’s time to take the throne.  On February 6, 1952, she ascended the throne and became Queen Elizabeth. Over the course of her over seventy year reign she has accomplished many goals and overcome many adversities and challenges especially in her personal life. In 1947 the Queen married her long-time husband, prince Philip. Philip and the Queen were married for 74 years until Philip died in early 2021. During their marriage they had four children, Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward. All of whom are still alive and well today.

Throughout her term, the Queen faced many national challenges. One of the most notable of these challenges, at least according to the Queen herself, was the Aberfan disaster in 1966. Aberfan was a well-known mining town in south Wales, it was a small town but it possessed a huge colliery mine. In fact, the size of the mine was far greater that regulations at that time allowed. Thus, it was no surprise that when a huge storm came that a mudslide was going to occur. But nobody could have guessed it was going to be so big. The huge slide took out over half of the town and killed 116 children and 28 adults. Those 116 children amounted to half of the children in the town. The event and horrible aftermath is depicted well in season three of The Crown. The queen, numerous times, expressed that this was the worst thing that happened in her reign. But what she saw as even worse was her delayed response to the scene, she cited her delayed response as her “biggest regret” while ruling.

Elizabeth also endured global conflicts including but not limited to the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Over her rule she has had 14 different prime ministers, including the late great Winston Churchill. The longevity of her rule is evident. The Queen has been described as a fearless leader who unites everyone. She has, many times, traveled to enemy countries and spoken with their leaders, to unite peace and make a statement. In her long historic reign that continues today, the Queen has approached many milestones. The silver jubilee in 1977, the golden jubilee in 2002, the diamond jubilee in 2012, achieving the longest reigning monarch in Britain history in 2015, the sapphire jubilee in 2017, and now in 2022 the platinum jubilee that will be celebrated this year. These jubilees signify longevity in rule, each of these milestones celebrate a certain amount of years spent as a ruler, to gain them is extremely rare and very incredible. These milestones are incredible and deserve to be celebrated. Congratulations to the Queen and we can’t wait to celebrate her platinum jubilee this year!