And to think one of my early memories is my mother watching her coronation on a blurry black and white television in June 1953.

It's a nice achievement, but I'm always uncomfortable celebrating this kind of thing - like the gold/diamond Jubilees etc.  I know the queen herself dislikes these celebrations, and I can see why.  From our point of view, we are celebrating her reign.  But from her point of view, her reign started with a tragic and traumatic event - the death of her father, to whom she was very close.  So to her, it must seem an awful thnig that we are not counting the years since she became queen - rather it represents a rather macabre count of "it's 63 years since your father died".

Nice to here that, and Congratulations to the fellows of UK...

It's a nice achievement, but I'm always uncomfortable celebrating this kind of thing - like the gold/diamond Jubilees etc.  I know the queen herself dislikes these celebrations, and I can see why.  From our point of view, we are celebrating her reign.  But from her point of view, her reign started with a tragic and traumatic event - the death of her father, to whom she was very close.  So to her, it must seem an awful thnig that we are not counting the years since she became queen - rather it represents a rather macabre count of "it's 63 years since your father died".

Her father died in February 1952 while she was out of the country on an official visit as I recall reading.  Her coronation wasn't until June of 1953 and I think that date is one she would rather celebrate.  Her grandmother, Queen Mary died in March 1953 but the coronation was not further delayed per her grandmother's request in another tidbit I picked up somewhere.  Queen Mary, wife of George V, was the mother of George VI  (Elizabeth's father) and of Edward VIII who abdicated reigning for less than a year (all in 1936) after marrying that American divorcee...

Her father died in February 1952 while she was out of the country on an official visit as I recall reading.  Her coronation wasn't until June of 1953 and I think that date is one she would rather celebrate.  Her grandmother, Queen Mary died in March 1953 but the coronation was not further delayed per her grandmother's request in another tidbit I picked up somewhere.  Queen Mary, wife of George V, was the mother of George VI  (Elizabeth's father) and of Edward VIII who abdicated reigning for less than a year (all in 1936) after marrying that American divorcee...

This is true, but there is an interesting footnote to this. The eventual date of the coronation, June 2 1953 was chosen on the advice of meteorologists who after much deliberation and research decided that this was the day when it was least likely to rain. The BBC were to televise the whole event to be shown around the world and the government and planners were desperate for nice weather. If they had chosen the day before or the day after they would have got sunshine but on June 2nd it rained for the entire day. 50 years later on the day of her golden jubilee the weather was even worse with thunderstorms and heavy rain as she took a boat trip down the river. Other than those two years June 2nd in the UK is usually a good bet for sunshine. She must be wondering why it always rains on her parade. Maybe someone up there dosent like her.