The platinum jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, who is celebrating her 70th birthday on the British throne, is above all a tribute to one of the great acts of constancy in history.
Her reign spans virtually the entire post-World War II era, witnessing cultural upheavals from the Beatles to Brexit, technological advances from wireless radio to Zoom, and political leaders from Winston. Churchill to Boris Johnson.
From the sepia-colored images of her coronation in 1953 to her emotional television address to a pandemic-hit nation in 2020, the Queen has been a permanent presence in British life for as long as most British have been alive.
His triumphs, historic visits to South Africa and Ireland, have lifted the country. Her sorrows, the intense days after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in a car accident in Paris, or the forced isolation by Covid of her grief over her dead husband, Prince Philip, have turned into the pains of the nation.
Perhaps no living person has met so many famous people, a gallery of heroes and villains ranging from Nelson Mandela to Vladimir V. Putin. But it is his countless meetings with ordinary people that have perhaps left the longest lasting imprint of the longest British monarch in history.
The following photographs are a small representation of his reign:
The Queen at Balmoral Castle in Scotland with one of her corgis in September 1952.
He was 25 when he ascended the throne in 1952.
Riding in front of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, on his way to the Horse Guards parade in London for a Trooping of the Color ceremony in May 1956.
Attending a dinner with Winston Churchill and his wife, Clementine, at 10 Downing Street in London in April 1955.
The Queen on a Royal Tour of Nigeria in 1956.
A caravan that took Queen Elizabeth down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House in Washington in 1957, on her first trip to the United States as a British monarch.
Elizabeth and Philip with their three children: Prince Charles, on the right, Princess Anna, on the left, and Prince Andrew, in Balmoral in September 1960.
Revision of the troops with President Heinrich Lubke of West Germany in May 1965.
Riding an elephant after a tiger hunt, part of a royal tour of Nepal in February 1961.
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip on the Berlin Wall during a visit to West Germany in May 1965.
With Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia at Tisisat Falls in February 1965.
Steering wheel back from a visit to Yorkshire in a photograph taken during the shooting of the 1969 documentary “Royal Family”.
Elizabeth and Philip leaving Fort Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan, during a visit to Canada in 1978.
At the British Embassy in Kuwait in February 1979.
Visit to Nizwa Fort in Oman in February 1979.
Queen Elizabeth with the Prime Minister Edward Heath of Great Britain, on the left, and President Richard Nixon and the First Lady, Patricia Nixon, at Checkers, the official country residence of the Prime Minister, in 1970.
In Mount Hagen, Papua New Guinea, October 1982.
Riding through the grounds of Windsor Castle with President Ronald Reagan during his 1982 state visit to England.
Queen Elizabeth with West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl on the left, President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at Buckingham Palace in 1984.
At the Mausoleum of the First Emperor Qin in Xi’an, China in 1986.
With Prince William and Prince Harry at the Guards Polo Club in Windsor in 1987.
Visiting maternity patient Molly Mavunda and her 4-day-old son, Caswell, at Baragwanath Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1995.
With President Nelson Mandela of South Africa at Buckingham Palace in July 1996.
Shaking hands with Innu women while visiting Sheshatshiu in central Labrador, Canada, in June 1997.
Seeing the floral tributes and other memorials to the late Diana, Princess of Wales, at Buckingham Palace in September 1997.
With the pop band The Spice Girls at the Victoria Palace Theater in London in 1997.
Queen Elizabeth with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on her way to Buckingham Palace in 2003.
Visiting London’s Royal Albert Hall to mark the end of restoration work in 2004.
The Queen received a scroll from Bruce Two Dogs Bozsum in Southwark Cathedral, London, where she attended a funeral blessing for Mahomet Weyonomon, a Native American chief of the Mohegan tribe who died in 1736 and was buried. in an unmarked grave on the ground. , in 2006.
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip at Winfield House, the residence of the US Ambassador in London, in 2011.
Planting a tree in Dublin in 2011, as Irish President Mary McAleese looks at, during a British monarch’s first visit since 1911.
Sitting next to Anna Wintour, Vogue’s editor-in-chief; Angela Kelly, royal seamstress; and Caroline Rush, Executive Director of the British Fashion Council, at the Richard Quinn Fashion Show in London in 2018.
Queen Elizabeth with Charles, Prince of Wales, in the center right, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, second right, at the state opening of Parliament in the House of Lords of Westminster in 2019.
At a Memorial D-Day event in Portsmouth, England, with President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump in June 2019.
The royal family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace in June 2019 during the annual Queen’s Birthday Parade.
Greetings from President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden at Windsor Castle in 2021.
At the funeral of Prince Philip, who died at the age of 99, in St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle in 2021.
Driving his Range Rover during the Royal Windsor Horse Show at Windsor Castle in 2021.
The Queen met with London Crossrail Project staff at Paddington Station in May.
The queen with one of her dogs, a corgi named Candy, at Windsor Castle in February.