40 Facts About Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee

1. The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee has received more than 178,000 letters and messages of goodwill so far during the course of the Diamond Jubilee year.

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2. The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee visited 10 different regions in the UK, on her tour, which spanned 25 days and encompassed 83 public engagements.

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3. Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee came to the throne on February 6, 1952, and her coronation took place on June 2, 1953.

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4. Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee meets thousands of people each year in the UK and overseas.

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5. The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee has delivered more than 20 speeches through the main Jubilee period, in which she included words in the Maori language and Welsh.

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6. The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee has unveiled 30 plaques and 4 statues during the Jubilee tours.

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7. The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee received and replied to, almost 17,500 Golden Jubilee congratulatory letters between February and July, 2002.

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8. The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee made visits to all four main faith communities during the Jubilee.

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9. The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee attended a dinner with her five surviving UK prime ministers and gave a dinner for Governors-General of the Commonwealth countries of which she is Queen.

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10. The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee is the first member of the Royal Family to be awarded a gold disc from the recording industry.

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11. The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee has travelled over 30,000 miles by air around the UK and the world including Jamaica, New Zealand and Australia during the Jubilee.

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12. Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee was one of the first world leaders—and the first monarch—to embrace the digital age, when she sent her first email in 1976.

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13. Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee is the Head of State in the United Kingdom, but today her power is mostly ceremonial.

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14. Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee enjoys a very fixed routine and has some habits that we could definitely get behind.

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15. Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee owns any and all unmarked swans in open water, though she typically only concerns herself with swans in the Thames River.

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16. Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee was trained as a truck driver during World War II but has never had to take a road test.

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17. Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee was the first female member of the royal family to join the Armed Services as a full-time, active member.

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18. Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee was just 14 years old when World War II broke out in 1939, but she still wanted to help with the war effort.

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19. The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee issued a writ against the Sun newspaper after it published the full text of her 1992 broadcast two days before its transmission.

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20. In 1998, Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee introduced theme days to promote and celebrate aspects of British culture.

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21. The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee has an extensive collection of jewelry, most of which are crown jewels, some inherited and some gifts, including the largest pink diamond in the world.

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22. Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee introduced a new breed of dog known as the dorgi when one of her corgis was mated with a dachshund named Pipkin that belonged to Princess Margaret.

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23. Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee has owned more than 30 corgis during her reign, starting with Susan, who was a present for her 18th birthday in 1944.

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24. The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee has attended 56 royal Maundy services in 43 cathedrals during her reign.

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25. Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee was just 7 years old when she sat for her first portrait in 1933, which was commissioned by her mother and painted by the Hungarian artist Philip Alexius de Laszlo.

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26. The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee has sat for 129 official portraits during her reign, two of which were with the Duke of Edinburgh.

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27. The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee was born in a private home at 17 Bruton St, London, on April 21, 1926.

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28. The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee is a keen photographer and enjoys taking pictures of her family.

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29. Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee learned to drive in 1945, when she joined the women's branch of the British army.

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30. Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee has sent more than 175,000 telegrams to centenarians in the UK.

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31. The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee is the only person in Britain who can drive without a license or number plate on her state car.

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32. Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee was the first British monarch to celebrate her diamond wedding anniversary.

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33. Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee is patron of more than 600 charities and organizations.

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34. In 2002, at 76, Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee became the oldest monarch to celebrate a Golden Jubilee.

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35. The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee has received over 3.5 million items of correspondence during her reign.

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36. Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee's mourning clothes, waiting for her in Entebbe, were prepared for her to wear.

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37. In 2015, when the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee thanked the nation for its kind messages after overtaking Queen Victoria to become the nation's longest-reigning monarch, she admitted bluntly that the royal record was "not one to which I have ever aspired".

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38. Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee addressed both houses of parliament in Westminster Hall on 20 March 2012.

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39. In October 2012 it was announced that the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee would bestow the honorary title of Regius Professorship to up to six university chairs in the United Kingdom, to recognise "excellence in teaching and research"; the number was chosen to represent the decades of the Queen's reign.

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40. The first beacon of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee was lit on the grounds of Apifo'ou College in Nukuʻalofa, Tonga, by Tongan girl and Boy Scouts using coconut sheath torches.

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