It's her majesty's 90th birthday today, and to celebrate this huge milestone we'd thought we share some facts with you that perhaps you didn't know about her Royal Highness during her reign as Queen.
Tea for two
Throughout her majesty's reign there have been 10 different prime ministers, some of these including Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and now of course, David Cameron. During this time, she has met with every prime minister during their reign every Tuesday, whilst she's in London, for Tea and a chat on current affairs and other royal and parliamentary chit-chat .
The Queen has two birthdays!
We all wished and asked our parents if we could have more than one birthday a year but we were always told we couldn't. However, the Queen can do what she wishes; she is the Queen after all. Her real Birthday is today (21st April) where she enjoys a private celebration. But there is a ls a more public event in June called Trooping of the Colours.
Over the years the queen has received some rather strange gifts, from animals that are now cared for by the London Zoo to a Pineapple, a box of snail shells, 7kg of prawns and some eggs. How bizarre!
That's a lot of Birthday Cards!
During her reign the Queen has sent approximately 110,000 telegrams to centurions and around 520,000 telegrams to couples celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary. In 1917, the Queen sent 24 telegrams but in 2007, the figure was recorded to have risen to 8,439, now that's a lot of cards!
She's a popular lady!
Every year the Queen receives around 1,000 invitations! It would be impossible for the queen to accept all these invitations, considering she is only human! Instead, other members of the Royal Family can be called upon to attend. In your application you can state which royal you'd prefer to have visit. The royal family receives and answers to 100,000 letters every year and as a whole undertakes 2,000 official engagements, they're a busy bunch!
No queuing at passport control!
The Queen doesn't require a British passport or a driving license! Because passports are issued in the name of her majesty, it would be a bit strange, to allow herself to issue one for herself, wouldn't it?
Making Art History
The image of The Queen we're all so familiar with on the postage stamp is the most reproduced work of art in history! Arnold Machin designed the image of her majesty in 1967 and since then has remained unchanged and it has been produced over 200 billion times! Imagine if an artwork of you was produced that many times!
Back in the day not many people would have seen their King or Queen, therefore, having the monarch's head on the coin or note was useful way to spread the likeness, especially considering they din't have TVs back then! So far, we've seen there have been four representations of the Queen circulating on the coin.
The hip Queen!
The royal family feel like an old relic from way back in the past, at times, but they are actually embracing technology! Her Majesty launched Buckingham Palaces' first official website in 1997 and the Queen even sent her first email back in 1976! I wonder if her email address was as embarrassing as ours.
Everyone here want's to wish her Majesty a belated 90th Birthday! Long live the Queen!
