Elizabeth II Ascends: A Six-Decade Reign Begins
Princess Elizabeth was staying at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya's Aberdare National Park, watching elephants from a treehouse observation platform, when her father King George VI died in his sleep at Sandringham on February 6, 1952. She was twenty-five years old and became queen before anyone could tell her. Her private secretary, Martin Charteris, learned the news from a journalist and broke it to Prince Philip, who took Elizabeth for a walk in the garden. She had packed a black mourning outfit in her luggage because her father's declining health made the possibility foreseeable. Elizabeth immediately flew back to London and was met at the airport by Winston Churchill and other officials. She would reign for seventy years and 214 days, the longest of any British monarch, seeing fifteen prime ministers, the end of the British Empire, and the transformation of the Commonwealth from a colonial relic into a voluntary association of nations.
February 6, 1952
74 years ago
Key Figures & Places
Kenya
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Queen regnant
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Treetops Hotel
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Elizabeth II
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Commonwealth realm
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Order of succession
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tree house
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George VI
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Elizabeth II
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Monarchy of the United Kingdom
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Head of the Commonwealth
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George VI
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Order of succession
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Tree house
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Treetops Hotel
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Kenya
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James II of England
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Charles II of England
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England
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Scotland
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Ireland
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British
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Commonwealth of Nations
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List of English monarchs
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1660
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Geschichte Englands
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Histoire de l'Écosse
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Commonwealth realm
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1895
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1630
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England
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