Queen Elizabeth II has surpassed her great-great Grand Mother Queen Victoria’s record as the UK’s longest serving monarch. Queen Elizabeth II has now reigned over Britain and the Commonwealth for 63 years and 217 days. The queen has been on the throne since she was 25. Elizabeth II’s reign has been the most globally public in British history. Physically, she has been seen to be more accessible to the people than ever before.
On the event day, the Queen and Prince Philip travelled by steam train from Edinburgh to Tweedbank, where she formally opened the new £294m Scottish Borders Railway.
United Kingdom - FACTS
- The Queen of the UK is the legal owner of one-sixth of the Earth’s land surface.
- Slavery was not made astatutory offense in the UK until April 6, 2010.
- Concentration camps were first used by the British during the Second Anglo-Boer War.
- U.S. eggs are illegal in Britain because they are washed. British eggs are illegal in the U.S. because they are not.
- Centenarians are the fastest-growing demographic in the UK.
- The UK is the first country in the world to allow the creation of babies from the DNA of three people.
- The United Kingdom, consisting of Great Britain (England, Wales, and Scotland) and Northern Ireland.
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