Prime Minister David Cameron said Wednesday that millions on Britons would celebrate the queen's "historic moment." "Over the last 63 years, Her Majesty has been a rock of stability in a world of constant change and her selfless sense of service and duty has earned admiration not only in Britain, but right across the globe," Cameron said. "It is only right that today we should celebrate her extraordinary record, as well as the grace and dignity with which she serves our country."
Buckingham Palace marked the event by releasing an official photograph of the queen taken by Mary McCartney, a photographer who is the daughter of former Beatle Paul McCartney. Elizabeth came to the throne in 1952 upon the death of her father King George VI. She was touring a remote part of Kenya when news of her father's death arrived.
This photo made available on Tuesday Sept. 8, 2015, shows Britain's Queen Elizabeth II taken July 2015 and released by Buckingham Palace to mark the Queen becoming the longest reigning British monarch. The photograph, by Mary McCartney, shows The Queen seated at her desk in her private audience room at Buckingham Palace in London, with one of her official red boxes which she has received almost every day of her reign and contains important papers from government ministers in the United Kingdom and her Realms and from her representatives across the Commonwealth and beyond.
Her official coronation came the following year and was one of the first major public events to be televised in Britain. The 89-year-old monarch has cut back on her international travel and has lightened her work load somewhat, but she still carries out many royal duties.
News from The Associated Press
