12th September 1937: the royal family on the balcony at Buckingham Palace after the coronation of King George VI (1895 - 1952). He is with Queen Elizabeth (1900 - 2002), Princess Elizabeth (waving) and Princess Margaret (1930 - 2002). (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)
Photograph by Keystone, Getty Images
Queen Elizabeth has always been proud of her position as the head of the British Armed Forces. Here, Princess Elizabeth, accompanied by Princess Margaret (left) and the Queen Mother (right), meets members of the Grenadier Guards.
Photograph by David E. Scherman, The Life PIcture Collection, Getty Images
The Queen Mother’s trips to the working-class East End of London to boost morale during the Blitz were a deep source of inspiration for the future queen. Here, Princess Elizabeth trains as a mechanic in the Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1945.
Photograph by Popperfoto/Getty Images
The 1947 marriage between Prince Philip of Greece, aka the Duke of Edinburgh, and “Lilibet,” as he called her, was a true love match, not a dynastic arrangement. Here they are in 1951, with children Charles and Anne.
Photograph by Keystone, Getty Images
Princess Elizabeth leaves Buckingham Palace for her coronation at Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953.
Photograph by Monty Fresco, Topical Press Agency, Getty Images
Decked out in a white lace dress and cartwheel-style straw hat, Her Majesty sashays to a garden party in Sydney during her first state visit to Australia in February 1954.
Photograph by Keystone, Hulton Archive, Getty Images
The queen has a special affection for Canada, which, unlike Australia, has shown no signs of the Republican sentiment that seeks to remove her as titular head of state. Here she is at age 33 with the Duke of Edinburgh in Ottawa, Ontario.
Photograph by Kathleen Revis, National Geographic Creative
The queen without her corgis is like whisky without soda. Her father introduced the future monarch to corgis when he brought home “Dookie” in 1933. The queen has owned more than 30 Pembroke Welsh corgis. Here, she is shown in 1969.
Photograph by AFP, Getty Images
The queen is famous for her love of horses and never misses the British Derby at Epsom, especially if one of her own racehorses is on the card. Here, she is shown chatting to junior show jumpers at Windsor Castle in 1979.
Photograph by James L. Stanfield, National Geographic Creative
Unlike her own marriage, Elizabeth's son Charles’s marriage to Diana Spencer was a dynastic match organised by palace genealogists. Future rifts seem foreshadowed in the tense body language of this 1982 photo.
Photograph by Terry Fincher, Princess Diana Archive, Getty Images
“I must be almost the only person who wears hats constantly,“ the queen wrote to royal milliner Philip Somerville who, before his death in 2014, decked her out in hats for a quarter of a century. Here she is in 2009.
Photograph by Luke MacGregor, Reuters
Contrary to her public persona, which can sometimes appear stiff and aloof, the queen is known in private for her impish sense of humour. Here, she enjoys a sack race at the Braemar Gathering in Scotland in 2012.
Photograph by Russell Cheyne, Reuters
The queen in 2007, leaving the State Opening of Parliament, resplendent in ermine and the Diamond Diadem made in 1820 for her Hanoverian ancestor, George IV.
Photograph by Toby Melville, Reuters
The annus horribilis of 1992, when her children’s marriages fell apart, and the gruesome death of Princess Diana five years later, seem a long way off in this happy family portrait, taken in 2014 at Buckingham Palace.
Photograph by Facundo Arrizabialanga, EPA