On September 9, Queen Elizabeth II will have broken the record as Britain’s longest-serving monarch as she will have reigned for more than the 63 years, seven months and two days that Queen Victoria wore the crown, from 1837 to 1901.
Princess Elizabeth became queen on February 6, 1952, at the age of 25 when her father, George VI, died while his eldest daughter was in Kenya.
The queen will mark the occasion by taking a ride on a steam train on the new railway line that she will officially open in Scotland on September 9.
An exhibition of photographs of the monarch, called Long to Reign Over Us, will open on the same day at three locations: Buckingham Palace, the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh and Windsor Castle.
The photographs include a black-and-white photograph of Elizabeth in profile taken in the month she became queen, and her official coronation photograph, taken in 1953.
Other pictures include a snapshot of the queen holding the reins of two of her Highland Ponies, and of the monarch smiling in her full regalia as Sovereign of the Order of the Garter, taken in June this year.
The queen is also seen grinning in a portrait taken of her and her husband, Prince Philip, leaving for the State Opening of Parliament, in which she wears white furs and a diamond-and-pearl tiara.
A range of official china, including a commemorative plate and tankard, will also go on sale to mark the queen’s record-breaking reign.
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