6 February 1952. The then-princess was on vacation with Prince Philip at Sagana Lodge in Kenya when news of King George VI’s death in 1952 reached the couple. Prince Philip was the person to break the news to her. She was 25-years-old at the time.

Third in line. Elizabeth was born during the reign of her grandfather, George V. Her father, the Duke of York was himself a second son, whose elder brother Edward, Prince of Wales was ahead of them both. It was reasonably expected that Edward would have children of his own, who would supplant them in the succession, so there was little likelihood of Elizabeth ever coming to the throne.That changed in 1936, when Edward (by then reigning as Edward VIII) abdicated in favour of marrying divorcee Wallis Simpson. His decision thrust the Duke of York to the throne, and made Elizabeth heir presumptive.

8 years old. It was 1934, at the wedding of Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark (Philip’s cousin) and Prince George, Duke of Kent (Elizabeth’s uncle). It was five years later, though, when they met again at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth and began exchanging letters. Learn more about the Queen’s marriage to Prince Philip.

Charles, Anne, Andrew, Edward. The Queen’s eldest child is Prince Charles, born 1948, who is heir apparent to the throne (the longest serving in British history, as of April 2011). He is styled as the Prince of Wales – a tradition, notes the historian and royal commentator Carolyn Harris, that began after Edward I’s conquest of Wales.Charles was followed by a younger sister, Princess Anne, in 1950, who, Dr Ed Owens writes for HistoryExtra, was “cast in the role of energetic and fun-loving playmate to her quieter and shyer brother”. She had two more sons in the 1960s: Prince Andrew, Duke of York in 1960, and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex in 1964.

Susan. The Queen has a long-held fondness for corgis, established in her youth. She has owned more than 30 during her reign; her first was Susan, who was given to her as a present on her 18th birthday.

Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS). During her time with the ATS, Elizabeth took a training course in driving and vehicle maintenance at the major garrison of Aldershot, qualifying just as the war ended.“Elizabeth’s attendance was somewhat circumscribed – she was driven home to Windsor Castle every night and was taken to the officers’ mess for meals – but it was at least an opportunity to test herself against less privileged contemporaries for the first time in her life,” writes the author Stephen Bates. “More importantly, the pictures of her fiddling with an engine and the newsreel of her driving a truck showed her doing her bit.”

Michael Fagan. On 9 July 1982, painter and decorator Michael Fagan broke into Buckingham Palace and made his way to the Queen’s bedroom, in what was one of the biggest royal security breaches of the 20th century.Initial reports that the Queen stalled Fagan in 10 minutes of conversation while waiting for security have been debunked by none other than Fagan himself. “Nah! She went past me and ran out of the room; her little bare feet running across the floor… Her nightie was one of those Liberty prints and it was down to her knees,” said Fagan in a 2012 interview with The Independent.

The year 1992 spelled disaster for the Queen: a fire broke out in Windsor Castle, and the respective marriages of three of her children – Prince Charles, Prince Andrew and Princess Anne – broke down. The Queen deemed this her annus horribilis (horrible year).

False. It will be another 841 days after the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee before this happens, meaning 27 May 2024 is the date that Elizabeth II will become the longest-reigning monarch of any sovereign state in verifiable history. The Queen will take that record from the Sun King, Louis XIV of France. The medieval monarch, who turned a modest hunting lodge into the magnificent Palace of Versailles and transformed France into a global power, Louis ruled for 72 years and 110 days.