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<\/div>\nThe queen had travelled to more than 100 countries since 1952<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
London: <\/b><\/p>\n
Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Thursday at 96, had notched up a number of landmarks in her record-breaking 70 years on the throne.<\/p>\n
Longevity<\/strong><\/p>\n Elizabeth reigned for 70 years and nearly four months — longer than any other monarch in British history. The previous record was held by her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria, who reigned for 63 years, seven months and two days until 1901.<\/p>\n At 96, Elizabeth was the oldest current monarch and head of state in the world.<\/p>\n Only two kings have ruled for longer: France’s Louis XIV — more than 72 years between 1643 and 1715 — and Thailand’s Bhumibol Adulyadej — 70 years and four months, until his death in October 2016.<\/p>\n Globetrotter<\/strong><\/p>\n The queen had travelled to more than 100 countries since 1952 — another record for a British monarch — and made more than 150 visits to Commonwealth nations.<\/p>\n She had been to Canada 22 times — more than any other country. In Europe, she visited France the most — 13 times — and spoke the language.<\/p>\n The Daily Telegraph calculated that she travelled the equivalent of 42 times around the world before stopping overseas trips in November 2015 aged 89.<\/p>\n Her longest foreign trip lasted 168 days from November 1953 to May 1954 during which she visited 13 countries.<\/p>\n Busy<\/strong><\/p>\n As a 21-year-old princess, Elizabeth pledged her life to the service of the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n As queen, she carried out some 21,000 engagements, given royal assent to 4,000 pieces of legislation, and hosted 112 state visits of foreign heads of state.<\/p>\n Among those she hosted were emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia (1954), Japan’s emperor Hirohito (1971), president Lech Walesa of Poland (1991) and US president Barack Obama (2011).<\/p>\n More than 180 garden parties have been hosted at Buckingham Palace, attended by more than 1.5 million people.<\/p>\n Politics and religion<\/strong><\/p>\n A total of 14 British prime ministers have served under the queen. Her first was Winston Churchill (1952-1955) and the latest is Boris Johnson, since 2019.<\/p>\n She holds regular private meetings with her prime minister of the day, usually at Buckingham Palace on a weekly basis.<\/p>\n Elizabeth II\u00a0met 13 out of the last 14 US presidents with the exception of Lyndon B Johnson. Her last visitor from the White House was Joe Biden in 2021.<\/p>\n The queen is the supreme governor of the Church of England, a position dating back to the creation of the church under Henry VIII in the 16th century.<\/p>\n She\u00a0met four popes on official visits — John XXIII (1961), John Paul II (1980, 1982 and 2000), Benedict XVI (2010) and Francis I (2014).<\/p>\n Cards<\/strong><\/p>\n The queen had sent some 300,000 cards of congratulation to centenarians and more than 900,000 to couples celebrating 60 years of marriage.<\/p>\n She was married for 73 years — another record for a British monarch. Her husband, Prince Philip, died aged 99 in April last year.<\/p>\n Portraits<\/strong><\/p>\n The queen posed for more than 200 portraits since the age of seven. Most were painted in a traditional style. But Lucien Freud’s in 2001 proved controversial: one critic said it made her majesty look like one of her corgi dogs.<\/p>\n Pioneer<\/strong><\/p>\n In 1996, the queen became the first British monarch to visit mainland China. She was also the first to address the House of Representatives in Washington.<\/p>\n She sent her first email on March 26, 1976 during a visit to a Ministry of Defence research facility.<\/p>\n In 1997, she launched the Buckingham Palace website and in 2014 sent her first tweet. Three years ago, she made her debut on Instagram.<\/p>\n 007<\/strong><\/p>\n The queen is the only monarch to have jumped out of a helicopter with James Bond and parachuted into the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Kind of.<\/p>\n She and her beloved corgis made a cameo appearance at the 2012 London Games with 007 actor Daniel Craig, before a stuntman made the leap.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n