Remembering UK Queen Elizabeth II: The Longest Serving British Monarch Has Died Aged 96

11:25 GMT, 9 September 2022

Elizabeth II, in full Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, was just 25 when she became Queen of the United Kingdom on February 6, 1952. Queen Elizabeth was thus Britain’s longest-reigning monarch. She celebrated her Platinum Jubilee marking 70 years on the throne earlier this year.

15 UK prime ministers, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss, served during Queen Elizabeth's reign until her death on September 8, 2022. She had just appointed the 15th PM days before her death on Thursday evening. "For 70 years, the country's motto and the first line of the British anthem was ‘God save the Queen,’" Liz Truss, the new prime minister, said. Her faithful companion in life was Prince Philip, her husband of 73 years, who died in April 2021, aged 99. Now, after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the Crown has been inherited by her son, Charles III.

Heads of state from around the world and ordinary people have expressed their condolences to the Queen's family as well as to the British people. The life of Queen Elizabeth II began in an era of black-and-white stills and ended in the era of smartphone photos. Here are some highlights of the life of the monarch in our photo gallery.

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Britain's Queen Elizabeth II records her annual Christmas broadcast at Windsor Castle, England.

© AP Photo / Pool/Victoria Jones

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Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, then Princess Elizabeth, stands with her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and their children.

© AP Photo / Eddie Worth

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Princess Elizabeth (center), during her speech to British girls and boys evacuated abroad, October 22, 1940, London, England.

© AP Photo

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In this March 22, 1950 file photo, Britain's Princess Elizabeth shakes hands with Winston Churchill, former British Prime Minister, at a dinner to mark the launching of the Lord Mayor's National Thanksgiving Fund in London,. In background are Prime Minister Clement Attlee and his wife Violet. Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch and a rock of stability across much of a turbulent century, has died. She was 96. Buckingham Palace made the announcement in a statement on Thursday Sept. 8, 2022.

© AP Photo

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Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh after the coronation at Westminster Abbey in London.

© AP Photo / INTERCONTINENTALE

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Queen Elizabeth II at King's Cross Station in London with her four corgi dogs.

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FILE - In this July 29, 1981 file photo, Prince Charles and his bride Diana, Princess of Wales, and his parents, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip, wave from the balcony of Buckingham Palace in London after their marriage at St. Paul's Catheral. Starting Saturday, June 2, 2012, Queen Elizabeth II begins a four-day celebration of her 60 years on the throne.

© AP Photo

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Queen Elizabeth II inspects the 1st Battalion and number 7 Company of the Coldstream Guards in Windsor on 20 May 1999. The Queen presented new colours to the regiments at Windsor Castle in her capacity as Colonel-in-Chief.

© AFP 2023 / Paul Hackett/Pool

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Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, centre left, and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, proceed through the Royal Gallery, during the State Opening of Parliament, in the House of Lords, in London, Wednesday June 4, 2014. The State Opening of Parliament is an annual pageant of pomp and politics centred on the Queen's Speech, a legislative program written by the government but read out by the monarch before a crowd of lawmakers, ermine-robed peers and ceremonial officials in bright garb evoking centuries past.

© AP Photo / Yui Mok, Pool

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Britain's Queen Elizabeth II sits in the Regency Room at Buckingham Palace in London 19 April 2006 as she looks at some of the cards which have been sent to her for her 80th birthday. Buckingham Palace said that so far she has received 20,000 cards and 17,000 emails. The Queen celebrates her actual 80th birthday Friday 21 April with a walkabout in Windsor town followed by a dinner hosted in her honour by her son Prince Charles at Kew Palace in London.

© AFP 2023 / Fiona Hanson/Pool

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Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, 2nd right, seated on the throne in the House of Lords next to her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, right, son, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, 2nd left and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, prepares to deliver the Queen's Speech during the State Opening of Parliament at the Palace of Westminster in London Wednesday, May 27, 2015. The State Opening of Parliament marks the formal start of the parliamentary year and the Queen's Speech sets out the government’s agenda for the coming session.

© AP Photo / Ben Stansall/Pool

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Britain's Queen Elizabeth II addresses the United Nations General Assembly on July 6, 2010 at the United Nations In New York. The 84-year-old monarch last came to New York in 1976 and her UN appearance is the first since she spoke there in 1957, four years after being crowned.

© AFP 2023 / Don Emmert

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Queen Elizabeth II acknowledges the crowd from her horse carriage as she leaves Buckingham palace for the opening of parliament in London, 06 December 2000.

© AFP 2023 / Odd Andersen

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Britain's Queen Elizabeth II (R) is invited to step on a cape thrown at her feet by an 'Elizabethan fool', alias Peet Cooper, at Eastbury Manor House during her Golden Jubilee visit to East London 09 May 2002.

© AFP 2023 / Fiona Hanson

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British Prime Minister Theresa May curtsies as Britain's Queen Elizabeth II arrives at a ceremonial welcome for Spain's King Felipe and Queen Letizia on Horse Guards Parade in London, Wednesday, July 12, 2017. In seven decades on the throne, Queen Elizabeth II saw 15 British prime ministers come and go, from Winston Churchill to Margaret Thatcher to Boris Johnson to Liz Truss.

© AP Photo / Matt Dunham

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Britain's Queen Elizabeth II drives her Range Rover car as she arrives to attend the annual Royal Windsor Horse Show in Windsor, west of London, on May 10, 2019. The horse show is the largest outdoor equestrian show in the UK, started originally in 1943 to help raise funds for the war effort, and has continued to run every year since, and is the only show in the UK to host international competitions in Showjumping, Dressage, Driving and Endurance.

© AFP 2023 / Daniel Leal

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Britain's Queen Elizabeth II rides Balmoral Fern, a 14-year-old Fell Pony, in Windsor Home Park, west of London, over the weekend of May 30 and May 31, 2020.

© AFP 2023 / Steve Parsons

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In this Tuesday, July 10, 2018 file photo Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, and from left, Meghan the Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry, Prince William and Kate the Duchess of Cambridge watch a flypast of Royal Air Force aircraft pass over Buckingham Palace in London. Britain and its royal family are absorbing the tremors from a sensational television interview with Prince Harry and Meghan. The couple said they encountered racist attitudes and a lack of support that drove Meghan to thoughts of suicide. The couple gave a deeply unflattering depiction of life inside the royal household, depicting a cold, uncaring institution that they had to flee to save their lives. Meghan told Oprah Winfrey that at one point “I just didn’t want to be alive anymore.” Meghan, who is biracial, said that when she was pregnant with son Archie, there were “concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.”

© AP Photo / Matt Dunham

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Britain's Queen Elizabeth II cuts a cake to celebrate the start of the Platinum Jubilee, at Sandringham House, her Norfolk residence, in Sandringham, England, Saturday, Feb. 5, 2022. The Queen has hosted a reception for members of the local community and volunteer groups at Sandringham House on the eve of Accession Day, the seventieth anniversary of her reign.

© AP Photo / Joe Giddens

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People pass by an image of Queen Elizabeth II projected onto a large screen at Piccadilly Circus, in London, Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022. Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest-reigning monarch and a rock of stability across much of a turbulent century, died Thursday after 70 years on the throne. She was 96.

© AP Photo / Alberto Pezzali