Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain died today at the age of 96, according to the press service of Buckingham Palace.

It was previously announced that the Queen was placed under increased medical supervision due to serious concerns about her state of health, and that members of the royal family, including the heir to the throne, Prince Charles, were called to her at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.

Elizabeth II (birth name – Elizabeth Alexandra Maria Windsor) was born on April 21, 1926 in the family of Prince Albert and his wife, the Duchess of York.

As the King’s male-line granddaughter, she received the title of Princess of Britain and the title of Her Royal Highness The Princess of York. She was third in the line of succession to the throne, behind Edward the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VIII) and her father, Albert the Duke of York (the future King George VI).

After the outbreak of World War II, Elizabeth and her younger sister Margaret were evacuated to Windsor. In 1940, she made her first radio address during the BBC Children’s Hour addressing evacuated children.

At the age of thirteen, Elisabeth met Philip Mountbatten, a cadet at the Dortmund Naval School, the son of Prince Andrew of Greece, and fell in love with him.

In 1945 she joined the “Auxiliary Territorial Service” – women’s self-defense units, under the name “Elizabeth Windsor”. She was trained as a driver of an ambulance, received the military rank of lieutenant. This was the first time in British history that a woman from the royal family served in a military unit.

On November 20, 1947, she married Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. This marriage lasted until Philip’s death in 2021 and is considered the longest royal union in world history.

On November 14, 1948, Elizabeth and Philip had their first child, Prince Charles. Even before that, George VII granted the right to the children of the Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Elizabeth to bear the title of princes. On August 15, 1950, their second child, Princess Anne, was born.

After the death of her father, King George VI, on February 6, 1952, Elizabeth, who was with her husband on vacation in Kenya, was proclaimed Queen of Great Britain.

The coronation ceremony of Queen Elizabeth II took place at Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953. It was the first televised coronation of a British monarch.

On February 19, 1960, the third child, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, was born to Elizabeth and Philip, and on March 10, 1964, the fourth, Prince Edward, Earl of Essex.

The queen has more than 325 foreign visits on her account, during her reign she visited more than 130 countries.