The Queen, longest-reigning monarch in British history, dies at 96: Buckingham Palace
Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada and the Commonwealth, ascended the throne as much by a twist of fate as by the grace of God.
As the daughter and granddaughter of men who were not first in line to the throne, Elizabeth was once destined for a life of relative regal obscurity.
Instead, she became one of the world’s most famous women at the age of 25, when her father’s death in 1952 made her England’s sixth ruling queen and longest-reigning monarch.