Queen Elizabeth 70-year reign

• Queen Elizabeth II on Sunday becomes the first British monarch to reign for 70 years, heralding the start of her Platinum Jubilee year despite her retreat from public view.

• On February 6, 1952, then-Princess Elizabeth found out while visiting Kenya that she was now Queen Elizabeth II following the death of her father, King George VI.

•  Aged 25 at the time, the Queen had already married Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the pair had welcomed two children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne. 

• But the start of the Queen's reign had only just begun and, little did she know, it would prove to be the first day of the longest reign of any monarch in British royal history.