British Queen marks 60 years on the throne
The Queen is the second British monarch in history to have a Diamond Jubilee celebrating 60 years on the throne.
The then princess was up a tree in Kenya gazing at the wildlife below when her father, King George VI, who is the subject of last year's globally successful and award-winning movie The King's Speech, died in London on Feb. 6, 1952. At that moment, she became queen of the United Kingdom at age 25.
The highlight of the celebrations to mark the Diamond Jubilee will be a floating pageant, which will see a flotilla of 1,000 boats sail down the Thames through London with the Queen at its head on a royal barge during a special holiday celebration period from June 2 to June 5.
Former royal reporter Robert Jobson told Xinhua that the jubilee does "have significance outside Britain because the Queen is probably the only monarch who is an international monarch -- she is not only the queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, she is also the queen of 15 other Commonwealth realms including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, so it has very important point to celebrate because she has global reach."
The previous Diamond Jubilee monarch was Queen Victoria, whose jubilee was held in 1897. She went on to reign for a further four years after the jubilee, making her reign longer than the current queen's at the moment.
The coincidence of the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympic games being in the same year in London will draw international attention on the Queen and Britain.
