Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, died Thursday at age 96.
She ascended the throne in 1952 and reigned for more than seven decades. Elizabeth ruled the United Kingdom as it rebuilt from the devastation of World War II, lost an empire, transformed its economy and both entered and left the European Union.
Queen Elizabeth, Britain’s longest reigning monarch, has died at the age of 96.
The royal who wasn’t supposed to become queen at all, sat on the throne for 70 years following the death in 1952 of her father, George VI, who himself assumed the throne only because of the abdication by his brother, King Edward VIII in 1936.
