From Tree-Top to Throne… Sixty Years (and Counting)

Her Majesty Queen Elzabeth II, image copyright the National Archives, reproduced under CC Licence from Flickr

Sixty years ago today marked a momentous occasion in contemporary British history – Princess Elizabeth succeeded her father, King George VI, to become Queen Elizabeth II.

But, long before the days of satellite communication and the internet, the Princess did not discover about the fateful event until the following morning, as she was on safari near Nairobi in Kenya on a Royal Visit, and indeed spent the night in a game lodge situated in a tree-top!
A glittering range of celebratory events are planned throughout the course of 2012, including an extra Bank Holiday in June, and already the media have been filling column inches, air waves and digital screens in honour and in celebration of an eventful reign which has already encompassed 11 British Prime Ministers.
But if you want to take a look back at what the papers were saying at the time of the accession, why not dip into one of our online newspaper archives? We have access to full-text facsimile editions of the Times, Guardian and Mirror newspapers, so you can see what else was going on in the world at the time as well.