King George IV died in his sleep on February 6, 1952, putting present-day Queen Elizabeth on the throne. At the exact moment of her succession, Elizabeth was in the Treetops Hotel in Kenya, on holiday with her husband of 5 years. “For the first time in the history of the world, a young girl climbed into a tree one day . . . and emerged as a Queen.”

Queen Elizabeth II is the longest-reigning British monarch,  surpassing the reign of her great-great-grandmother Victoria in 2015.  She is currently the longest reigning monarch in the world.