London: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth turns 90 on Thursday with beacons and gun salutes hailing the birthday of the world’s oldest monarch.
To mark Thursday’s landmark Elizabeth will receive well-wishers near her Windsor Castle home, west of London, and later light a beacon, the first of 1,000 to be ignited across the country and worldwide to mark the occasion.
There will also be artillery gun salutes in the British capital at Hyde Park and the Tower of London, while parliament will be lit red, white and blue.
Close supporters say Elizabeth, who has occupied the throne for 64 years, was far more involved in events to celebrate her 90th birthday than she had been about surpassing her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria last September as Britain’s longest-reigning monarch.
In May, a four-day pageant will be organized at Windsor Castle, while in June there will be additional events to celebrate her official birthday, including the Patron’s Lunch, a street party for 10,000 guests on the Mall.
Born on April 21, 1926 in Bruton Street in central London when Calvin Coolidge was U.S. President and Joseph Stalin had just seized control in the Soviet Union, Elizabeth shows no signs of retirement, and two surveys conducted last week suggested the public do not want her to retire either.
On Friday, the queen will host a lunch at Windsor for U.S. President Barack Obama who called her “a source of strength and inspiration not only for the people of Britain but for millions of people around the world” in a British TV documentary broadcast last month.