Britain began four days of celebrations on Thursday to mark Queen Elizabeth's seven decades on the throne.
The 96-year-old Elizabeth, Britain's longest-reigning and currently the world's oldest monarch, became queen on Feb. 6, 1952, on the death of her father King George VI.
The queen has attended every such parade bar one since 1955, with scaled-down ceremonies taking place in the last two years because of coronavirus restrictions. Due to her mobility issues, for the first time she will take the salute from soldiers and officers from the balcony of Buckingham Palace. In the evening, beacons will be lit in more than 2,000 towns, villages and cities across Britain and in the capital cities of Commonwealth countries. The queen will lead the lighting of the Principal Platinum Jubilee Beacon at her Windsor Castle home.
The queen, whose love of horse racing is well known and who is an owner and breeder of many horses, has been a regular attendee at the race in previous years.
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