Sailors, soldiers and Royal Air Force troops from nearly all areas of the British Armed Forces host a parade in honor of Queen Elizabeth II, in Windsor Berkshire, on May 19, 2012. The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Armed Forces Parade and Muster is part of a series of celebrations for the Queen’s 60^th anniversary as monarch.

The Queen’s parade ended with 78 aircraft flying overhead in formation. Here, the Red Arrows—the Royal Air Force’s aerobatic team—fly past the parade. Queen Elizabeth II is England’s second longest-serving monarch, after Queen Victoria, who served 63 years.

Artist Lisa Burton of Madame Tussauds, a wax museum in London, puts the finishing touches on a new wax figure of the Queen in honor of her Diamond Jubilee, on May 14, 2012. Queen Elizabeth II, who has been featured on billions of postage stamps and millions of coins and bills, is one of the most recognizable faces in the English-speaking world.

Queen Elizabeth II receives flowers as she walks through the Jubilee Road Street Party in Bromley, in south London, on May 15, 2012. She is touring the United Kingdom to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee.

Queen Elizabeth II meets horse riders and dancers from Chile during a tea party for the cast of the Diamond Jubilee Pageant at her home, Windsor Castle, on May 11, 2012. The jubilee celebrations will end with a four-day public holiday on June 2-5. Final celebrations will include a festival of 1,000 boats on the Thames River, the lighting of more than 2,000 beacons and a service of thanksgiving at St. Paul’s Cathedral, in London.

Elizabeth became Queen at the age of 26, immediately after her father’s unexpected death in 1952. A year later, on June 2, 1953, the Queen's coronation took place at Westminster Abbey, in London. It marked the first time that such a royal occasion was televised.