The Oldest Living Monarch

December 20, 2007 - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has become the oldest living monarch in the country's history. At 81 years and 243 days old, she passed the mark set by her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria. She is the world's second-longest serving monarch alive, after Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej. She has outlasted 11 prime ministers -- the first was Sir Winston Churchill -- and is the first to have a prime minister, Tony Blair, born during her reign.

Elizabeth was born at 17 Bruton Street, in Mayfair, London, on 21 April 1926. Her father was Prince Albert, Duke of York and her mother was the Duchess of York. Elizabeth was named after her mother, while her two middle names are those of her paternal great-grandmother, Queen Alexandra, and grandmother, Queen Mary, respectively. She married Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh on 20 November 1947. On 14 November 1948, Elizabeth gave birth to her first child, Charles. She became Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) upon the death of her father, George VI, on 6 February 1952.

Elizabeth can already claim to have been active longer than Victoria, who retreated from public life for more than a decade after the death of her husband, Prince Albert, in 1861. She may have many years left in the job. Her mother, the Queen Mother Elizabeth, died in 2002 at the age of 101. Earlier this fall, Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, celebrated 60 years of marriage. The Queen's next public engagement is on Christmas Day (December 25), when she will attend a church service on her Sandringham country estate in the county of Norfolk, eastern England.