Queen Elizabeth II Celebrates 95Th Birthday

Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her 95th birthday on Saturday with scaled back ceremonies for the second year in a row due to coronavirus restrictions.


The Trooping the Colour, a traditional ceremony on the queen's birthday, was held at the Windsor Castle with a reduced parade instead of central London.


Her birthday coincided with a G7 summit being held in Cornwall, England this year. The queen met the leaders attending the summit at a reception Friday and she will be visited at the Windsor Castle on Sunday by US President Joe Biden and his wife.


The celebrations on Saturday will also include a 41-gun salute and a flypast by the Red Arrows, a British flight display team.


The queen, whose actual birthday falls in April, officially celebrates it in June, with the exact date determined by the Buckingham Palace.


Born on April 21, 1926, Queen Elizabeth is the UK's longest-reigning monarch. She has been on the British throne since Feb. 6, 1952.


The queen spent her actual birthday in April without any celebrations mainly because of her husband's death a short time before. Prince Philip, the queen's husband and the duke of Edinburgh, died on April 9 after suffering cardiac problems at the age of 99. -