Today in History: Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation took place
Queen Elizabeth II has ruled as queen of the United Kingdom and ruler of the Commonwealth realms for 66 years, after her coronation on this day 65 years ago.
Queen Elizabeth II ascended the throne at the age of 25, after the death of her father, King George VI, on 6 February 1952, and was proclaimed queen by her various privy and executive councils shortly afterwards, with her coronation only taking place more than a year later.
The coronation was postponed due to the tradition that holding such a festival is deemed inappropriate during the period of mourning that follows the death of a monarch and also on account of the need to make preparations for the ceremony.
Celebrations took place right across the Commonwealth realms and a commemorative medal was issued.
It was the first British coronation to be televised, and was the fourth and last British coronation of the 20th century.
The coronation ceremony itself followed a similar pattern to those of the kings and queens before her, being held in Westminster Abbey, and involving the peerage and clergy.
However, for the new Queen, several parts of the ceremony were markedly different.
The coronation of the Queen was the first ever to be televised, and it was also the world’s first major international event to be broadcast on television.
There had been considerable debate within the British Cabinet on the subject, with Prime Minister Winston Churchill against the idea, but Queen Elizabeth refused his advice on this matter and insisted the event take place before the television cameras.
Millions across Britain watched the coronation live, while, to make sure Canadians could see it on the same day, RAF Canberras flew BBC film recordings of the ceremony across the Atlantic Ocean to be broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). These flights were also the first non-stop flights between the United Kingdom and the Canadian mainland.
At Goose Bay, Labrador, the first batch of film was transferred to a Royal Canadian Air Force CF-100 jet fighter for the rest of the trip to Montreal.
In all, three such flights were made as the coronation proceeded, with the first and second Canberras taking the second and third batches of film directly to Montreal.
US networks, NBC and CBS, made similar arrangements to have films flown in relays back to the United States for same-day broadcast.
The struggling ABC network arranged to copy the CBC broadcast at ABC’s affiliate in Buffalo, New York for live re-broadcast and, as a result, beat the other two networks to air by more than one and a half hours.
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