On 2 June 1953 the elaborate coronation ceremony of Elizabeth II took place in Westminster Abbey. King George VI had died on 6 February 1952 and although his daughter Elizabeth had acceded to the throne immediately it was over a year before the official coronation took place. It was the first time the ceremony was televised. Winston Churchill, the prime minister at the time, had opposed cameras filming the event, but Elizabeth had overruled him and so the BBC recorded the whole ceremony. Elizabeth II would rule Britain for over 70 years, making her the longest-reigning British monarch in the nation’s history.
Extract from the BBC’s website commemorating the event:
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