On Wednesday, Queen Elizabeth II will become the longest-serving monarch in British history. A royal spokesperson told Maclean’s that the record-breaking moment at which she surpasses Queen Victoria’s 23,226 days, 16 hours and 23 minutes is set to happen around 5:30 p.m. local time.
That “around” is puzzling, given the precision of royal records. The reason for the approximation is that there is no gap between the periods of rule of British monarchs. The second one dies, the next is in charge. So, while Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation didn’t come until mid-1953, she became queen the very moment her father, King George VI, died, on Feb. 6, 1952.
Read about changes to Time.com
The challenge for anniversary-minded royal-watchers is that King George died in his sleep. It was widely reported in 1952 that he was found dead by a servant around 7:30 in the morning—meaning that he died, and Elizabeth’s reign began, at some unremarked-upon moment prior to that time.
In fact, it wasn’t until later that day that the new queen—who was on a trip to Africa—even found out about her father’s death and her subsequent change in status.
“It was not until early in the afternoon that Philip got the news (by telephone from a local newspaper) that changed their lives,” TIME reported. “He sent an equerry to call London for confirmation, then gently led his wife down to the river’s edge and told her that her father was dead. The Queen returned to the lodge on her husband’s arm, shaken but in full command of herself.”
As she came to terms with her new role and began to make her way home, the article continued, the signifiers of her rule snapped into place:
But even as the shocking news interrupted the smooth flow of past into future, a new present was making itself felt. The King was dead, but the Crown remained, and it must be fitted promptly to a new head. In London’s High Court, King’s Counselor Harold Shepherd had just finished cross-examining a defendant when the news came. The court adjourned. Ten minutes later, the lawyer resumed the floor as Queen’s Counselor. Painters at another London court set to work painting out the sign “King’s Bench” and replacing it with “Queen’s Bench.” “Who goes there?” sang out the sentries in a traditional nightly ritual at the Tower of London. “The Queen’s Keys,” came the new answer. There were a multitude of adjustments to be made in a nation where everything is run in the name of the sovereign. Six months hence, for instance, a new coinage would appear bearing a likeness of the Queen, facing, in accordance with tradition, in the opposite direction from her predecessor. But first, there was the complicated procedure of establishing without question the sovereign’s identity and right to sit on the throne.
King George’s death caught Parliament in the midst of one of the fiercest debates in its recent history, and instantly stilled that debate. On Wednesday afternoon, the House of Commons met briefly to hear the news officially announced by the Prime Minister, and then recessed. The government ministers, together with leaders of the Opposition, the Privy Council and other prominent Britons, had a more important meeting to attend: the meeting of the Accession Council, the oldest governmental convocation in England, 192 of whose members gathered at St. James’s Palace to determine formally the new sovereign’s accession and title. The council’s task was complicated by the fact that Elizabeth, the first British monarch since George I to be out of the country when her predecessor died, was still 4,000 air miles from London and hence unavailable to proclaim, as required, that she is a Protestant. Nevertheless, in two hours, the councilors decided that she was indeed the rightful sovereign, and at 7 p.m. the House of Commons met again to hear their report and swear allegiance to the new Queen. Then they adjourned. That night London was dark and still.
Read more from 1952, here in the TIME Vault: Elizabeth II
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