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There are more than 130 portraits of the Queen, but just one hologram portrait, which she sat for in 2003.

As a child, she was homeschooled with her sister, Princess Margaret.

She and Prince Philip married just after the war, and for her wedding dress, she had to collect clothing coupons just like any other British bride to get the fabric.

The Queen sent her rst e-mail in 1976 from an Army base.
She has opened British parliament every year except 1959 and 1963 those years she was pregnant with Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, respectively.

She owns an iPad.

She has a Gold Record the CD Party at the Palace, produced by EMI, sold 100,000 copies within the rst week or release.

She was the rst British monarch to visit China. She went there in 1986.
She has a 6:30 p.m. meeting every Tuesday with the prime minister. No written record is ever made at those meetings and they do not discuss what is said to others.

In honour of Her Majestys Diamond Jubilee on Monday

A letter she wrote to Apollo 11 astronauts remains on the moon. She wrote the letter July 21, 1969, and it was put in a metal container and placed on the moons surface.

One of the Queens favourite drinks is a Dubonnet and gin.

The Queen and Prince Philip have the longest marriage of any monarch. They marked 64 years on Nov. 20, 2011. A man pointed a gun at the Queen while she was celebrating her birthday in June 1981. It was later determined that even though he did re the gun, he was shooting blanks. The Queen owns all the sturgeons, whales and dolphins in the waters around the U.K. It stems from a law from 1324, and is still valid. Sturgeons, porpoises, whales and dolphins are considered Fishes Royal and when captured within three miles of the U.K., or that wash ashore dead or alive, can be claimed on behalf of the Crown.

She was a Girl Guide.

She breeds horses. In 1984, 1986 and 1991 she made private visits to the U.S. to see stallion stations and stud farms in Kentucky.

She and Prince Philip created the Royal walkabout in 1970 to meet a greater number of people. They did their rst walkabouts during a trip to Australia and New Zealand.

She does not need a licence to drive a car.

She loves Scottish country dancing and each year during her stay at Balmoral Castle she gives dances known as Gillies Balls for neighbours and sta . She is Queen of 16 countries: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, and Saint Kitts and Nevis.

The Queen created a new breed of dog the dorgi a mix of corgis and dachshunds.

Her rst corgi was named Susan. The dog was a gift for her 18th birthday.

Along with corgis, the Queen also breeds and trains Labradors and Cocker Spaniels.
The Queens Coronation was televised a rst for the royal family.

The Queen was once given two black beavers from Canada. They were placed in the care of the London zoo.
The Queen hid behind a bush in 1978 when she had no desire to meet with Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. The book, Our Queen, said she was walking in the palace gardens when she saw Ceausescu coming her way and she hid behind a bush to avoid him.

She used to breed corgis, but stopped in 2009.

She became the rst monarch in 450 years to welcome the Pope to Britain in 1982.
She gave her rst public speech in Oct. 1940 when she was 14. It was a live broadcast during the war, and she sent a message to all the children of Britain and the Commonwealth telling them, We know in the end that all will be well. The Queen carries a comb, a handkerchief, a small gold compact, and a tube of lipstick in her handbag, Majesty magazine has reported. On Sundays, she carries cash for the collection plate at church.

She raises racing pigeons.

She carries out about 430 engagements each year.

When she woke up the morning of July 9, 1982, she was greeted by an intruder in her bedroom. Michael Fagan had scaled the walls around Buckingham Palace and entered her room. The man didnt want to hurt her, he just wanted to talk, which she did. When he asked for a cigarette, she was able to alert her sta . He was not charged.

She is a strong swimmer.

Prince Philip is her distant cousin. They share the same great, great grandmother: Queen Victoria.

She was once lmed throwing tennis shoes and yelling at Prince Philip, who was also lmed running away, during a tour of Australia on March 6, 1954. The shots, lmed by an Australian camera crew for a special feature called The Queen in Australia, were destroyed immediately and the cause of the royal dust-up was never known.

When Prince Andrew was born, she became the rst reigning sovereign to give birth since Queen Victoria. She carried out her rst public engagement when she was 16 she inspected the Grenadier Guards.

The Queen is known for her stare, which she gives to people who do not follow protocol. One person described it in the book Our Queen as open eyes, absolutely no expression.

She found out she was Queen while on a trip to a remote part of Kenya on Feb. 6, 1952. Prince Philip told her the news.

She has worn more than 5,000 hats. She will wear favourite hats 20 to 30 times, one of the Queens milliners, Freddy Fox, has said in previous media reports. There are very few hats she wont wear more than once.

She loves photography.

She was 25 when she became Queen.

She was known for her credit crunch couture. On a tour to Trinidad, she wore a dress that was embroidered with the national birds and owers of that country. When she returned to England, the beads and crystals were unthreaded and the dress was re-embroidered in the maple-leaf pattern for her tour of Canada. Her birthday is April 21, but it is o cially celebrated in Britain on the second Saturday of June. If the Queen is done talking to a person, but nds it hard to get away, she will switch her purse from one arm to another, or she will spin her wedding ring, as a sign to her handlers to come get her.

Her rst visit to Canada was in 1951. As Queen, she has made 23 o cial visits to Canada the most recent in 2010. Waterloo, Ont.-based Research in Motion gave her a BlackBerry during a Canadian tour.
In 1954, the Bank of Canada received a complaint that the outline of the devils face was visible in the hair of the Queen depicted on banknotes put into circulation two years earlier. The Devils Face notes were pulled and cancelled and new bills with a modied portrait were put into circulation.

In lm, shes been portrayed by Helen Mirren, Emilia Fox, Samantha Bond, Susan Jameson, Barbara Flynn, and Freya Wilson (who played a young Princess Elizabeth in The Kings Speech).

Her full name is Elizabeth Alexandra Mary of York.

She has four children, eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Her great-grandchild is the daughter of Canadian Autumn Phillips, who is married to Peter Phillips. Savannah was born Dec. 29, 2010.

She is 5-foot-4.
In 2002, at 76 years of age, the Queen was the oldest monarch to celebrate a Golden Jubilee. The youngest was James I (James VI of Scotland) at 51 years.

She has travelled more than all her predecessors put together.
In 1945, she joined the war e ort and was trained as a driver in the Womens Auxiliary Territorial Service (WATS). She also served as an auto mechanic.

Her shoe size is 7.5.

She does not have a passport. She is uent in French.

INFORMATION COMPILED BY KATE SCHWASS, QMI Agency

She dubbed 1992 annus horribilis (horrible year) as it was the year her sons, Charles and Andrew, separated from their wives, her daughter Anne divorced and part of Windsor Castle was destroyed by re.