81 Facts about Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

1. Queen Elizabeth II is the fortieth monarch since William the Conqueror

2. She was born at 2.40am on April 21, 1926 at 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair

3. During her reign she has undertaken more than 256 official overseas visits to 129 different countries

4. She has visited Australia 15 times, Canada 23 times, Jamaica six times and New Zealand ten times

5. The Queen has received many unusual gifts including jaguars, sloths, beaver, an elephant, pineapples, eggs, snail shells, maple trees and 7kg of prawns

6. She has sent around 100,000 telegrams to centenarians in the UK and the Commonwealth

7. The Queen has launched 23 ships

8. She has given out about 78,000 Christmas puddings to staff, continuing the custom of King George V and King George VI

9. The Queen sat for the first and only hologram portrait in 2003

10. She has met five astronauts at Buckingham Palace

11. There have been six Archbishops of Canterbury during the Queen's reign

12. She first visited a mosque in the UK in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire in July 2002

13. The Queen takes a keen interest in horse breeding. Horses bred at the Royal studs have won virtually every major race in Britain

14. She is a Patron of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association. One of the Queen's birds is called Sandringham Lightning

15. The Queen's wedding ring was made from a nugget of Welsh gold which came from the Clogau St David's mine near Dolgellau

16. The Queen's real birthday is on April 21, but it celebrated officially in June

17. She has attended 34 Royal Variety performances

18. Since 1952, the Queen has conferred more than 387,700 honours and awards

19. She does not have, or need, a passport or a driving licence

20. At her birth the Queen was only third in line to the throne

21. Her early years were spent at 145 Piccadilly (now the Intercontinental Hotel at Hyde Park Corner)

22. She was instructed in religion by the Archbishop of Canterbury

23. She became a Girl Guide and was a strong swimmer

24. The Queen made her first public speech when she was 14

25. Aged 13, she was entertained to tennis and tea by an 18-year-old naval cadet, Prince Philip of Greece

26. Before she was 18, she was President of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children in Hackney and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children

27. She first flew in an aeroplane in July 1945

28. She is the only British monarch in history properly trained to change a spark plug

29. On VE Day she and her sister slipped into the crowd to celebrate

30. Her first official overseas visit was to South Africa in 1947

31. She collected clothing coupons for her wedding dress

32. The Queen spent her honeymoon at Broadlands, Hampshire, and at Birkhall, Balmoral

33. She has four children and eight grandchildren

34. Prince Andrew and Prince Edward were the first children to be born to a reigning monarch since Queen Victoria had her family

35. Her grandchildren are Peter and Zara Phillips (b. 1977 and 1981); Prince William of Wales and Prince Henry of Wales (b. 1982 and 1984); Princess Beatrice of York and Princess Eugenie of York (b. 1988 and 1990); Lady Louise Windsor, daughter of the Earl and Countess of Wessex (b. 2003) and Viscount Severn (b.2007)

36. The Queen usually spends Christmas at Sandringham in Norfolk

37. She was in a remote part of Kenya when she received the news of her father's death and her own accession to the throne on Wednesday, February 6, 1952

38. The Coronation took place in Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953, and was broadcast on television for the first time - at the Queen's request

39. The first prime minister of her reign was Winston Churchill

40. In 1962 she paid an informal visit to the East End of London, visiting housing redevelopments in Bethnal Green and Stepney

41. The first film about the Royal Family was shown in 1969. It was watched by 23 million

42. In 1970, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh initiated a new practice - the “walkabout” - to allow them to meet as many people as possible

43. The Queen exercised her Royal prerogative in 1963 when she appointed Lord Home Prime Minister

44. In 1965, she made the first visit by a monarch to Germany for 52 years

45. She formally acknowledged Prince Charles as heir in 1969

46. She travelled 56,000 miles to celebrate her Silver Jubilee in 1977

47. The Queen has a bank account at Coutts & Co. There is a Coutts cash-dispensing machine in Buckingham Palace

48. She received the first female prime minister at Buckingham Palace in 1979, when Margaret Thatcher replaced James Callaghan as leader

49. The Queen was the first British Sovereign to travel to the Middle East in 1979

50. In February 1983, she opened the Jamaican Parliament in its 21st anniversary year of independence

51. When she opened the Scottish Parliament she called it "the threshold of a new constitutional age"

52. An era in Royal travel came to end on December 11, 1997, when the Royal Yacht Britannia was decommissioned

53. On November 20 1992, fire broke out at Windsor Castle in the Queen's Private Chapel

54. She gave special permission for the American National Anthem to be played during the Changing of the Guard on September 14 2001

55. The Queen celebrated her Golden Jubilee in 2002, including visiting 70 cities and towns around the UK

56. Every year she attends the Derby at Epsom and the Summer Race Meeting at Ascot

57. She has made private visits to America to see stallion stations and stud farms in Kentucky

58. The Queen loves Scottish country dancing

59. Tony Blair was the first prime minister to be born during her reign, which has already seen nine prime ministers

60. The 1953 FA Cup Final was the first football game she attended

61. Peggy was the first horse that the young Elizabeth owned, a gift from her grandfather, George V, when she was four

62. The Queen has sat through 91 state banquets and posed for 139 official portraits

63. She has given the nation a Christmas message every year except 1969

64. She has been sent more than three million letters

65. 1.1 million people have attended her garden parties

66. She has performed the State Opening of Parliament every year except 1959 and 1963, when she was expecting Prince Andrew and Prince Edward respectively

67. She was the first British monarch to visit China, in 1986, and the first for 450 years to receive the Pope at Buckingham Palace

68. The Queen sent her first e-mail from an army base in 1976

69. The official Buckingham Palace website was set up in 1997

70. She first used the Underground in May 1939, when she travelled with her governess, Marion Crawford, and Princess Margaret

71. She has visited the sets of EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale

72. She is the first monarch to be awarded a gold disc from the recording industry

73. Her reign has been shared with more than 30 corgis, starting with one called Susan, a present for her 18th birthday in 1944

74. The Queen introduced a new breed of dog known as the "dorgi", when one of the corgis mated with a dachshund named Pipkin

75. She owns all the sturgeon, whales and dolphins in British waters, as well as 88 cygnets on the Thames

76. The Queen is the first British monarch to see three of her children divorce

77. She is the first sovereign to be forced to open Buckingham Palace to the public (in order to pay for the restoration of Windsor Castle after the fire of 1992)

78. She is the first monarch to cause an Old Bailey trial to be halted, despite being Paul Burrell's ultimate prosecutor as Head of State

79. She keeps her cornflakes in Tupperware boxes

80. She demoted a footman for feeding her corgis whisky

81. She owns the largest and finest private art collection in the world