With the official celebrations celebrating the Queen’s 90th birthday now officially behind us (read the recap) we thought it would be fun to look back at just some of the stats and numbers that make up Queen Elizabeth the Second’s unbelievable reign.
Did you know….
- The first mechanical TV demonstration took place in the same year the Queen was born, in 1926
- In 1932, when Elizabeth II acceded to the throne, Lucienne Day’s ‘Calyx’ print won the International Design Award from the American Institute of Decorators, the first time a British designer received the Award
- The Queen sent her first email in 1976, the same year Fred Scott designed the iconic Supporto chair, which in 1991 the International Federation of Architects declared “the chair that most influenced modern office seating”
It’s hard to imagine all the changes that Her Majesty has seen in her life, isn’t it? Think only about the amenities in the Palaces she calls home. Buckingham Palace certainly has had upgrades – for example I’m sure that they now have wi-fi…
But more impressive is to think about what an average house in Britain was like in the 1930s versus today. Ordinary people did not have electric light until the 1920s and 1930s and while vacuum cleaners and washing machines were available only rich people – like the Queen’s family – could likely afford them. Imagine a home with no electricity, washing machine or vacuum! The styling was extremely different as well – in the 20s and 30s, art deco and its geometric shapes instead of the flowing lines of the earlier Art Nouveau took over. Below is an image of the Indian Room in Buckingham Palace in 1930 when it would have been inconceivable that 80 years later an African-American US President would come to visit.
Here are some more amazing facts in an infograph created by Wayfair.
Do you have a favorite moment from the Queen’s reign? We here at WWKD wish her many more years of health and happiness.
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