All hail the Queen! On Wednesday, Sept. 9, Queen Elizabeth II is about to become the longest-reigning monarch ever to serve the United Kingdom. She will overtake her great-great grandmother, Queen Victoria, who held the crown for 63 years and 216 days.
Days away from setting a new record, the current queen was also voted as Britain's "Greatest Monarch" in a YouGov poll for The Sunday Times.
She garnered 27 percent of votes, beating her namesake, Elizabeth I, who had 13 percent. Queen Victoria falls closely behind with 12 percent.
Queen Elizabeth II was an active figure during World War II, and in 1952, ascended into the throne in a war-torn England. The next two decades of her tenure saw much political and civil unrest. And from the '80s to '90s, the royal family was bombarded with a series of shocking scandals, ending with Princess Diana's tragic death in 1997.
Amidst all challenges, the Queen remained to be a formidable figure in the British history. She has survived and outlasted them all -- securing the monarchy's position in this modern society.
In the span of more than six decades, Queen Elizabeth II's extensive reign has seen many momentous events in history. Technology skyrocketed during her era, and she will be remembered in history as the first queen to have sent a message out to space, written the first royal email, launched a YouTube channel, and joined Facebook and Twitter.
But these advances in technology have nothing compared to the drastic cultural changes the Commonwealth has been witnessing in recent years. Undoubtedly, the Queen has played a major part in seeing these changes through. In 1992, she offered to pay taxes and opened her official residences to the public in order to pay for their maintenance. She supported the Royal Equality Act of 2011, ending the rule of male primogeniture, which means the eldest child, even female, can now succeed to the throne. The act also lifted the ban on anyone in the line of succession to marry a Catholic or someone with a different religion.
Despite these modern changes within the monarchy, however, some still question the significance of the royal family in this day and age. David Starkey, a constitutional historian and TV personality, criticized the Queen's relatively underwhelming impact. He told the Radio Times, "The Queen has done and said nothing that anybody will remember. She will not give her name to her age. Or, I suspect, to anything else."
Queen Elizabeth II remains unmoved. Now nearing 90, she has no plans of abdicating the throne. She is set to appear at the opening of the new Scottish Borders Railway on Wednesday, the same day she celebrates her new milestone.
