Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee

Today is celebrated The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, though the celebration is going to continue along 2012. Actually, 6th February is the date when Elizabeth II became Queen as her father, King George VI, died in 1952. Therefore, today is the 60th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II to the thrones of seven countries ( Australia, Canada, Caribbean realms, New Zealand, Oceanic realms and United Kingdom ). Queen Victoria in 1897 is the only other monarch in the histories of the United Kingdom,Canada, Australia and a few other Commonwealth realms to have celebrated a Diamond Jubilee. A holiday to mark the event is planned in the United Kingdom to mark the anniversary of the Queen's accession. Quentin Bryce, the Governor-General of Australia, announced that the Diamond Jubilee will be celebrated a holiday in June 2012 to mark the jubilee and that Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, would tour the country. Besides, the Royal Australian Mint announced in August 2011 that it will be releasing a silver proof 50 cent coin to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. In Canada, a Diamond Jubilee Week will begin on Accession Day 2012 and Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, are to tour the country, including stops in New Brunswick, Ontario, and Saskatchewan. The Minister of Canadian Heritage,James Moore, announced that a new painted portrait of the Queen, the first since 1976, would be completed by an Ontario artist by this year;a commemorative stained glass window, showing Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria with their respective royal cyphers and renditions of the Centre Block of the Canadian parliament during the reign of each monarch, was on 30 June unveiled by the Queen at Rideau Hall (to be later installed in the Senate chamber);in the newly dedicated Queen Elizabeth II Gardens outside the monarch's official residence in Manitoba, the Queen planted on 3 July an Amber Jubilee Ninebark shrub, the species having been created specifically for the Diamond Jubilee; and a corbel within the Sovereigns' Arches of the parliament's Senate foyer was also sculpted into a rendition of the Queen and unveiled on 9 December by the country's governor general, David Johnston. On 3 February 2011, the Governor General announced that the Queen had approved the creation of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, to be distributed to 60,000 Canadians. Johnston and Prime Minister Stephen Harper unveiled the medal, along with the official emblem of Canada's Diamond Jubilee celebrations, at Rideau Hall. The Royal Canadian Mint also issued an "extensive set" of coins to mark the anniversary. The Queen's personal standard for Canada was unfurled on 6 February at the Queen's Ottawa residence, Rideau Hall, and on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, as well as at other legislatures across the country;permission was granted by the Queen to break the usual protocol of flying the banner only where the sovereign is personally present. The Queen's realms throughout the Caribbean are planning a number of Diamond Jubilee events. Prince Harry will tour Belize, Jamaica, and The Bahamas. Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, and Sophie, Countess of Wessex, will visit other Caribbean realms, including: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. In Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, a Diamond Jubilee Celebrations Committee was established to oversee events staged to mark the anniversary between February and June 2012. The Earl and Countess of Wessex are expected to arrive for their tour of country on 25 February. A Diamond Jubilee Lecture has been set to be delivered in March, a flower show and tea party will be held at Government House on 4 and 5 May, a stamp exhibition will be mounted at the National Trust headquarters and an exhibition of photographs of the Queen in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines at the National Public Library, a Queen's Birthday parade will take place, as will a Diamond Jubilee Beacon Event on 4 June, part of the wider plan to light such beacons at the same time across the Commonwealth. New Zealand Post and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand announced in January 2012 the release a silver proof dollar coin to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. In February 2012, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage commemorated the Diamond Jubilee with two new entries, one on the Royal family and a second on Governors. Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall will tour New Zealand on behalf of the Queen in November. Oceanic realms: Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge will visit the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu. In the United Kingdom, national and regional events to mark the Diamond Jubilee are being co-ordinated by the Queen-in-Council and her Royal Household at Buckingham Palace. Most funds used to fund celebrations are being drawn from private donors and sponsors. The Lord President of the Council and Business Secretary Lord Mandelson announced that an extra bank holiday would take place on Tuesday, 5 June 2012. By moving the Spring Bank Holiday (the last Monday in May) to 4 June, this will result in a four-day holiday in honour of the Diamond Jubilee, coinciding with the Queen's Official Birthday in the United Kingdom, also on 4 June. As national holidays are a devolved matter, Scotland's first minister confirmed that the bank holiday would be held on 5 June in Scotland. A large event will be staged in London on that weekend, which is to include a diamond jubilee concert,reportedly to be produced by singer-songwriter Gary Barlow,and a maritime parade of boats and events along the River Thames on 3 June, in which 1,000 boats are expected to take part (the largest flotilla to be seen on the river in 350 years) and some one million people are expected to watch from the banks.The Queen and other members of the Royal family will be carried down the Thames on a special Royal barge. Street parties can be permitted to take place across the country. Special community lottery grants, called The Jubilee People's Millions, are being offered by the Big Lottery Fund and ITV. There was a contest held by the BBC children's programme Blue Peter to design the official emblem for the Diamond Jubilee; the winning design, announced in February 2011, was created by ten-year-old Katherine Dewar. To mark the jubilee, the Queen has bestowed Royal Borough status on Greenwich, in south-east London. In addition, a competition will grant in 2012 city status to one town and either a lord mayoralty or lord provostship to one city. The Olympic park in East London, created for the 2012 London Olympics, will be named the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park following the Olympics. In March 2011, the Royal Commonwealth Society launched the Jubilee Time Capsule to mark the jubilee. Sixty Jubilee woodlands are planned to be established by the Woodland Trust in 2011-12, one of which is to be 500 acres and the remainder 60 acres each. At Buckingham Palace, a display of the Queen's diamonds will be opened to the public. Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, and Sophie, Countess of Wessex, will visit the UK Overseas Territory of Gibraltar and Montserrat. Visits are planned by Princess Anne to Zambia and Mozambique, while the Duke of Gloucester will make official visits to Uganda and Malta. In Asia, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, will visit India, while Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, will make visits to Malaysia and Singapore. Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, and Sophie, Countess of Wessex, will visit Trinidad and Tobago.