Remembering Queen Elizabeth II: The most important photo from every single year of her remarkable life

This photo shows the newly born Princess Elizabeth with her father and mother, the Duke and Duchess of York — later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

She was named Elizabeth after her mother, Mary after her grandmother Queen Mary, and Alexandra after her great-grandmother Queen Alexandra.

This picture was taken as the baby princess was taken for a ride on the grounds of Windsor Castle. She is seen with her cousin, the honorable Gerald Lascelles, right, son of Princess Royal.

This became apparent only once her father's elder brother Edward abdicated, putting her father on the throne and making her first in line.

The Queen was 3 years old when this photograph was taken.

She also learned French after spending time with French and Belgian governesses and regularly spoke the language when delivering speeches abroad during her reign.

In the photo above, the future Queen is seen attending a party held at Glamis Castle in Angus, Scotland, in August 1931.

The event was in celebration of the golden wedding of the Earl and Countess of Strathmore.

She was visiting the Royal Tournament at Olympia.

The image shows the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth) with both daughters, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret.

This photo shows the Duchess of York arriving at Olympia's International Horse Show with Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret.

This photo was taken after the family had attended the Jubilee service at St. Paul's Cathedral.

She spent much of her childhood in 145 Piccadilly, a townhouse located next to The Ritz and bordering the city's Green Park.

This is also the year Princess Elizabeth signed up as a Girl Guide, when she was 11 years old.

The princesses can be seen here watching the Pony Show in London from the royal box. Since then, Queen Elizabeth attended a huge number of races and pageants.

Both were known to be keen swimmers.

She addressed the children of the Commonwealth, most of whom had been evacuated and were away from their families. She told them to remember that when peace comes, "it will be for us children of today to make the world of tomorrow a better and happier place."

The two princesses took the leading roles in the show and also produced the play for the benefit of the Royal Household Concert Wool Fund.

She was appointed colonel-in-chief of the Grenadier Guards by her father in 1942 and made her first public appearance inspecting the troops that year.

She knitted garments for the poor, contributed funds to purchase cigarettes for the armed forces, and attended dances and programs for evacuated children.

She christened the plane in this photo the "Rose of York."

Thousands of people gathered outside the royal residence to celebrate the end of the conflict.

A year later, they themselves would walk down the aisle.

She was the first British monarch to have celebrated a diamond wedding anniversary. This family photo was taken at Buckingham Palace following the ceremony.

He is pictured alongside his mother, his grandfather King George VI, and his great-grandmother Queen Mary.

The photo was taken at Windlesham Moor, their summer residence, in Ascot, England.

The above photo took place after Anne's christening in October 1950.

She's joined in the photo by husband Prince Philip, and their children Charles and Anne on the lawn at Clarence House, London.

She immediately became Queen and began what would be the longest reign of any monarch in British history. In this photo, a veiled Elizabeth accompanies her father's coffin to his final resting place in Windsor.

Though she officially became Queen in 1952 after the death of her father, King George, her coronation wasn't until a year later. An estimated 27 million people in Britain watched the ceremony on TV.

In this photo, the Queen and Winston Churchill wait at Waterloo Station in London for the Queen Mother to arrive back from a month in the US.

Here, the Queen arrives by car with Prince Philip at the Portuguese Embassy in London's Belgrave Square to attend a dinner party thrown in their honor by the visiting Portuguese president and Madame Craveiro Lopes.

She and Prince Philip visited the Lagos City boundary in Nigeria on their way to the city from Ikeja Airport in 1956. Here, she's pictured sitting next to Chief Oba Adeniji-Adila II, who reigned from 1949 through 1964.

The Queen is pictured holding an old-fashioned movie camera as she takes pictures of the cross-country competition.

In 1958, she met legendary actress and early Playboy playmate Jayne Mansfield at London's Odeon Theatre during the annual royal film festival.

Here, she stands on the grounds of Balmoral Castle, Scotland, with President Eisenhower. They are joined by Prince Philip, Princess Anne, and Prince Charles.

This family photo shows the Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen entertaining the kids, including a baby Prince Andrew, as they relax on the grounds of Balmoral Castle.

The Queen was invited to Kennedy's funeral following his assassination in 1963 but was unable to attend because she was pregnant with Edward.

The Queen wore a blue lace dress to Ladies Day, while her mother opted for a floral print.

They were greeted by about 90,000 schoolchildren, some of whom had traveled hundreds of miles to catch a glimpse of the Queen and her husband.

She did so in both French and English.

World leaders and politicians from around the globe attended. A Guardian article from the day said: "By one o'clock the great State funeral was over, the Kings and Queens, Presidents and Prime Ministers, the generals and Politicians from the world over had paid their respects."

This was the first — and remains the only — time England had ever won the World Cup.

It was originally constructed for the 1967 world fair, which took place in Montréal.

In this photo, they're driven past a collection of Bloodhound missiles.

Astronauts and first men on the moon Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin were invited to meet with the monarch in Buckingham Palace.

This photo shows them with Prime Minister Edward Heath at Chequers, the country retreat of Britain's prime ministers. The Queen visited Chequers three times throughout her reign.

The Emperor and Queen Elizabeth II rode in an open Landau through the gates of Buckingham Palace in a lavish procession after his arrival at Victoria Station.

She paid a visit to Malaysia, where she stopped to speak to schoolchildren along the way.

In this photo, they are shown arriving at an "Old Canada" exhibition in High Park, Toronto.

The dinner marked the third day of the King and Queen of Malaysia's visit to England.

After the presentations, the Queen saw the musical "Funny Lady," in which Streisand was the star.

The dinner party was thrown in honor of Her Majesty during her tour of the US.

As part of the festivities, she conducted a brief walkabout in London where she met and spoke with members of the public before attending a ceremony at St. Paul's Cathedral.

The Yeoman of the Guard is the world's oldest military corps.

Here, she is escorted by King Khali of Saudi Arabia, far right, after her arrival at Riyadh Airport, Saudi Arabia. This was one of eight official state visits to various countries she made that year.

Here, she talks to Pope John Paul II while her husband looks on.

An estimated 750 million people watched the event worldwide on July 29, 1981.

He came preaching reconciliation between the Vatican and Anglicans even as British troops battled Catholic Argentines in the Falklands.

The order recognizes distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or the promotion of culture.

The moment made for a dramatic picture.

The Queen's visit marked the newspaper's 200th anniversary.

She toured a children's center in Canton during her visit.

The Queen wore the chain of the Order of King Abdul Aziz in honor of the King.

As part of her visit, she and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands walked through the Arnhem-Oosterbeek War Cemetery, in Oosterbeek. Many British paratroopers who died in World War II are buried in the cemetery.

The Queen wore a cloak and slippers inside the mosque.

Prince Philip, the Prince and Princess of Wales, Princes William and Harry watched the flyover at the Queen's side.

The royals saw the Baltimore Orioles play the Oakland A's.

The hall was destroyed along with eight other principal rooms and more than 100 other rooms. The repair work on all fire-damaged areas cost £37 million.

The same year, Buckingham Palace opened to the public for the first time.

Queen Elizabeth II and French president François Mitterrand unveiled a plaque in front of the head of the drill used to bore through the underwater chalk, to mark the occasion in Coquelles, France.

The pair visited during a five-day European trip.

Queen Elizabeth II and her daughter, Princess Anne, visited the small Scottish town to lay wreaths outside the school where 16 children and one teacher were shot and killed.

This photo shows the Queen and Prince Philip observing the vast sea of flowers left outside Buckingham Palace after Diana's death.

In this photo, the Queen Mother waves as she poses with her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren outside her official residence, Clarence House.

The visit was an example of Britain's royal family experimenting with a more intimate, casual approach on meet-the-people tours.

Cheering fans lined her procession route to Buckingham Palace shouting birthday wishes to a woman who won the love and admiration of the nation during a turbulent century.

In this picture, the Queen wipes a tear from her face as she's comforted by a member of the clergy in St. Paul's Cathedral following a 9/11 memorial service.

The picture above shows the Queen and other members of the family during the funeral of the Queen Mother.

The visit was aimed at repairing diplomatic damage from the Iraq war.

The £3.6 million ($3.4 million in 2004) creation at the side of the Serpentine was surrounded by controversy, facing delays and overrunning its budget by £600,000 ($575,189.15 in 2004), as CNN reported at the time.

The service saw candles lit to represent the four sites bombed on July 7 that killed 52 people. It was also this year that Prince Charles and Camilla got married.

A fireworks display, which the Queen can be seen watching in the photo above, was put on at Kew Palace in her honor before she celebrated at a private family dinner.

Bush praised the two nations' relationship during a speech, saying that they each "hold fundamental values in common."

"We honor our traditions and our shared history. We recognize that the strongest societies respect the rights and dignity of the individual," he added. "We understand and accept the burdens of global leadership, and we have built our special relationship on the surest foundations: our deep and abiding love of liberty."

The Queen stood to give a speech at the banquet held in Windsor Castle, near London.

At the time, some commentators suggested Obama broke royal protocol by putting her arm around the Queen. However, the Queen returned the gesture at the time and, according to Obama, told her years later that protocol is "rubbish."

The sporting event is known colloquially as "The Games" and attracts visitors from around the world to the small village.

Families around the world were glued to their TV sets. The couple even received a message of congratulations from the crew on the International Space Station.

An estimated 1.2 million people took to the streets of London (pictured above) to celebrate the Queen's 60 years on the throne.

The Pakistani teenager, who advocates for education for girls, became the face of women's rights in the Middle East after she survived a Taliban assassination attempt in 2012 on her way home from school.

The poppies were part of a ceramic poppy installation called "Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red," which marked the centenary of the outbreak of World War I. There were 888,246 poppies in total, each one representing a British military fatality during the war.

The photo above was taken during her official visit to Germany in June 2015.

Princes Charles, George, and William were at her side for the photo shoot.

She was wearing one of her signature brightly-colored ensembles.

She and Markle later went on their first joint engagement in June when they visited Cheshire.

She attended Sunday service at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate in King's Lynn, England.

Before the coronavirus pandemic engulfed the world, Prince Harry and Markle shook the royal family by announcing they were stepping back from the royal family and leaving the UK.

They marked their final appearance as senior royals for the annual Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey, where royal commentators said tensions appeared high between everyone, on March 9, 2020.

Prince Philip, who was married to the Queen for 73 years, died on April 9, 2021. He was 99 years old.

Queen Elizabeth II was photographed sitting alone during her husband's funeral on April 17, likely due to COVID-19 social distancing restrictions. The harrowing image captured the loneliness of grieving during the pandemic.

The Queen celebrated her Platinum Jubilee with a four-day celebration that began with her annual birthday parade and the Trooping the Colour at Buckingham Palace.

She also met her granddaughter Lili for the first time as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle returned to the UK with their children for the celebrations.

Daniel Boan, Allison Millington, and Charles Clark contributed reporting on a previous version of this article.