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Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her record 65-year reign

London — Queen Elizabeth II is poised for another historic milestone, an unprecedented 65 years on the throne.

But Buckingham Palace says Britain's longest-serving monarch plans to spend Monday's ceremonies far from the spotlight in sombre contemplation of her late father.

Official commemorations of Elizabeth's Sapphire Jubilee are expected to feature ceremonial cannon fusillades at a central London park and at the riverside Tower of London as well as a procession of military horses pulling World War I-era artillery pieces.

But the 90-year-old monarch is staying 110 miles (175 km) to the north at her Sandringham House estate in Norfolk, where her father, George VI, died of lung cancer at age 56 on 6 February, 1952, after a 15-year reign.

Elizabeth surpassed Queen Victoria as Britain's longest-serving monarch in 2015.

The Royal Family released a special photograph of Queen Elizabeth wearing "a suite of sapphire jewellery given to her by King George VI as a wedding gift in 1947.

See the timeless image here:

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