Queen Elizabeth’s quiet birthday

OHMYGOSSIP — Queen Elizabeth spent her 87th birthday in private with Prince Philip, while a gun salute in honour of her birthday takes place today.

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth celebrated her 87th birthday in private. The British monarch – who turned 87 yesterday (21.04.13) – marked the occasion with a quiet day spent with her family, according to Buckingham Palace.

It is thought the queen and Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, spent the day away from London at Windsor Castle.

The monarch’s birthday was celebrated today (22.04.13) with a military gun salute at 12:00 BST. A 41-gun salute was fired from Hyde Park in London, while a 21-gun salute took place in Windsor Great Park and a 62-gun salute took place at the Tower of London.

The gun salutes usually occur on the queen’s birthday, but as it fell on a Sunday this year, the commemoration was pushed back a day.

While April 21 marks her real birthday, Queen Elizabeth will celebrate her ‘official’ birthday in June which will be marked by the annual Trooping the Colour parade.

Meanwhile, royal enthusiast Tim O’Donovan has calculated that the monarch has taken part in more than 30,000 royal engagements since ascending to the throne in 1952.

The 81-year-old retired insurance broker calculated the number of appearances using the Court Circular – a daily account of the royal family’s engagements that is published in numerous newspapers – and worked out that she has taken part in an average of 497 official engagements each year between 1952 and 2012.