Anyone who has lived in the UK will know that the royal family have a special place in British history, not to mention modern culture. You might have taken a picture outside Buckingham Palace hoping to see the Queen, or just watched The Crown on Netflix and think you’d fit right into their family drama. Either way, the royals are part of daily British life and here to stay.

1. People love them (mostly)

Travel to Britain and you’re sure to find people who aren’t fans of the monarchy – but surveys across the UK disagree with them. Apparently, seven out of 10 Brits like having the royals around. Perhaps it’s nice to have a layer of authority in-between the people and government? Or maybe, like me, it’s because the Queen reminds me of my grandma – and nobody insults my grandma. NOBODY.

2. They have loads of houses

“Why does the Queen never step outside Buckingham Palace to say hello?” I often hear people cry in disappointment. Truth is, she’s never really there. All the royals and their various connected family members/entourage have houses aplenty, but the Queen and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, have no less than eight, which they alternate between based on when they’re needed for royal events or just having some time off: Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Palace of Holyrood House, Hillsborough Castle, Sandringham House, Balmoral Castle, Craigowan Lodge and Delnadamph Lodge. Half of those are in Scotland – about 400 miles away from London – which makes sense when you think how sick the Queen must get of tourists standing outside her palace all the time.

3. They’re not ‘British’

The Queen’s side of the family are originally German, and through the Duke of Edinburgh the royals have Danish and Greek ancestry. Now Prince Harry has married American actress Meghan Markle, new members of the family will also have African-American heritage. In many ways the royals are a metaphor for the eclectic nature of the British people and their diverse genetic backgrounds.

4. They still have ultimate power (sort of)

Royal authority isn’t what it used to be: whereas in the past it was the reigning monarch who decided things like when the country went to war, and which laws to pass, now much of that power has been handed to the government, who are allowed to make decisions on the Queen’s behalf. However, there is a loophole that allows some decisions to be made without going to parliament (where elected representatives vote on decisions on behalf of the public) and some prime ministers have used this to their advantage in the past, passing motions without asking the rest of parliament. Sneaky ministers.

5. Only the Queen can eat a swan

Any country with a royal family has some bizarre rules from old times that don’t make sense in the modern world. For example, it’s illegal to catch whales or dolphins within three miles of the UK coastline, and any dead ones that wash up naturally technically belong to the Queen. She also automatically owns any swans that can’t speak (probably one of the strangest laws anyone has ever heard). Even stranger is that only the royal family are allowed to eat swans – this means you can’t catch and kill a swan, and explains why British people have an odd respect/fear of these huge white birds. As it happens, swans can also break your arms with just their wings, so I wouldn’t mess with one even if I was allowed to.

6. The Queen is both the first and second of her name

This one sounds complicated but it actually quite simple. Queen Elizabeth is the second of her name in England, making her officially Queen Elizabeth II. However, in Scotland she’s only the first of her name because the first Queen Elizabeth never ruled there, so she’s both Queen Elizabeth I and II simultaneously. Lucky her.

7. Prince Philip is not the King

Possibly one of the most surprising things about the royal family is that, whilst the Queen is the Queen, her husband Prince Philip/Duke of Edinburgh is not the king. That’s because a woman becomes a queen when she marries a prince and he becomes king, but the same rule doesn’t apply to a man when he married a princess who becomes a queen. Prince Philip was given the title when he married Elizabeth (although he had to give up his inherited Greek royalty in order to marry her) but he never had the right to become king. An interesting rule – and one that might have to change in the future, if royal law wants to stay as progressive as its family members have been lately.

8. Kings and Queens have two birthdays

Having two birthdays seems impossible – surely you can only have one birthday as you’re only born once!

King Charles has two birthdays!

This is because the monarch’s birthday is marked by a parade known as Trooping the Colour and Edward VII, who reigned from 1901 to 1910, decided it wouldn’t be very fun to celebrate this in November (when his birthday was) because it was cold so moved his own birthday to June.

9.King Charles doesn’t squeeze his own toothpaste.

According to reports from people who work in the palace King Charles has his workers squeeze one inch of toothpaste onto his toothbrush every morning.

10.The Royal Family must stay out of politics

Members of the Royal Family aren’t allowed to say they support a particular political party.

Although they can technically vote in elections they stay away from voting so that they aren’t seen to have a certain view of the government.

11. The Queen invented a breed of Dog

The Queen’s favourite dogs were Corgis and when one of her Corgis had a baby with a Dachshund she created a new species of dog called Dorgis!

FAST FACTS

• OFFICIAL NAME: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
• FORM OF GOVERNMENT: Parliamentary democracy within a constitutional monarchy
• CAPITAL: London
• POPULATION: 67,879,000
• OFFICIAL LANGUAGES: English; both English and Scots Gaelic in Scotland; both English and Welsh in Wales
• MONEY: Pound sterling
• AREA: 93,630 square miles (242,500 square kilometers)
• MAJOR RIVERS: Thames, Severn, Trent, Mersey

TIMELINE

 

Some key dates in modern British history:

 1801 - United Kingdom formed by union of the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland.

1815 - Role in defeating Napoleon’s French Empire leads to Britain becoming pre-eminent imperial power.

1830s - Electoral reform acts begin steady move towards primacy of House of Commons and universal suffrage.

1840s - British industrial power harnessing technological change and boosts free trade and investment worldwide, reaching its peak in the second half of the 19th century.

1880s - Devolved government for Ireland becomes a major political issue, splitting Liberal Party and reviving a violent Irish separatist movement.

1914-18 - World War One.

1916 - Nationalists stage Easter Rising, seizing the General Post Office in Dublin and proclaiming an independent Irish republic. The rising is crushed by the British who execute its leaders.

1919 - Led by Éamon De Valera, the nationalist movement Sinn Féin (“We Ourselves’) sets up a Dublin assembly, the Dáil Éireann, which again proclaims Irish independence. A guerrilla campaign by the Irish Republican Army, or IRA, against British forces begins with heavy casualties on both sides.

1921 - Anglo-Irish Treaty establishes the Irish Free State, partitioned from Northern Ireland which remains part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

1924 - First UK government led by the Labour party under Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald.

1931 - Economic crisis. Millions are unemployed. National Government coalition formed.

1936 - King Edward VIII abdicates over relationship with an American divorcee, Wallis Simpson.

1939 - Germany invades Poland. UK declares war on Germany.

1940 - Winston Churchill becomes prime minister.

1944 - Allied troops invade France from Britain on D-Day (6th June) and begin to fight their way towards Germany.

1945 - Germany surrenders. Labour leader Clement Atlee is elected prime minister to replace Winston Churchill. The new Labour government introduces the welfare state.

1945 - The UK becomes a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

1948 - National Health Service is established.

1949 - The UK is one of the founder members of Nato.

1956 - UK intervenes in Suez Canal Zone, but withdraws under pressure from the US.

1961 - UK application to join European Economic Community vetoed by French President Charles de Gaulle.

1960s - Decolonisation of former British-controlled territories gathers pace.

1969 - British troops are sent to help quell communal unrest in Northern Ireland, which marks the start of The Troubles, triggered by the disputed status of Northern Ireland within the UK and a rising sense of injustice among large sections of the Catholic population. More than 3,000 people are killed between 1969-98.

1973 - The UK joins the European Economic Community, which is endorsed in a referendum two years later.

1979 - Conservative Margaret Thatcher begins move towards deregulation of economy.

1982 - Argentina invades the Falklands Islands in the South Atlantic. The UK dispatches a task force, which re-takes them.

1984 - The IRA attempts to assassinate Margaret Thatcher in her hotel in Brighton. Several killed and injured by a bomb blast, but the prime minister escapes unhurt.

1997 - Referendums in Scotland and Wales back the creation of separate assemblies, which are inaugurated in 1999.

1998 - Good Friday Agreement on a political settlement for Northern Ireland is approved by voters in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

2012 - Britain hosts the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.

2014 - Voters in Scotland reject independence in a referendum, with 55% opting to remain part of the UK and 45% favouring independence.

2016 - UK votes to leave the European Union.

2020 - Britain formally leaves the European Union.

 

 

source BBC

But look closer and you’ll see that familiar events can be extraordinary. NASA’s Artemis crew is its most diverse ever. The Texas Rangers’ World Series win was the first in the team’s history. And Britain’s king is the country’s first in more than 70 years. TFK’s album of some of the year’s best pictures reminds us that history is being made all around us. We just need to look for it.

January 10: Firefighters help a man rescue his dog in the city of Merced, during CALIFORNIA FLOODING. Heavy rains drenched parts of the state for weeks on end. Atmospheric rivers brought long bands of moisture from across the Pacific and elsewhere.

February 12: L’Jarius Sneed, a defensive back for the Kansas City Chiefs, celebrates with his son after SUPER BOWL LVII, in Glendale, California. The Chiefs beat the Philadelphia Eagles 38–35 to become the NFL champions.

March 17: Taylor Swift performs on opening night of the ERAS TOUR, at State Farm Stadium, in Glendale, Arizona. The world tour is scheduled to last until the end of next year. It could become the highest-grossing concert tour of all time, netting well over a billion dollars.

April 3: From left, astronauts Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Hammock Koch appear onstage in Houston, Texas. They were chosen for NASA’s ARTEMIS II MISSION. They’ll be the first crew the space agency has sent to the moon in 50 years.

May 6: King Charles III and Queen Camilla wave from the balcony of Buckingham Palace, in London, England. Their CORONATION as monarchs of the United Kingdom took place at Westminster Abbey.

 May 22: Smoke and fiery ash shoot from the POPOCATÉPETL VOLCANO, in Puebla, Mexico. Its name means “smoking mountain.” It has been active for three decades. Some 25 million people live close by. That makes this one of the world’s most dangerous volcanoes.

June 6: Heavy smog turns the sky orange in New York City. The smoke was from WILDFIRES IN CANADA. It drifted over parts of the eastern United States. Officials raised concerns about poor air quality and advised people to stay indoors.

July 14: The CHANDRAYAAN-3 spacecraft blazes toward the moon after launching from Sriharikota, an island in India. The country is the fourth to land a rover safely on the lunar surface. The rover did experiments and gathered information about the moon.

July 16: A boy cools off in a fountain in Ankara, Turkey. Many parts of the world experienced EXTREME HEATWAVES this summer. According to NASA, it was Earth’s hottest summer since recordkeeping began, in 1880.

August 8: A building is engulfed in flames as WILDFIRE sweeps the town of Lahaina, on the island of Maui, in Hawaii. The fires may have been ignited by fallen power lines. High winds from a nearby hurricane drove the flames.

September 15: Members of the United Autoworkers Union rally in Detroit, Michigan, on the first day of an AUTOWORKERS STRIKE. Tens of thousands participated in the months long strike against three companies: Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis. Workers demanded job protections and higher pay.

September 29: The entertainment venue SPHERE lights up during its grand opening, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Its dome is a giant LED screen, inside and out. It’s about the size of two soccer fields. The theater can fit 20,000 people, surrounding them with images and sound.

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