MODERN MONARCH CELEBRATES ANOTHER RECORD-BREAKING MILESTONE OVER EIGHT DECADES ON THE THRONE

HISTORY IN THE MAKING . . . BOUDICA IN MANCETTER TO NHS FRONTLINE HERO SIR TOM MOORE AT 'OPEN AIR' INVESTITURE AT WINDSOR CASTLE

ATHERSTONE, with its indelible link to royal history going back 2,000 years to Queen of the Britons Boudica's last stand against the mighty Roman empire, joins the nation in celebrating another major milestone reached today in the modern monarch's record-breaking reign.

Our longest serving sovereign has now been on the throne for 25,000 days.

Elizabeth II became queen on February 6, 1952 on the death of her father, King George VI, when she just 25.

She has now been monarch for 68 years, five months and 12 days by July 18, and in 2015 overtook the record of 23,226 days, 16 hours and some 30 minutes set by her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.

The Queen's approach to having been on the throne for 25,000 days will undoubtedly be a matter-of-fact one, with the milestone unlikely to be on her radar.

When she became the country's longest-serving monarch in 2015, she thanked the nation for its kind messages, but admitted that the royal record was "not one to which I have ever aspired".

"Inevitably a long life can pass by many milestones. My own is no exception," she remarked.

On Saturday the Queen will be at Windsor Castle with the Duke of Edinburgh and the "HMS Bubble" of staff who have been running the couple's reduced household.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: "The Queen is spending the day privately."

The milestone comes the day after she welcomed Captain Sir Tom Moore to Windsor for a very special "open air" investiture.

The 100-year-old fundraiser was honoured with a personal ceremony in the castle quadrangle – believed to be the first occasion of its kind – as he was knighted by the Queen.

She personally thanked him for raising an "amazing amount of money" for NHS charities.

In brilliant summer sunshine and with his family standing nearby, the head of state praised the Second World War veteran for collecting almost £33 million: "Thank you so much, an amazing amount of money you raised."

Back in April frontline Atherstone heroes joined the rest of the nation in wishing Sir Tom a happy 100th birthday.

Greetings sent by police and frontline carers from Atherstone are among 140,000 birthday wishes to the most famous centenarian to come out of the coronavirus crisis.

And Captain Moore even gatecrashed a Facebook page poll hosted by Twycross Zoo to give a name to a new-born baby antelope.

The options originally on offer were 'George' after George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust in Nuneaton, 'Samuel' after the Samuel Johnson Community Hospital in Lichfield and 'Robert' after the Sir Robert Peel Community Hospital in Mile Oak, Tamworth.

The zoo's social media followers decided to introduce the retired Army captain into the voting mix and it was close-run contest with Captain Moore finishing second to the eventual winner 'George' after the George Eliot.

Knighting Sir Tom was "another day at the office" for a woman, who at 94, is less than two years away from celebrating her Platinum Jubilee - 70 years on the throne - in 2022.

The Queen reached her Silver Jubilee in 1977, Golden one in 2002 and Diamond Jubilee in 2012.

The monarch has been a figure of continuity as her country changed through the 20th century, the Millennium and into the 21st century amid new technological and social advances and a succession of British governments.

Over eight decades of her reign, man has landed on the Moon, Britain got its first, then second, female prime minister, the internet was invented, and gay marriage was legalised in the UK.

The public has looked to the Queen in times of tragedy – the September 11 terror attacks, the London bombings, the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and more recently during the coronavirus crisis.

But even she confessed of the global Covid-19 pandemic: "While we have faced challenges before, this one is different."

The Queen has delivered two rare televised addresses to the nation just weeks apart during lockdown.

She reassured the country that the virus would be overcome, telling those in isolation: "We will meet again."

In another speech to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, she told how the message at the end of the war in Europe was "never give up, never despair".

As well as being the longest-reigning monarch in British history, the Queen is also the longest still-serving sovereign and wealthiest Queen in the world, and the oldest British monarch.

TIMELINE: 25 MOMENTOUS YEARS OF HER REIGN

As the Queen reaches 25,000 days on the throne, Nub News looks at some of the events and milestones of her reign – picking out 25 momentous years:

1952: George VI dies and Princess Elizabeth becomes Queen. Flood devastates the Devon village of Lynmouth

1953: Sweet rationing ends in Britain. Queen Mary dies. Everest conquered on eve of the Coronation.

1957: Prime Minister Harold Macmillan tells a Tory rally "most of our people have never had it so good". The Treaty of Rome sets up the European Economic Community. Russians launch the Sputnik satellite, the first man-made object ever to leave the Earth's atmosphere.

1958: Race riots flare in Notting Hill. Manchester United players die in the Munich air crash.

1959: The Mini car makes its first appearance and the first UK motorway, the M1, opens.

1963: Lord Beeching wields the axe on British Rail. Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream speech. John F Kennedy is assassinated. Profumo scandal. Great Train Robbery. One of the coldest, snowiest winters on record.

1964: Beatlemania grips the UK and US. Cassius Clay defeats Sonny Liston. Mary Quant pronounces Paris fashion "out of date".

1969: Death penalty for murder permanently abolished in Britain. Prince of Wales's Investiture at Caernarvon. British troops sent to Northern Ireland. American Neil Armstrong becomes first man to walk on the Moon. Woodstock music festival.

1971: British entry into EEC agreed. Decimalised currency launched in the UK. Angry Brigade bombs Employment Secretary's home.

1972: Miners' strike and power crisis - state of emergency declared. Industrial Relations Act disputes. Bloody Sunday. Duke of Windsor dies. First home video game system is released.

1979: Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain's first woman prime minister. Queen's art adviser Anthony Blunt exposed as Russian spy. Fall of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia. Islamic revolutionaries come to power in Iran.

1981: Brixton riots. The Prince of Wales weds Lady Diana Spencer. Unemployment reaches 2.5 million. Britain in recession. The launch of the first space shuttle - Columbia.

1982: Falklands War - Prince Andrew is among those serving in the forces. Intruder in Queen's bedroom. Pope visits Britain. King Henry VIII's Mary Rose raised in the Solent. Prince William born. Economic recession.

1984: The IRA bombs Grand Hotel, Brighton. Indira Gandhi assassinated. Bob Geldof's Ethiopia appeal. Miners' strikes. Prince Harry born.

1988: Piper Alpha oil platform disaster. Lockerbie jumbo jet bombing. Government loses Spycatcher legal battle. Professor Stephen Hawking's A Brief History Of Time is published.

1989: Hillsborough disaster. Berlin Wall falls. Tiananmen Square massacre. Author SalmanRushdie goes into hiding. Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web.

1990: John Major becomes prime minister. Iraq invades Kuwait. Nelson Mandela is released from prison. Poll tax riots.

1991: Allies launch Operation Desert Storm in Gulf War against Iraq. Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev resigns. Birmingham Six freed after 16 years in jail.

1992: The Queen's "annus horribilis" - the Princess Royal and Captain Phillips divorce, the Waleses and the Yorks separate, Windsor Castle goes up in flames. Black Wednesday - the day Britain crashed out of the ERM. The break-up of Yugoslavia.

1997: New Labour under Tony Blair beats the Conservatives, ending 18 years of Tory rule. Royal Yacht Britannia decommissioned. Diana, Princess of Wales dies in Paris car crash. Scotland and Wales votes for devolution. Dolly the Sheep cloned. Handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China.

2002: The Queen's Golden Jubilee. The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret die. Twelve European Union countries adopt the euro.

2003: Britain and the US go to war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

2016: Queen celebrates her 90th birthday. British astronaut Tim Peake returns to Earth after a six-month mission on the ISS. The UK votes for Brexit in referendum on the EU. Theresa May becomes Prime Minister. The Queen becomes the world's longest-reigning, still-serving monarch after the death of the king of Thailand.

2017: US President Donald Trump takes office. The Queen reaches her Sapphire Jubilee - 65 years on the throne. Manchester Arena bombing. Early election. Grenfell Tower fire. The Queen and Philip celebrate their platinum wedding anniversary.

2020: Megxit - Harry and Meghan quit royal life. Brexit - the UK leaves the EU. Coronavirus outbreak. Lockdown in the UK. Black Lives Matter protests follow the death of George Floyd in the US.

HISTORY IN THE MAKING?

At 82, Atherstone Civic Society secretary Margaret 'Maigret' Hughes has turned detective to prove "beyond doubt" Mancetter was the setting for Iceni tribe leader Boudica as she led the greatest army of Britons ever assembled on these shores – 230,000 men, women and children – into battle against the crack 14th Legion led by Governor-General Paulinus.

She has already pressed the case forcibly in her book Boudica at Mancetter and sees the challenge as being the "only woman" fighting the corner against up to 10 other male candidates' claims identified by experts in terms of archaeological, archival and circumstantial evidence as well as military suitability.

For those interested in records, that battle, believed to have centred on the modern Mancetter traffic island on the A5, would been around 716,063 days ago . . . 1,960 years, six months and 17 days.

Follow her series, including the opening of the Roman Mancetter & Boudica Heritage Centre in the village church of St Peter's in February, only in Nub News[.L].

Battling Boudica 'started the Brexit movement' on Atherstone's doorstep 2,000 years ago

Atherstone woman's note to British history: Time to 'Man' up over special name of our village being more proof of where Boudica fought her last battle

Atherstone 'Maigret' Margaret Hughes: I'm turning detective on a clue trail to prove where Boudica made her last stand