The Royal Family of Britain has shared a photo of Queen Elizabeth II as a toddler to mark her 96th birthday. The photo posted on Royal Family's Twitter handle shows a young Princess Elizabeth posing for a photo in 1928 - when she was just two years old.
In the black and white photo, she is seen smiling with her hands resting on her cheeks.
“Happy Birthday Your Majesty! Today as The Queen turns 96, we're sharing this photograph of the young Princess Elizabeth aged 2,” the caption of the post reads.
“Then, in 1928, it was never expected she would be Queen, and this year Her Majesty is celebrating her #PlatinumJubilee - a first in British history,” the post further says.
The birthday of Queen Elizabeth will be marked on Thursday with gun salutes, the release of a Barbie doll and a new photograph showing Britain's longest serving monarch with two white ponies at Windsor Castle.
Royal tradition since the 18th century has also seen the monarch have a second, official birthday, typically celebrated in warmer weather in June.
This year's official birthday coincides with four days of public events from June 2 to 5 to mark the queen's record-breaking 70th year on the throne.
Ministers in the UK and royal family members sent their best wishes to the queen, who has stepped back from most public duties this year over concerns about her health. She will spend her birthday in Sandringham, Norfolk.
There, she is reported to be spending time at the cottage where her late husband Prince Philip lived after he retired from public life in 2017.
Elizabeth became the queen of Britain and more than a dozen other realms including Canada, Australia and New Zealand on the death of her father King George VI on February 6, 1952, while she was in Kenya on an international tour.
When she ascended the throne, Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong and Harry Truman were running the Soviet Union, China and the United States, respectively, while Winston Churchill was British prime minister.
