This Day In History, 1953: The Queen's Coronation

Today marks the 64th Anniversary of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey. pic.twitter.com/50za6jwdTq

— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) June 2, 2017

Queen Elizabeth's father died on February 6, 1952 but her coronation didn't take place until June, 1953. Why the long wait? Partly tradition, partly to allow for an official period of court mourning, partly for planning and partly because they like to have big events like this in the summertime. (The previous coronation, of Elizabeth's father George VI, took place on May 12, 1937, sixteen months after the death of his father George V on January 20, 1936. During the interim his older brother Edward VIII abdicated in December, 1936; George VI inherited the already-scheduled coronation date.)

As the current queen ages royal staffers and government officials are discreetly planning for what will happen when she dies and Charles becomes king. Many of the processes and events are steeped in hundreds of years of tradition, but there's talk that one tradition may be modernized, the long wait between the death of the old sovereign and the coronation of the new one. I've read that the Coronation of King Charles the 3rd may happen as soon as three months after the death of his mother and may be significantly shorter and possibly less elaborate than the one in 1953.

Regardless, it will still be a very big deal. Unlike here in America, where we have inaugurations every four years like clockwork, Britain had exactly four coronations in the entire 20th century, Edward VII's in 1902, George V's in 1911, George VI's in 1937 and Elizabeth II's in 1953. And there's another difference. Our president is elected in November but doesn't actually become president until the inauguration in January. By contrast, in the tradition of "The King is dead, long live the King," Charles will become King the moment the Queen takes her last breath. The coronation is strictly ceremonial.

On the 60th anniversary of the Queen's coronation, British newspaper The Telegraph looked ahead; you can read it here.

One more thing, and this time it's personal: Three years after the Queen's coronation, my parents got married on June 2, 1956. A great day in history!