For 70 years, February 6 was Accession Day for Queen Elizabeth—the first day of her new role as monarch in 1952 and simultaneously one of the saddest days of her life. That’s the odd part about being royal: The moment you’ve trained your entire life for hinges, unfortunately, on the death of your (hopefully beloved) parent.
Her late Majesty always spent February 6 privately at Sandringham, where her father King George VI died unexpectedly at just 56 years old. It was a day of private reflection and mourning, the end to the Christmas season at the estate, which began the December prior.
