Born in 1926, Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was not originally chosen for the special position. However, that changed in 1936, when her father's brother Edward Ⅷ gave up being the king and her father, George Ⅵ, took his place as the king. Suddenly, the 10-year-old was the heiress(女继承人).
Elizabeth's royal(王室的)duties didn't stop her interest in technology. During World War II, the princess wanted her father to allow her to do something for her country. Her father finally agreed to let her volunteer for the British Army, where she became a driver and trained in auto mechanics.
It was a pioneering move: Not only was she the first member of her family ever to serve in the military, but the sight of a woman taking apart engines and changing tires signalled a sea change in social and gender roles that would continue throughout the future queen's lifetime.
In 1952, Elizabeth became queen of her country upon her father's death. Her rule was modern from the very start. The new queen's birth had roughly happened at the same time as the development of television, and during planning for her coronation(加冕礼)she broke with tradition and allowed the BBC to broadcast the event over live TV. It was the first coronation ever televised, and it literally created must-see TV.
Elizabeth came to power as the atomic age kicked into full swing, and she helped introduce the nation to those nuclear advances. In 1956, she opened the world's first complete nuclear power station, Calder Hall. But the technology came with risk: The next year, a reactor at a nearby nuclear power plant, Windscale, caught fire, which was Great Britain's worst nuclear disaster.
The queen also launched live broadcasts of royal addresses and permitted royal use of the Internet. Besides, she was one of the first people to ride through the Channel Tunnel, the undersea railway linking Britain to the rest of Europe.
