Royal 50th Will Be Huge

By Third Age News Staff

The Duke of Edinburgh turned 76 today (June 10). Now he and his wife are looking forward to a huge 50th wedding anniversary. The celebrating pair have invited 4,000 couples married in 1947 to mark the event with them at a garden party, archbishops will mark the event in the nation's most famous church, government leaders will sing their praises in a 400-year-old setting and then there'll be a private dance in the country. The festivities for the world's most recognizable couple will celebrate the 50 years since a young princess named Elizabeth married a dashing Greek prince in Westminster Abbey on Nov. 20, 1947. Queen Elizabeth II, 71 and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, will welcome 4,000 couples drawn by lot from across Great Britain and its former dominions to a July 15 garden party at Buckingham Palace. Later in the year, there'll be lunches hosted by Britain's new prime minister Tony Blair and London's Lord Mayor. The key event in the celebrations will be a Church of England service of thanksgiving Nov. 20 in Westminster Abbey, attended by peers, government leaders and representatives of other nations. Following a royal "walkabout," the Queen and her duke will wind up the celebrations in royal romantic fashion, at a private dance at her royal residence in Windsor.