Britain's Queen Elizabeth II was greeted by cheering crowds when she went on a walkabout in London today to celebrate her 80th birthday.
Well wishers launched into an impromptu chorus of "Happy Birthday" as the monarch marked her octogenarian milestone.
With a decade to go before she rivals Queen Victoria's 64 years on the throne, the sprightly grandmother shows no signs of slowing down and has genes on her side - her mother died at 101.
Crowned nearly 53 years ago, Europe's longest-serving monarch has ruled out abdication, and opinion polls show republicans face a losing battle calling for the abolition of the monarchy while she is alive.
In an ITV News survey, the queen was rated the most popular royal. Bottom of the survey came Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, who last year married the queen's eldest son, Prince Charles, after a tortuous 35-year romance.
The queen, who has seen ten British prime ministers take office during her reign, has opted for a low-key day of celebrations.
This evening, Charles is to host a private family dinner for his mother. The two are much closer now that his tangled love life has been sorted out. His first wife, Princess Diana, killed in 1997 in a Paris car crash.
The queen suffered a backlash from her children's disastrous marriages, but now public opinion is broadly pro-monarchy.