Huge crowds converged on central London on Thursday for the start of four days of public events to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s historic Platinum Jubilee.

At 96, the queen is celebrating 70 years on the throne - the most of any British royal, including her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.

On Thursday afternoon, Queen Elizabeth appeared with family members on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during the Trooping the Color ceremony, and waved to enormous crowds of well-wishers.

At the Windsor ceremony, the Queen was first who presented with the “Commonwealth Globe of Nations”, a globe set with platinum, diamond, gold and silver elements and featuring stones collected from the United Kingdom’s highest mountains.

After she symbolically touches the globe, it will light up and trigger the illumination of Windsor Castle’s famed Round Tower and Quadrangle lawn, and then the “Tree of Trees” more than 20 miles away.