Stock Photo - Feb. 6, 1952 - London, England, U.K. - In January 1952, Elizabeth and Philip set out for a tour of Australia and New Zealand. They had reached Kenya when word arrived of the death of her father, on 6 February 1952, from lung cancer. Elizabeth was staying in a treetop hotel when told of her own succession to the throne - a unique circumstance for any such event. She was the first British monarch since the accession of George I to be outside the country at the moment of succession, and also the first in modern times not to know the exact time of her accession (because her father had died in his sleep at an unknown time). PICTURED: QUEEN ELIZABETH II arriving in London, day after she was proclaimed Queen following the death of her father George VI. (Credit Image: © Keystone Press Agency/Keystone USA via ZUMAPRESS.com)