Royal well-wishers converged on London to celebrate the 25th year of the Queen's reign on this day in 1977.
An estimate crowd of one million people craned for a glimpse of Her Majesty as she travelled to St Paul's Cathedral for a service of thanksgiving, with cheers ringing out as the Gold State Coach passed.
A further 500 million people across the Commonwealth watched live television coverage of the events of the day, and around 12,000 street parties were held across Britain in honour of the Silver Jubilee.
The congregation at St Paul's read like a Who's Who of global dignitaries. US President Jimmy Carter was in attendance, as was Prime Minister James Callaghan and all his living predecessors - Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson and Edward Heath.
[June 2, 1953 - Millions watch on TV as Queen Elizabeth II is crowned at Westminster Abbey]
Afterwards, the Royal Family attended a lunch at the Guildhall where the Queen thanked the people of Britain and the Commonwealth for the “loyalty and friendship” that had given her “strength and encouragement during these last 25 years”.
Channelling Shakespeare's Cleopatra, she said: "When I was 21 I pledged my life to the service of our people and I asked for God's help to make good that vow. Although that vow was made in my salad days, when I was green in judgement, I do not regret nor retract one word of it."
Despite strong winds and sudden downpours, the crowd was still six-deep as she returned to Buckingham Palace, and its patience was rewarded with the Queen making a number of appearances on the balcony.
- Against a backdrop of spiralling inflation and balance of payment problem, many feared that celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of the Queen's accession would be deemed a needless frivolity, and the Palace's plan to introduce a one-off Silver Jubilee Medal was initially blocked by James Callaghan's Labour government. In the end, the argument for a full-scale celebration won through - not least because it offered a welcome distraction from the threat of national bankruptcy.
- Derby was granted city status and several landmarks were named in honour of the Silver Jubilee, including the Jubilee Gardens on London’s Southbank and the Silver Jubilee Walkway that connects many of London’s tourist landmarks. The under-construction 'Fleet' line on the London Underground was renamed the Jubilee line - even though it did not open until 1979.
- To mark the Silver Jubilee, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited Western Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Canada, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbados. It is estimated that they travelled over 56,000 miles during the 12 months of 1977.
- The Queen reflected on the celebrations in her Christmas speech of 1977, saying: “The street parties and village fetes, the presents, the flowers from the children, the mile upon mile of decorated streets and houses; these things suggest that the real value and pleasure of the celebration was that we all shared in it together."
- The Sex Pistols chose to mark the event with a provocative boat trip on the Thames during which they performed God Save the Queen, their vehement anti-monarchy song. But the stunt ended in chaos after the police forced the boat to dock and arrested manager Malcolm McLaren and most of the band's entourage, including designer Vivienne Westwood. Despite being banned from the radio, the song - which rhymes 'queen' with 'fascist regime' - made it to number two in the charts during the week of the Silver Jubilee. It has been claimed that there was a fix to stop it making the number one spot.
