LONDON — Fifty years ago, in living rooms worldwide, people gathered around the flickering gray images on their new television sets to watch a slender young woman in a white dress crowned sovereign of Britain in Westminster Abbey.
On June 2, 1953, the country produced a coronation spectacle for Queen Elizabeth II that celebrated not just a new young monarch but a new start after the deprivation of World War II. Britain, still on food rationing, needed its spirits raised, a glimpse of better times ahead.
A nationwide party for a 27-year-old princess with a handsome husband and two small children offered just that.
Today's modest 50th anniversary celebrations of the coronation reflect the huge social and economic changes of the queen's reign and her acceptance of a scaled-down modern monarchy.
At Buckingham Palace, where debutantes once arrived in limousines to be presented to the monarch, the coronation anniversary will be celebrated with a tea party for underprivileged children.
The main event of the day will be a commemoration at Westminster Abbey, based on the service a half-century ago.
The royal family's plans are private. The Daily Telegraph reported that Prince Charles would give a 1953-themed dinner at Clarence House. The 19th-century house is a former dwelling of the late Queen Mother Elizabeth and soon to be the home of Charles and his two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. The house, adjacent to St. James' Palace and just across Green Park from Buckingham Palace, was the first home of the queen and Prince Philip after their 1947 marriage.
The queen has invited Camilla Parker Bowles, the longtime companion of Prince Charles, to today's Westminster Abbey commemoration.
The event will also be attended by Prime Minister Tony Blair, Commonwealth leaders and more than 1,000 members of the public.
Parker Bowles has been increasingly seen at Charles' side at royal gatherings. The couple's relationship has brought criticism since Parker Bowles divorced her husband, and Charles, the heir to the throne, split with Princess Diana before her death in 1997.
The relatively free existence of Queen Elizabeth II and her husband ended suddenly on Feb. 6, 1952, when Elizabeth's father, King George VI, died after a reign of little more than 15 years.
Prince Philip's naval career ended and his wife became the head of state of Britain, Canada, Australia and colonies and territories around the world.
"The inarticulate hopes of the multitude are centered on her person, but what should one expect of this girl?" asked a Manchester Guardian newspaper report from the coronation, quoted in Elizabeth Longford's biography, "Elizabeth R."
The monarchy is still much valued, but no one now would suggest the nation's hopes rested in it. Britain still holds a few colonies, like the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar, but most countries of the former empire have gained full independence and now work together in the voluntary Commonwealth.
And at a robust 77, this hardy, silver-haired queen shows no signs of buckling under her burden.
She traveled the length and breadth of Britain last year to mark the jubilee of her reign — celebrated in 2002 because she became monarch immediately after her father's death. There were parties around the country and, in London, a June weekend of parades and a huge rock concert.
The jubilee celebrations and the funerals of the queen's mother and sister, Princess Margaret, little more than a month apart brought an outpouring of affection and loyalty to Elizabeth after some of the most turbulent years for the monarchy in modern times.
The marriage breakups of three of her children brought months of newspaper headlines in the 1990s, and after the death of Diana the standing of the monarchy suffered in the eyes of many who believed she was treated unfairly by the royal family.
After public and press complaints about the cost of the monarchy, the queen began paying income taxes and tightened the royal belt.
After all the bad publicity, many critics and commentators were surprised by the display of affection for the queen after her mother's funeral in April 2002, and the huge crowds that lined the streets of London to cheer as she rode in the Gold State Coach in a jubilee procession.
The same splendid coach carried the queen and Prince Philip to Westminster Abbey for her coronation, escorted by elaborately uniformed Household Cavalry and Foot Guards.
More than 29,000 members of the armed services participated in the procession, which set out from Buckingham Palace to the abbey shortly before 10:30 a.m. and drove past thousands of well-wishers standing through a chilly, wet day to see the royal couple.
Representatives of 129 nations and territories attended the nearly three hour service, watching the archbishop of Canterbury invest the queen and lower the heavy gold crown of King Edward onto her head.
An estimated 27 million of Britain's 36 million people watched the service on television, and millions more listened on the radio. It was the first time in 900 years of coronations at the abbey that ordinary people were able to watch a ceremony previously seen only by those privileged to be in the congregation.