Today in 1926, the birthday of Queen Elizabeth II.
She reigned longer than any queen on record, and while that reign ended a few years ago, there’s still at least one piece of posthumous royal business still to come: a letter that she said shouldn’t be opened until the year 2085.
The story of this letter actually starts with another queen: Elizabeth’s ancestor and fellow long-reigning monarch, Queen Victoria.
In honor of Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, her 60th throne-iversary, the people of Sydney, Australia built a large and fancy structure they named the Queen Victoria Building.
It’s since been home to the Sydney City Council, a library, a concert hall, a hotel, shops and much more.
By the late 1950s, it looked like Sydney might tear the building down, but Sydney eventually decided to carry out a massive restoration project, which wrapped up in 1986.
To mark the finish line, Queen Elizabeth hand wrote a message to the people of Sydney.
But, for whatever reason, she sent it to the Lord Mayor of Sydney… of the future.
The queen asked that the message only be opened “on a suitable day to be selected by you in the year 2085 AD.”
The letter is in a glass case in a part of the building the public doesn’t usually go.
And that’s where it’s destined to stay for most of the rest of this century.
By the way, there was another overhaul of the Queen Victoria Building starting in 2008; it took over a year and cost $48 million.
That one didn’t get a royal letter though.
Today is National Tea Day in the UK.
Tea is certainly well loved there, more than it is here in the United States.
But if you want to see the world’s largest collection of teapots, hundreds in all, you’ll find it in this country, at Tennessee’s Trenton Teapot Museum.
How come that place didn’t get a letter from the queen?
The Queen Left Behind A Secret Letter That Cannot Be Opened Until 2085 (Elle)
The World’s Largest Collection Of Teapots Can Be Found At The Trenton Teapot Museum In Tennessee (Only In Tennessee)
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