Today in History—June 2: Elizabeth II Is Crowned—and Jackie Kennedy Covers It

On June 2, 1953, a 27-year-old Elizabeth II rode to Westminster Abbey in a gilded coach for her coronation, passing millions of spectators. Among them was 23-year-old Jacqueline Bouvier, a reporter for the Washington Times-Herald.

The woman we’d know better in the future as Jackie Kennedy wrote a popular column for the paper, posing a single question to six Washington, D.C., residents each day. The queries ranged from the lighthearted “Why do you think so many people crack corny jokes in elevators?” to the provocative “When did you discover that women are not the weaker sex?” to the profound “What are people most living for?” She photographed her subjects, printing their portraits alongside their answers.

Bouvier had landed the column two years earlier, after starting as a secretary. Hoping to break into reporting, she chased a story on none other than the future Queen Elizabeth II during the then-princess’s visit to Washington.

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Bouvier was denied the feature, but the effort earned her a transfer from administration to the newsroom, where she was assigned the uncredited “Inquiring Photographer” column. Within a week, her first question, “Is Princess Elizabeth as pretty as her picture?” secured her the slot permanently—as well as a byline and new title, Inquiring Camera Girl.

Bouvier traveled to London to cover the coronation, but she couldn’t secure a seat inside Westminster Abbey. Undeterred, she took to the streets, asking revelers, “Do you think Elizabeth will be England’s last queen?”

Her dispatches covered the punishing hour the ladies-in-waiting had to have their hair done (3:00 am) and the discreet mark that had been added to St. Edward’s Crown (to avoid repeating the Archbishop of Canterbury’s 1937 blunder when he placed the regalia backward on George VI’s head during his coronation).

Elizabeth’s crowning—which took place more than a year after she acceded to the throne upon the death of her father, King George VI—was one of Bouvier’s last assignments. While abroad, she received a telegram from her boyfriend, Sen. John F. Kennedy, saying, “Articles Excellent—But You Are Missed.”

By the end of the month the couple was engaged, and Bouvier ended her stint as the Inquiring Camera Girl. Elizabeth, for her part, held the throne until 2022—the longest reign of any British monarch in history.

Famous Birthdays

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1980: Abby Wambach—American association football (soccer) player

1988: Awkwafina—Comedian, actress, and rapper