AP PHOTOS: Catching a glimpse of the queen over the decades

From a hoard of people huddled on a chilly London sidewalk waiting to catch a glimpse of Princess Elizabeth on her way to marry the Duke of Edinburgh in 1947, to a five-mile, 24-hour line of humanity waiting patiently to file past her coffin this week, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has always drawn huge crowds.

Untold millions must have seen her over her 70 globetrotting years on the throne. Schoolchildren hold up a homemade banner proclaiming “God Save the Queen” in Paris in 1972. A sea of humanity packed lower Broadway during a whistle-stop visit to New York in 1957.

The monarch who died Sept. 8 at age 96 was a source of fascination across the decades, across the globe.

Photographs taken throughout her reign show the changing faces and fashions of the crowds who braved cold nights and hot days to see Elizabeth if only for a fleeting second.

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Follow AP coverage of Queen Elizabeth II at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii