Epic first for Queen Camilla in rare occurrence that only happens a few times a year

On Monday, July 17, 2023, an epic first for Queen Camilla took place across the UK as Her Majesty's important milestone was celebrated in style.

• On July 17, 2023, the Queen celebrated her very first birthday since the Coronation.
• This meant that for the first time ever she received this incredible honor.
• In other royal news, Kate Middleton and Roger Federer's chat over 'hard' Wimbledon struggle revealed by lip reader.

On July 17, Her Majesty the Queen turned 76 and celebrated her first birthday as the Queen. This milestone moment was marked in an extremely exciting fashion as a 41 gun salute took place in Green Park in London to mark this important occasion. 

A post from the Royal Family's social media showed the Gun salute and revealed, "Gun salutes were fired in Edinburgh, York, Hillsborough, Cardiff, and London and The Band of the Irish Guards performed 'Happy Birthday' during The Changing of The Guard at Buckingham Palace."

A Gun salute is a centuries-old tradition that has been used to mark rare and important dates in the calendar. This is an honor that is only for the King and Queen's birthday and the last gun salute to take place was on June 17 for the King's Official birthday. The next will be on September 8 which will be bittersweet as it marks the King's Accession Day, which was of course the same day that Queen Elizabeth II passed away.

The Queen herself did not attend any royal engagements on her birthday and it was suggested that she may have taken the day to spend with her family. 

Last year for Queen Camilla's 75th birthday, a Clarence House spokesperson revealed how the Queen would be spending her special day, "She will be having a small family dinner." Queen Camilla and King Charles invited their family to attend a small dinner at Highgrove House, this included the Walses and Camilla's children Laura Lopes and Tom Parker Bowles.

These plans last year could be an indicator of how the Queen plans to spend her 76th birthday this year. 

Although a 76th birthday isn't typically a milestone, as this is Camilla's first birthday as a Queen, rather than a Duchess, she may receive some particularly special gifts. However, there is one birthday gift Queen Camilla’s unlikely to receive this year, and it's because of a strange fact about Her Majesty.

Queen Camilla doesn’t have her ears pierced and last year told British Vogue how committed she remains to this decision ahead of her milestone 75th birthday. When asked about her unpierced Camilla said, "And they are not going to be!" she added, "No, I’m not going to give it to myself for a 75th birthday present. [The grandchildren] will try to persuade me, but nothing’s going to pierce my ears."