Happy Birthday to Queen Elizabeth!

It was 73 years ago today that the RMS Queen Elizabeth was launched by HM Queen Elizabeth (consort to HM King George VI), in the company their Royal Highnesses Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret. This ship was the highly anticipated running mate to the popular Queen Mary (launched four years prior).

The Queen Elizabeth, however, was a different ship than her older sister - and larger too. Building the Mary had allowed the shipbuilders to test new ideas and refine their methods. The effect? Elizabeth was the most technologically advanced liner in the world at that time.

The start of Lizzie's passenger service was interrupted, however, by World War II. She was secretly sailed out of Britain to New York - arriving in March 1940. She and Mary would transport over 1 million soldiers to all corners of the globe before resuming their intended careers as passenger liners.

Together, the two Cunard Queens ruled the transatlantic trade and remain two of the most famously popular ships in the world.