Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch and a rock of stability across much of a turbulent century, died Thursday after 70 years on the throne. She was 96. The palace announced she died at Balmoral Castle, her summer residence in Scotland, where members of the royal family had rushed to her side after her health took a turn for the worse. A link to the almost-vanished generation that fought World War II, she was the only monarch most Britons have ever known, and her name defines an age: the modern Elizabethan Era. The impact of her loss will be huge and unpredictable, both for the nation and the monarchy, an institution she helped stabilize and modernize across decades of huge social change and family scandals. During her reign, in the summer of 1959, Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, embarked on a 15,000-mile, 45-day tour of all the Canadian provinces and four of the Great Lakes.⁠ ⁠ Their only stop in the United States during that trip was a 14-hour visit to Chicago on July 6, 1959 — the first visit of a reigning British monarch to the Windy City. ⁠ ⁠ It wouldn’t be revealed until later that the queen was pregnant with her third child, Prince Andrew, during the tour.⁠ Photos from @vintagetribune document her 1959 visit. ⁠ Click the link in our bio for more. (Jane Barlow / AP and Chicago Tribune historical photos) #QueenElizabethII #QueenElizabeth