The British explorer and cartographer was born in 1728 in Yorkshire and learned the essential skills for his later voyages during his time serving in the Seven Years' War. His three voyages to the Pacific are considered the starting point of European trade with and colonization of the region. In 1799, on his third voyage, Cook was killed in Hawaii after a dispute broke into violence.

The name for the Australian marsupial, kangaroo, comes from the Guugu Yimithirr word "gangurru." The Guugu Yimithirr people lived in northern Queensland, where the ship Endeavour landed in June 1770. Sydney Parkinson, an artist on the voyage, compiled a vocabulary of the Aboriginal peoples' language.

The Endeavour landed in New Zealand in October 1769. The indigenous people of New Zealand, the Maori, had lived there since about 1250-1300 AD. Violence erupted between the British and the Maori people on the first day, the British firing their muskets with fatal consequences. British sovereignty over New Zealand was not established until 1840 when the Treaty of Waitangi was signed.

Cook was a skilled cartographer, and some of his charts were still used by sailors in the 1950's. Joseph Banks, a wealthy botanist, accompanied Cook on his first voyage. Banks and the party of artists and scientists he brought with him are credited with providing a glimpse into the cultural lives of the people they encountered through their collections and illustrations.

During his first voyage onboard the Endeavour, Captain Cook landed in Tahiti in April 1769. The official mission was to chart the passage of the planet Venus between the Earth and the sun, but Cook was also following secret orders to search for the mythical lands thought to lie in the south. The British fort in Tahiti became a meeting point and trade center for the British and the islanders.

Tierra del Fuego, off the southern tip of South America, was one of the first stops Cook made on his Endeavour voyage. During this time the artist Alexander Buchan drew pictures of the Haush people, the land's inhabitants.

Cook first landed on the Tongan islands during his second voyage in October 1773. Taken with the warm welcome he received from locals, he named Tonga the "Friendly islands." Many scholars now believe that the Tongan chiefs had actually planned to attack Cook and his crew and seize his ships before the plot was called off.

During his stay in Tahiti in April 1769, Cook became friends with Tupaia, a priest and navigator from a nearby island. Tupaia joined the voyage and sailed on the Endeavour to New Zealand and Australia. Similarities between the Tahitian langauge and the language of the Maori people in New Zealand meant that Tupaia could act as an interpreter.

William Hodges was appointed the official artist of Cook's second voyage. The goal was to discover a Great Southern Continent, which the British thought encircled the South Pole. The voyage proved that this great land mass was non-existent, and caused the voyagers to cross the Antarctic Circle three times.

Queen Elizabeth became Britain's monarch on February 6, 1952, the day her father, King George VI, died. Since then she has ruled over the United Kingdom, and has been head of the Commonwealth and the Church of England. Sixty-five years later, the 90-year-old queen makes history by becoming the first British monarch to celebrate a Sapphire Jubilee.

Queen Victoria (1819-1901) had previously held the record for the longest time on the throne. She became Queen in 1837 and held the office until her death: 63 years and seven months. Spanning several generations, her reign impacted an entire epoch, which was named after her. During the Victorian Era, Britain experienced economic growth and its empire reached the climax of its power.

Queen Elizabeth has already been the oldest monarch in British history since December 20, 2007. This was the first of Victoria's records broken by Elizabeth. Victoria was 81 years, seven months and 29 days old when she died. Queen Elizabeth turned 90 on April 21, 2016. She also became the oldest monarch in the world when Abdullah of Saudi Arabia passed away on January 23, 2015.

Queen Victoria still has one up on Elizabeth, however. On January 1, 1877, she became the first British monarch to hold the title Empress of India, which incorporated India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar at the time. In 1947, India and Pakistan gained their independence from Britain.

Queen Victoria married her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. They had nine children together. When Albert died in December 1861 at the young age of 42, Victoria fell into depression and largely withdrew from public life.

Queen Elizabeth has visited Germany seven times during her reign. She came for the first time in May 1965. She is pictured here in Bonn with Heinrich Lübke, who was Germany's 70-year-old president at the time. During that first visit, the Queen spent 11 days touring Germany, including stops in the capital, Bonn, divided Berlin, and 16 additional cities.

In June 2015, the Queen visited Germany once again. She's pictured here with her husband, Prince Philip, German President Joachim Gauck and his wife, Daniela Schadt, in front of the presidential residence in Berlin. Queen Elizabeth also went to Frankfurt and paid a visit to the site of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, which was liberated by British soldiers at the end of World War II.

Queen Elizabeth is currently the oldest monarch in the world and now the longest reigning in Britain. But she's not the longest reigning royal in recorded history. That title is held by former King of Swaziland Sobhuza II, who spent 82 years on the throne, from December 10, 1899 to August 21, 1982.