On June 2, 1953, over 27 million people in Britain watched something on TV that had never been televised before: a coronation. Queen Elizabeth II was crowned at Westminster Abbey, a historic church in London where English monarchs had been crowned for nearly a thousand years. Elizabeth was just 25 years old when her father, King George VI, died in February 1952. She became queen immediately, but the ceremony to officially crown her took over a year to plan. The coronation lasted almost three hours. The Archbishop of Canterbury placed the heavy St. Edward's Crown on her head while she sat in a wooden chair used since 1308. Elizabeth took sacred oaths promising to serve her people and uphold the law. What made the 1953 coronation truly remarkable was television. The royal family had initially opposed cameras inside the Abbey. They worried that showing the ceremony on TV would make it seem less serious. Elizabeth herself insisted the cameras be allowed. She wanted the people of Britain to feel included. The broadcast reached an estimated 277 million viewers worldwide, far more than had ever watched a single event. Families crowded around small TV sets to watch together.