Juliana of the Netherlands

Who was Juliana of the Netherlands?

Juliana was Queen of the Kingdom of the Netherlands between 1948 and 1980. She was the only child of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry. She was married to German aristocrat Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, with whom she had four children: Princess Beatrix, Princess Irene, Princess Margriet, and Princess Christina. During the Second World War she lived in exile with her children in Ottawa, Canada. She became Queen of the Netherlands with her mother's abdication in 1948 and was succeeded by Queen Beatrix after her own abdication in 1980. During her reign both Indonesia and Suriname in 1975 became independent from the Netherlands. Her birthday was celebrated annually as Koninginnedag until the accession of her grandson King Willem-Alexander to the throne, when it was replaced with Koningsdag. Upon her death at the age of 94, she was the longest-lived former ruling monarch in the world. She is commemorated in space, in the name of the asteroid 816 Juliana.