Royal River Pageant -- The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh watch from the saluting base on the festival hall pier as a tableau depicting the barge in which Queen Elizabeth greeted the great discoverers passes during the procession today July 22nd. In Prow of thee barge is a globe symsolising the first circumnavigation of the World by Sir Francis Drake. Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, reviewed today July 22nd, the most spectacular pageant ever staged on the River Thames. From a dias on Festival Hall pier, South Bank, the Queen saw nearly a thousand years of English history pass in living pageantry, as a procession three and a half miles long steamed proudly past. July 22, 1953. (Photo by The Associated Press Ltd.)