When Prince Charles was born in 1948, the announcement was made by a notice pinned to the gates of Buckingham Palace - much has changed in the world of technology since, and with it the way the monarchy communicates.
In the monochrome world of 1950s telly, the Queen first appeared to many of her subjects as a small, grainy, black and white figure inside the wooden box in the corner of the room, at least for those lucky enough to own an early set.
Her coronation was the country's first live outside broadcast - and the result of much discussion behind royal doors.
Former Buckingham Palace press secretary Dickie Arbiter told Sky News: "Winston Churchill was against it, he felt it was intrusive, he felt that people shouldn't be in pubs watching it for instance, the clergy were against it, the Archbishop of Canterbury was against it because he felt it would interfere with the service, that it would be wrong to have a High Church ecclesiastical service televised, the Queen wavered, but Prince Philip was really behind it saying that it should be televised, and thank goodness it was."
In the end the decision was made to allow the cameras in - that the people should see their Queen - and for all that the technology has moved on since, that same guiding principle remains.
The British Monarchy now has its own website, Facebook page, Twitter account, Flickr photo-stream and Royal YouTube channel.
The engagement of Prince William to Kate Middleton in 2010 was announced on Twitter, and covering the Royals is now very much a multi-media affair.
Victoria Murphy, royal reporter for the Daily Mirror, said: "I'm sure when Kate has a child, if she has a child, it will be tweeted - it does affect the way I work as a reporter in terms of how I cover the Royal Family, both in the way that information comes to me and in the way I give information out.
"I get a lot of my information from the internet, from websites, from Twitter, by tweets put out from the Palace and from Clarence House, but also by members of the public who have seen things themselves that are relevant to the Royal Family."
Harnessing the power of social media and the internet has given the royals a direct line of communication - the ability to put their messages out without the filter of the traditional press.
Mr Arbiter explained: "Up until the launch of the website in 1997, the only way to communicate with the Palace was to phone up the press office and talk to people like me - you would answer the question as best you could and then it went into the public domain.
"Now, dare I say, newspapers can't make it up - they used to interpret what you replied and put it into their own words - now the information is in the public domain so it's there for everybody to see."
And, perhaps to the surprise of some, the real technological power behind the throne is reportedly Prince Philip - who is said to have encouraged the Queen to get online, and embrace the new media age.
"Prince Philip was one of the first to use computers when they first came out, long before the Palace staff, and really he was the one who kick-started it," Mr Arbiter told me.
"He said - you really must get with the technological age and get computers, now they've got computers and all the technological aids anyone could ask for."
And as for what might be on Her Majesty's iPod - well that is apparently down to the younger generation.
"She's been forced into it by William and Harry who put her favourite songs on there," Arbiter explained.
"A lot of them are show tunes, a great favourite of hers is Oklahoma, one of the first musicals she ever saw."
The Queen's reign has so far spanned the advent of colour television, the mobile phone, and the invention of the internet - she has launched her own website, uploaded a video to YouTube, and spoken directly to astronauts in space, when she apologised for thus far limiting her tour to the Earth's surface, but who knows what will be next for this very multi-media monarch.
