In Hawaii, Tahiti and New Zealand, residents in coastal areas were warned to move to higher ground.
Hawaii later lifted its tsunami warning after waves measuring just under 1m (3ft) high struck but caused no damage.
The earthquake struck at 0634 GMT, 115km (70 miles) north-east of the city of Concepcion and 325km south-west of the capital Santiago. It is the biggest to hit Chile in 50 years.
At least 85 people died in the region of Maule alone, local journalists there said.
Many deaths were also in reported in the regions of Santiago, O'Higgins, Biobio, Araucania and Valparaiso.
Television pictures showed a major bridge at Concepcion had collapsed into the Biobio river.
Rescue teams are finding it difficult to reach Concepcion because of damage to infrastructure, national television reported.
Aftershocks
In Santiago, where at least 13 people were killed, several buildings collapsed - including a car park where dozens of cars were smashed.
A fire at a chemical plant in the outskirts of the capital forced the evacuation of the neighbourhood.
POWERFUL EARTHQUAKES
Haiti, 12 Jan 2010: About 230,000 people die after shallow 7.0 magnitude quake
Sumatra, Indonesia, 26 Dec 2004: 9.2 magnitude. Triggers Asian tsunami that kills nearly 250,000 people
Alaska, US, 28 March 1964: 9.2 magnitude; 128 people killed. Anchorage badly damaged
Chile, south of Concepcion, 22 May 1960: 9.5 magnitude. About 1,655 deaths. Tsunami hits Hawaii and Japan
Damage to Santiago international airport's terminal will keep it closed for at least 72 hours, officials said. Flights are being diverted to Mendoza in Argentina.
Ms Bachelet declared a "state of catastrophe" in affected areas and appealed for calm.
She said: "We're doing everything we can with all the forces we have."
Tsunami waves reached the Juan Fernandez island group, reaching halfway into one inhabited area. Local media say that five people died there and several others are missing.
Two aid ships are reported to be on their way.
One resident of Chillan, 100km from the epicentre, told Chilean television the shaking there lasted about two minutes.
Other residents of Chillan and Curico said communications were down but running water was still available.
Many of Chile's news websites and radio stations are still not accessible.
In Washington, President Barack Obama said the US had aid resources in position to deploy should the Chilean government ask for help.
Obama says US ready to help Chile
The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the earthquake struck at a depth of about 35km.
It also recorded at least eight aftershocks, the largest of 6.9 magnitude at 0801 GMT.
The USGS said tsunami effects had been observed at Valparaiso, west of Santiago, with a wave height of 1.69m above normal sea level.
One journalist speaking to Chilean national television from the city of Temuco, 600km south of Santiago, said many people there had left their homes, determined to spend the rest of the night outside. Some people on the streets were in tears.
Chile is highly vulnerable to earthquakes as it is situated on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", on the edge of the Pacific and South American plates.
Chile suffered the biggest earthquake of the 20th century when a 9.5 magnitude quake struck the city of Valdivia in 1960, killing 1,655 people.
THE TSUNAMI WAS FELT IN 20 countries in the Pacific fault
NASA AND ESA SET TO SEND PROBE TO JUPITER AND IT'S MOONS...EUROPA HAS WATER!
February 18, 2008
ON THIS DATE IN 2009:
Jupiter in space agencies' sights
By Paul Rincon Science reporter, BBC News
EUROPA JUPITER SYSTEM MISSION
Nasa: Jupiter Europa Orbiter could launch on Atlas rocket in 2020
Esa: Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter (above) lofted by an Ariane
Probes use Venus gravity assist to arrive 6 years later
Orbiters conduct joint observations at other Jupiter moons
Would finally settle into orbits around dedicated targets
Studies will focus on Europa's and Ganymede's interiors
End destructions will allow unique measurement opportunities
Nasa and the European Space Agency have decided to forge ahead with an ambitious plan to send a probe to the Jupiter system and its icy moon Europa.
The proposal could be the agencies' next "flagship" endeavour, to follow on from the successful Cassini-Huygens mission to the Saturn system.
Officials had been considering the Jupiter mission along with a venture to Saturn's moons Titan and Enceladus.
But they will target an earlier flight opportunity for the Europa mission.
A Saturnian return will have to wait until later in the century, agency chiefs say.
The missions would cost several billion dollars/euros to build and execute and might never fly if other future space endeavours become higher research priorities.
The decision was made last week at a meeting in Washington DC.
Scientists and engineers from the space agencies carefully studied both potential missions, which resulted from merging separate Nasa and Esa mission concepts.
They decided it was most technically feasible to do the Europa Jupiter System Mission (EJSM) first.
Combined effort
Professor David Southwood, Esa's director of science and robotic exploration, said: "This joint endeavour is a wonderful new exploration challenge and will be a landmark of 21st Century planetary science."
But Esa's Solar System Working Group decided that, based on scientific merit, there was little to separate this venture from the Titan Saturn System Mission (TSSM).
They therefore recommended, with Nasa's agreement, that both missions move forward for further study and implementation.
TITAN SATURN SYSTEM MISSION
Mission would leave Earth on Atlas heavy-lift rocket
Would take 9 years to reach Saturn with Venus fly-by
Nasa: responsible for 1.6-tonne instrumented orbiter
Esa: would provide balloon and hydrocarbon lake lander (above)
Orbiter to tour Saturn system before entering Titan orbit
Tour allows further studies of Enceladus and its plumes
Will need to raise the high scientific bar set by Cassini
Ed Weiler, associate administrator for Nasa's science mission directorate in Washington DC, commented: "Although the Jupiter system mission has been chosen to proceed to an earlier flight opportunity, a Saturn system mission clearly remains a high priority for the science community."
EJSM proposes Nasa and Esa combine efforts in the Jovian system.
Major targets here would be the Galilean moons Europa and Ganymede. Scientists have long dreamed of visiting Europa with sophisticated instrumentation.
The icy moon's cracked surface is thought to hide a sub-surface ocean; and researchers want to start assessing the habitability of this strange world.
Louis Friedman, executive director of The Planetary Society, commented: "A mission to Jupiter's icy moon Europa will take us to one of the most likely habitats in the Solar System - other than Earth - where life might have evolved."
He added: "We are delighted that it is being organised as an international project - making the mission more affordable and increasing its support."
The EJSM assessment team suggests the US and Europe both send orbiters. Nasa would despatch the Jupiter Europa Orbiter (JEO); Esa would send the Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter (JGO).
"It's a double integrated mission. What we want to do with two platforms is to contemplate the Jupiter system as a whole - each platform looking at specific objects; and the two platforms looking at the same objects from two different perspectives," said Michel Blanc, from the CESR (Centre d'Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements) in Toulouse, France.
A mission to Jupiter's icy moon, Europa, will take us to one of the most likely habitats in the Solar System - other than Earth - where life might have evolved
Louis Friedman, The Planetary Society
Although the two spacecraft would occasionally conduct joint observations, only Nasa's probe would spend time around Europa - which is known to have a severe radiation environment.
A previous Esa feasibility study into a Europa mission gave spacecraft orbiting the moon a lifetime of just 66 days. Nasa plans to use specific shielding to protect sensitive electronic systems.
"[The Americans] are confident now that they can operate for several months in orbit and do the mission which is complete coverage both of the surface and the interior," Dr Blanc told BBC News
The JEO and JGO would end their missions by crashing into their respective moons.
'Fascinating' targets
On the subject of the Galilean satellites, Dr Blanc added: "They are fascinating. They are coupled; they are in resonance.
"While Ganymede is doing one turn around Jupiter, Europa is doing two turns; and Io is doing four orbits. And in this motion they keep eccentricity; they excite each other. And there is a lot of tidal interaction which heats the internal bodies of those satellites."
My heart belongs to Titan
Professor John Zarnecki, Open University
Professor John Zarnecki, from the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, told BBC News: "Europa will be absolutely brilliant when it happens."
But the planetary scientist, who is a principal investigator on the Cassini-Huygens mission to the Saturnian system, added: "My heart belongs to Titan.
"One gets used to long timescales, but when it came home that I will probably be in my Bath chair by the time [TSSM] happens, it was disappointing."
The TSSM concept envisages sending an orbiter to the moons Titan and Enceladus. It would build on the discoveries made by Cassini-Huygens, which arrived at Saturn in July 2004 and continues to operate.
Cassini has sent back data indicating that Titan resembles a primitive Earth - albeit one that is deep frozen. It has a thick, hazy atmosphere and is rich in organic (carbon-rich) molecules.
Recent revelations at Enceladus show that its southern polar region contains hot spots spewing huge jets of water-ice into space. And scientists think this moon may also host an ocean of liquid water beneath the surface.
Tasting chemistry
British scientists and engineers will look to play key roles on the European aspects of the Europa and Jupiter system venture.
One group will put forward the idea of firing darts, or penetrators, at the icy surface of Europa to "taste" its chemistry.
The icy surface of Europa is riven with cracks
The UK Penetrators Consortium, led from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, is working on a proposal that would see instrumented probes dropped into the dusty surface of Earth's moon.
But the researchers believe the technology could just as easily be deployed into a Jovian satellite.
"It allows you, for example, to implant a seismometer under the surface; or to do some simple organic chemical analysis," explained Dr Andrew Coates from MSSL.
Other small sensors could determine the temperature of the sub-surface, its mechanical properties and detect any movement; they could also probe the minerals present and assess the local magnetic and radiation fields.
Professor Zarnecki commented: "If you can't sample the surface directly, one option would be to look at the ejecta - the material thrown off the surface during impacts.
"[At the Open University] we would like to fly a spectrometer around Europa to find out whether we can see organics."
Damaged buildings are being demolished in Port-au-Prince
Haiti's government says about 230,000 people died in last month's earthquake, 18,000 more than its previous estimate.
The toll from the 12 January quake is approaching that of the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed 250,000 people.
Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue said the toll was not definitive. About 300,000 were injured.
But later, Interior Minister Paul Bien-Aime issued a slightly different total, saying the "verified" death toll was "more than 217,000".
He said: "There are people who put forth the figure of 230,000, but we have counted a bit more than 217,000. These are verified figures."
The latest figure does not include bodies buried by private funeral homes in private cemeteries, or the dead buried by their own families.
The one-month anniversary of the catastrophic quake is to be marked with prayer vigils and fasting.
A BBC correspondent in the capital Port-au-Prince says there is increasing concern that with the rainy season approaching, the lack of tents and temporary shelter could lead to the outbreak of disease.
Supermarket collapse
In the biggest of the camps that sprang up in the city after the earthquake, people are still living under sheeting strung across wooden poles.
Aid agency officials said there was a plan to get thousands of the most vulnerable homeless people into tents ahead of the rains.
But the challenges of putting large numbers of tents in the crowded camps are considerable.
There were reports on Tuesday that a damaged supermarket had collapsed while people were inside.
Rescue teams, which had been retrieving bodies of quake victims from the site, tried to remove the debris to reach an estimated five to eight people trapped underneath - said to have been looters - but eventually gave up the search, AFP news agency reported.
ON THIS DAY: NELSON MANDELA FREED AFTER 27 YEARS IN SOUTH AFRICAN PRISON
February 11, 2008
ON THIS DAY IN 199O:
Freedom for Nelson Mandela
*************************************************
Mandela's life and times
Nelson Mandela is one of the world's most revered statesmen, who led the struggle to replace the apartheid regime of South Africa with a multi-racial democracy.
Despite many years in jail, he emerged to become the country's first black president and to play a leading role in the drive for peace in other spheres of conflict. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
His charisma, self-depreciating sense of humour and lack of bitterness over his harsh treatment, as well as his amazing life story, partly explain his extraordinary global appeal.
Since stepping down as president in 1999, Mr Mandela has become South Africa's highest-profile ambassador, campaigning against HIV/Aids and securing his country's right to host the 2010 football World Cup.
In prison, you come face to face with time. There is nothing more terrifying
Nelson Mandela
Mr Mandela - diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2001 - was also involved in peace negotiations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and other African countries.
He has also encouraged peace efforts in other areas of the world.
In 2004, at the age of 85, Mr Mandela retired from public life to spend more time with his family and friends and engage in "quiet reflection".
"Don't call me, I'll call you," he warned anyone thinking of inviting him to future engagements.
Raised by royalty
He was born in 1918 into the Madiba tribal clan - part of the Thembu people - in a small village in the eastern Cape of South Africa. In South Africa, he is often called by his clan name - "Madiba".
Mr Mandela set up South Africa's first black law firm with Olive Tambo
Born Rolihlahla Dalibhunga, he was given his English name, Nelson, by a teacher at his school.
His father, a counsellor to the Thembu royal family, died when Nelson Mandela was nine, and he was placed in the care of the acting regent of the Thembu people, chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo.
He joined the African National Congress in 1943, first as an activist, then as the founder and president of the ANC Youth League.
Eventually, after years in prison, he also served as its president.
He married his first wife, Evelyn Mase, in 1944. They were divorced in 1957 after having three children.
Mr Mandela qualified as a lawyer and in 1952 opened a law practice in Johannesburg with his partner, Oliver Tambo.
LANDMARKS
1918 - Born in the Eastern Cape
1956 - Charged with high treason, but charges dropped
1964 - Charged again, sentenced to life
1990 - Freed from prison
1993 - Wins Nobel Peace Prize
1994 - Elected first black president
1999 - Steps down as leader
2001 - Diagnosed with prostate cancer
2004 - Retires from public life
2005 - Announces his son has died of an HIV/Aids-related illness
2007 - Forms The Elders group
2008 - Turns 90
Together, Mr Mandela and Mr Tambo campaigned against apartheid, the system devised by the all-white National Party which oppressed the black majority.
In 1956, Mr Mandela was charged with high treason, along with 155 other activists, but the charges against him were dropped after a four-year trial.
Resistance to apartheid grew, mainly against the new Pass laws, which dictated where blacks were allowed to live and work.
In 1958, Mr Mandela married Winnie Madikizela, who was later to take a very active role in the campaign to free her husband from prison.
The ANC was outlawed in 1960 and Mr Mandela went underground.
Tension with the apartheid regime grew, and soared to new heights in 1960 when 69 black people were shot dead by police in the Sharpeville massacre.
Life sentence
It was the end of peaceful resistance and Mr Mandela, already national vice-president of the ANC, launched a campaign of sabotage against the country's economy.
Mr Mandela spent 27 years behind bars
He was eventually arrested and charged with sabotage and attempting to violently overthrow the government.
Conducting his own defence in the Rivonia court room, Mr Mandela used the stand to convey his beliefs about democracy, freedom and equality.
"I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities," he said.
"It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."
In the winter of 1964 he was sentenced to life in prison.
In the space of 12 months between 1968 and 1969, Mr Mandela's mother died and his eldest son was killed in a car crash but he was not allowed to attend the funerals.
He remained in prison on Robben Island for 18 years before being transferred to Pollsmoor Prison on the mainland in 1982.
Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts
Nelson Mandela
As Mr Mandela and other ANC leaders languished in prison or lived in exile, the youths of South Africa's black townships helped sustain the resistance.
Hundreds were killed and thousands were injured before the schoolchildren's uprising was crushed.
In 1980, Mr Tambo, who was in exile, launched an international campaign to release Mr Mandela.
The world community tightened the sanctions first imposed on South Africa in 1967 against the apartheid regime.
The pressure produced results, and in 1990, President FW de Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC, and Mr Mandela was released from prison and talks on forming a new multi-racial democracy for South Africa began.
Nobel Peace Prize
In 1992, Mr Mandela divorced his wife, Winnie, after she was convicted on charges of kidnapping and accessory to assault.
Mr Mandela was greeted by huge crowds when he was released
In December 1993, Mr Mandela and Mr de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Five months later, for the first time in South Africa's history, all races voted in democratic elections and Mr Mandela was elected president.
Mr Mandela's greatest problem as president was the housing shortage for the poor, and slum townships continued to blight major cities.
He entrusted his deputy, Thabo Mbeki, with the day-to-day business of the government, while he concentrated on the ceremonial duties of a leader, building a new international image of South Africa.
In that context, he succeeded in persuading the country's multinational corporations to remain and invest in South Africa.
Steps down
But he lost out in his battle to have anti-apartheid activist Cyril Ramaphosa take over as his successor. Mr Mbeki became ANC leader in 1997 and went on to win a landslide victory in June 1999.
Mr Mandela married Graca Michel on his 80th birthday
On his 80th birthday, Nelson Mandela married Graca Machel, the widow of the former president of Mozambique and continued travelling the world, meeting leaders, attending conferences and collecting awards after stepping down as president.
After his official retirement, his public appearances have been mostly connected with the work of the Mandela Foundation, a charitable fund that he founded.
On his 89th birthday, he formed The Elders, a group of leading world figures to offer their expertise and guidance "to tackle some of the world's toughest problems".
Possibly his most noteworthy intervention of recent years came early in 2005, following the death of his only son, Makgatho.
In a country where taboos still surround talking about the Aids epidemic, Mr Mandela announced that his son had died of Aids, and urged South Africans talk about Aids "so to make it appear like a normal illness".
FROM THE BBC
Leading anti-apartheid campaigner Nelson Mandela has been freed from prison in South Africa after 27 years.
His release follows the relaxation of apartheid laws - including lifting the ban on leading black rights party the African National Congress (ANC) - by South African President FW de Klerk.
Mr Mandela appeared at the gates of Victor-Verster Prison in Paarl at 1614 local time - an hour late - with his wife Winnie.
Holding her hand and dressed in a light brown suit and tie he smiled at the ecstatic crowds and punched the air in a victory salute before taking a silver BMW sedan to Cape Town, 40 miles away.
People danced in the streets across the country and thousands clamoured to see him at a rally in Cape Town.
Our march to freedom is irreversible
Nelson Mandela
Doctors treated over a hundred people as police clashed with youths looting shops in various cities and townships and several people were reported shot dead.
Mr Mandela, the deputy-president of the ANC, appeared on the balcony of Cape Town's City Hall to speak to the 50,000 people assembled outside at 2000 local time.
He acknowledged Mr de Klerk was a man of integrity, but said: "Our struggle has reached a decisive moment. Our march to freedom is irreversible."
"Now is the time to intensify the struggle on all fronts. To relax now would be a mistake which future generations would not forgive," he continued.
As he addressed the crowd South African state television broadcast a profile of Mr Mandela - including a BBC interview from 1961 - which was the first time he had been shown speaking on TV.
Now 71, the lawyer from the Transkei homeland was convicted of treason and sabotage in June 1964 and sentenced to life imprisonment.
He spent most of his sentence on Robben Island, off Cape Town, doing hard labour.
Since the 1980s he has refused numerous offers for early release from the government in Pretoria because of the conditions attached.
In Context
Nelson Mandela succeeded Oliver Tambo as
president of the ANC later in 1991.
He divorced Winnie the next year following her
convictions for kidnapping and being accessory to an assault.
Mr Mandela and FW de Klerk shared the Nobel Peace Prize in
1993 for their efforts to transform South African society.
In the first multi-racial elections in the country's history he
was elected president and the ANC gained 252 of the 400 seats
in the national assembly.
He was succeeded as ANC president by Thabo Mbeki in 1997
and stepped down in favour of Mr Mbeki as national president
after the 1999 elections.
Mr Mandela re-married in 1998 and was diagnosed with
FLASHBACK...... 2003: SHUTTLE COLUMBIA BURNS UP ON RETURN TO EARTH FROM ISS
February 10, 2008
Let Us Never Forget all the lives lost in the United Effort to build and complete the International Space Station. As we can now remember that fateful day in February 2003 when we lost The Shuttle Columbia and it's international crew of 7.
2003: Columbia shuttle disintegrates...
killing seven astronauts
The US space shuttle Columbia has broken up as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere killing all seven astronauts on board.
This is the first time there has been an accident on landing in the 42 years of American space flight.
President George Bush told a nation in shock: "The Columbia is lost. There are no survivors."
Six of the seven astronauts were US citizens. They were Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, David Brown, and female astronauts Laurel Clark and Indian-born Kalpana Chawla.
The seventh - fighter pilot Colonel Ilan Ramon - was Israel's first astronaut and was carrying with him a miniature Torah scroll of a Holocaust survivor.
Columbia disintegrated just 16 minutes before it was due to land at Cape Canaveral in Florida.
At 0900 local time (1400 GMT) Mission Control lost all data and contact with the crew.
The US space agency Nasa then sent search teams to the Dallas-Fort Worth area amid reports of "a big bang" and TV pictures showing smoke and fireballs in the sky.
Debris scattered over Texas
In an emotional announcement, Nasa's administrator Sean O'Keefe, said: "This is indeed a tragic day for the Nasa family, for the families of the astronauts and likewise, tragic for the nation."
Flags at the Kennedy Space Center have been lowered to half-mast.
Debris from the shuttle is scattered across eastern Texas and western Louisiana and has crashed into car parks, forests, backyards, a reservoir, a rooftop and a dentist's office.
Nasa has temporarily suspended shuttle flights. Shuttle programme manager Ron Dittemore told a news conference in Houston, Texas, "We will not fly again until we have this understood. Somewhere along the line we missed something."
The finger of blame points to a piece of insulating foam from an external fuel tank that hit the shuttle's left wing as it took off 16 days ago.
Some experts say this could have damaged tiles that protect the craft from intense heat on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.
But the lead flight director in mission control, Leroy Cain, assured journalists engineers had concluded any damage to the spacecraft was considered minor.
The shuttle was the world's first reusable space vehicle and Columbia was the oldest of a fleet of four and flew her maiden voyage in April 1981.
Her sister ship Challenger exploded soon after take-off 17 years ago killing six astronauts and schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.
Three days later President Bush led a memorial service to the seven astronauts at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
In a statement the families of the astronauts insisted the tragedy should not hamper future space programs.
An independent investigation team spent months studying data recovered from computers tracking Columbia's final moments, and thousands of pieces of recovered debris.
The final conclusions of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, published in August 2003, confirmed the view that a breach of the shuttle's heat shield on take-off caused it to break up on re-entry.
But it was also highly critical of Nasa itself, saying management blunders were as much to blame as technical problems for the destruction of the shuttle.
It also said that while the space shuttle was not inherently unsafe, a number of mechanical changes should be made in order to ensure safety before flights resume.
It made 29 major recommendations aimed at both a short-term return to space and continuing exploration in the long term.
Princess Elizabeth has formally proclaimed herself Queen and Head of the Commonwealth and Defender of the Faith.
Lords of the Council - numbering 150 - representatives from the Commonwealth, officials from the City of London - including the Lord Mayor - and other dignitaries witnessed the accession of the deceased king's eldest daughter this morning.
The new monarch read an official Proclamation - also ordered to be published - declaring her reign as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second.
I shall always work to advance the happiness and prosperity of my peoples
Queen Elizabeth II
Queen Elizabeth II read: "By the sudden death of my dear father I am called to assume the duties and responsibilities of sovereignty."
"My heart is too full for me to say more to you today than I shall always work, as my father did throughout his reign, to advance the happiness and prosperity of my peoples, spread as they are all the world over."
Her husband, Prince Philip of Greece, the Duke of Edinburgh, was also present at the 20 minute meeting at St James's Palace.
The couple returned to the UK yesterday after cutting short a tour of the Commonwealth - beginning in Kenya a week ago - because of King George VI's sudden death on 6 February.
After the Accession Declaration, at 1000 GMT, the new Queen held her first Privy Council meeting and her Proclamation was signed by the Lord Chancellor, the prime minister, and many other privy counsellors along with representatives of the Commonwealth and the City and the Lord Mayor of London.
During the ceremonies the 25-year-old Queen also took an oath to assure the security of the Church of Scotland and approved several other Orders in Council.
Other dignitaries formally announced the new sovereign across the UK and Commonwealth.
In a statement this evening the Home Secretary, Sir David Fyfe, asked the nation for two minutes' silence on 15 February when the late King will be buried at St George's Chapel, Windsor.
In Context
King George VI's body lay in state in the Great Hall in Westminster from
11 February until the funeral.
Many thousands of people queued for hours to pay their respects.
His funeral was held on 15 February 1952.
Queen Elizabeth II's coronation was held in Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953.
In 2002 the Queen enjoyed a year of celebrations and special visits to
commemorate 50 years on the British throne.
Watch/Listen
Trumpeters sound the accession of the new monarch and Defender of the Faith
The space shuttle Atlantis has been successfully launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The orbiter is taking Europe's Columbus science laboratory to the International Space Station (ISS).
Despite concern throughout the day that cloud, showers and winds might scrub the launch, the weather cleared at the right time to allow a smooth lift-off.
The Columbus module is Europe's major contribution to the science endeavours on the orbiting platform.
A delighted European Space Agency (Esa) chief, Jean Jacques Dordain, was present to see the launch.
"It's a great day for Esa," he said. "Columbus discovered a new world, and I think that with Columbus we are discovering a totally new world," he added.
"From now on, Esa becomes a visible and concrete partner of the space station."
Columbus is the first segment of the ISS that Europe will control, through a ground station in Germany. Its installation will mean Esa becomes a full member of the orbital project and gains "rights" to positions on the platform for European astronauts.
In the short term that means one six-month residency every two years.
Advancing science
Once the 1.3bn-euro ($1.8bn; £0.9) lab is in place, an intensive programme of research in weightless surroundings will begin.
The Esa boss has been working on Columbus for some 20 years
The scientific studies will impact diverse fields, from crop breeding to the development of advanced alloys.
The experiments will also help researchers better understand the physiological demands of long-duration spaceflight, something that will be important if humans are ever to colonise the Moon or travel to Mars.
Columbus will be installed on Day Four of the mission.
The 7m-long (24ft), 4.5m-wide (14ft), 12.8-tonne laboratory will be manoeuvred into position by the shuttle's robotic arm, and docked to the station's Harmony Node 2 connector.
Hans Schlegel, the German Esa astronaut on the flight, will play a key role in this process, carrying out two spacewalks to get the job done.
Esa colleague Leopold Eyharts will be staying on the station to commission Columbus, a process that should take a few weeks to complete fully.
Surface inspection
The launch proved to be an extremely satisfying day for the US space agency (Nasa), which saw a faulty fuel sensor system on the orbiter thwart its attempts to launch Columbus in December.
And stormy weather to the northwest of Kennedy on Thursday threatened to spoil the latest campaign, with, at one point, meteorologists reporting a 70% probability that conditions would lead to another "no go".
But with under 15 minutes to the scheduled launch time of 1445 EST (1945 GMT), winds that for much of the day had been outside the permitted strength in the flight regulations suddenly relented.
Nasa will confirm that Atlantis made a truly flawless ascent only after engineers have had time to check imagery of the lift-off.
An initial examination of pictures showed at least three pieces of foam falling off the shuttle's external tank, but it is not thought these damaged the ship in anyway.
Atlantis astronauts will also conduct their own survey of the shuttle's external surfaces to confirm the vehicle's integrity.
Retirement timeline
Nasa is confident it now has the shuttle system working well after encountering no major technical issues with the vehicle during Thursday's launch campaign.
The agency hopes to fly another five missions this year - four more to the space station and one to service the Hubble telescope.
Beyond Columbus, 11 flights in total are required to finish the ISS - a target Nasa believes is achievable by its deadline to retire the shuttles at the end of 2010.
"We just take each flight at a time and see what we get from the hardware and the vehicle," said Bill Gerstenmaier, Nasa's spaceflight chief.
"We've got margin in the overall schedule, but we'll do the right thing."
Atlantis is due to dock with the ISS on Saturday. Its return to Earth is planned for Monday, 18 February.
The orbiter will be bringing back US astronaut and long-stay ISS resident Dan Tani in Leopold Eyharts' seat.
The four members of the British hit band, the Beatles, have arrived in New York at the start of their first tour of the United States.
The young men, with their now infamous mop-head hairstyles, stepped onto the tarmac at Kennedy Airport just after 1300 local time.
There were more than 3,000 screaming teenagers at the airport. Many had skipped school or work. Some were in tears and some were carrying placards with phrases such as "I love you, please stay".
The Beatles' first scheduled appearance will be on American television on Sunday on the Ed Sullivan show. He apparently booked them to appear after seeing the huge crowds who greeted their return to Heathrow from Sweden last October.
Security barriers
More than 5,000 fans applied for tickets to be part of the audience for the live show - only 750 were lucky enough to get them.
The Beatles - Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison - received maximum police protection, the kind of arrangement usually produced for kings and presidents.
There were security barriers too, without which, the Beatles would almost certainly have been crushed by the throng of screaming women.
Elsewhere in the United States, excitement over the Beatles' arrival has reached almost fever-pitch.
Their songs are playing constantly on radio stations, in shops and other places of work.
Millions of Beatle records have already been sold and a company called Puritan Fashions Incorporated, which describes itself as "the only exclusive official licensed manufacturer of Beatle wearing apparel" is marketing T-shirts, sweat shirts, turtle-neck sweaters, tight-legged trousers, night shirts, scarves and jewellery inspired by the Beatles.
Beatle wigs are also for sale at $2.99 each - or the equivalent of one guinea.
1964: Beatlemania arrives in the US
The four members of the British hit band, the Beatles, have arrived in New York at the start of their first tour of the United States.
The young men, with their now infamous mop-head hairstyles, stepped onto the tarmac at Kennedy Airport just after 1300 local time.
There were more than 3,000 screaming teenagers at the airport. Many had skipped school or work. Some were in tears and some were carrying placards with phrases such as "I love you, please stay".
The Beatles' first scheduled appearance will be on American television on Sunday on the Ed Sullivan show. He apparently booked them to appear after seeing the huge crowds who greeted their return to Heathrow from Sweden last October.
Security barriers
More than 5,000 fans applied for tickets to be part of the audience for the live show - only 750 were lucky enough to get them.
The Beatles - Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison - received maximum police protection, the kind of arrangement usually produced for kings and presidents.
There were security barriers too, without which, the Beatles would almost certainly have been crushed by the throng of screaming women.
Elsewhere in the United States, excitement over the Beatles' arrival has reached almost fever-pitch.
Their songs are playing constantly on radio stations, in shops and other places of work.
Millions of Beatle records have already been sold and a company called Puritan Fashions Incorporated, which describes itself as "the only exclusive official licensed manufacturer of Beatle wearing apparel" is marketing T-shirts, sweat shirts, turtle-neck sweaters, tight-legged trousers, night shirts, scarves and jewellery inspired by the Beatles.
Beatle wigs are also for sale at $2.99 each - or the equivalent of one guinea.
OCTOBER 23, 1964
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The Beatles' appearance on the Ed Sullivan show sparked Beatlemania
The Beatles were the first British band to break into the American market.
Their appearance on the Ed Sullivan show reportedly led to a dip in the crime rate to a 50-year low as 73 million people or 40% of Americans tuned into watch.
They performed the songs All My Loving, Till There Was You, She Loves You, I Saw Her Standing There and I Want To Hold Your Hand.
The band appeared twice on the Ed Sullivan show and their performances still rate as the second and third most-watched programmes in the history of US TV. Only the 1983 final episode of Korean war comedy MASH achieved more viewers
In February 2004, the Beatles were given the President's Award at the Grammys to mark the 40th anniversary of what became known as "Beatlemania". It was accepted by the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison.
By Tariq Malik Staff Writer posted: 11 January 2008 9:05 pm ET
NASA managers decided Friday to officially aim for a Feb. 7 launch of the shuttle Atlantis and delay another flight to mid-March as engineers work to replace an electrical connector on the orbiter's fuel tank.
The launch target will allow time to install and test the new connector and avoid schedule conflicts with other spacecraft that, like Atlantis, are bound for the International Space Station (ISS), NASA officials said in a statement.
Atlantis and its STS-122 astronaut crew are now scheduled to launch at 2:47 p.m. EST (1947 GMT) on Feb. 7, two months late, on a planned 11-day mission to deliver the European Space Agency's (ESA) Columbus laboratory to the ISS.
The spaceflight has been delayed since early December by fuel sensor glitches, which engineers traced back to a suspect electrical connector at the bottom of Atlantis' external tank. Engineers are expected to complete the installation of a replacement connector on Saturday, NASA officials said.
NASA also pushed back the planned Feb. 14 launch of the shuttle Endeavour to mid-March. That mission, STS-123, will deliver a robotic arm addition and the first segment of Japan's Kibo laboratory to the ISS.
The new shuttle launch dates, as well as a decision by Russia's Federal Space Agency to move the launch of an ISS-bound unmanned Progress cargo ship up two days to Feb. 5, were tailored to suit the work schedules of the space station's current Expedition 16 crew, NASA officials said.
In addition to a spacewalk repair of starboard solar wing motor slated for later this month, the station's three-person crew is also gearing up for the arrival of the European cargo ship Jules Verne. Built for the ESA, Jules Verne is the first of a series of Automated Transfer Vehicles that designed to haul fresh supplies to astronauts aboard the ISS.
Atlantis' STS-122 mission will mark the first of five scheduled shuttle flights slated to launch this year. The shuttle Discovery is scheduled for an April launch to deliver second element of the station's Kibo lab.
A planned August mission, also aboard Atlantis, is aimed at overhauling the Hubble Space Telescope while a September flight of Endeavour will haul fresh supplies to the ISS.
NASA to Beam Beatles' 'Across the Universe' Into Space
February 1, 2008
An estimated 10,000 galaxies are revealed in humankind's deepest portrait of the visible universe ever from the Hubble Space TelescopeCredit: NASAFor the first time ever, NASA will beam a song -- The Beatles' "Across the Universe" -- directly into deep space at 7 p.m. EST on Feb. 4.
The transmission over NASA's Deep Space Network will commemorate the 40th anniversary of the day The Beatles recorded the song, as well as the 50th anniversary of NASA's founding and the group's beginnings. Two other anniversaries also are being honored: The launch 50 years ago this week of Explorer 1, the first U.S. satellite, and the founding 45 years ago of the Deep Space Network
, an international network of antennas that supports missions to explore the universe.
The transmission is being aimed at the North Star, Polaris, which is located 431 light years away from Earth. The song will travel across the universe at a speed of 186,000 miles per second. Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney expressed excitement that the tune, which was principally written by fellow Beatle John Lennon, was being beamed into the cosmos.
"Amazing! Well done, NASA!" McCartney said in a message to the space agency. "Send my love to the aliens. All the best, Paul."
Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, characterized the song's transmission as a significant event.
"I see that this is the beginning of the new age in which we will communicate with billions of planets across the universe," she said.
"Amazing! Well done, NASA! Send my love to the aliens."
-- Sir Paul McCartney It is not the first time Beatles music has been used by NASA; in November 2005, McCartney performed the song "Good Day Sunshine" during a concert that was transmitted to the International Space Station (› Related Story). "Here Comes the Sun," "Ticket to Ride" and "A Hard Day's Night" are among other Beatles' songs that have been played to wake astronaut crews in orbit.
Feb. 4 has been declared "Across The Universe Day" by Beatles fans to commemorate the anniversaries. As part of the celebration, the public around the world has been invited to participate in the event by simultaneously playing the song at the same time it is transmitted by NASA. Many of the senior NASA scientists and engineers involved in the effort are among the group's biggest fans.
"I've been a Beatles fan for 45 years – as long as the Deep Space Network has been around," said Dr. Barry Geldzahler, the network's program executive at NASA Headquarters, Washington. "What a joy, especially considering that 'Across the Universe' is my personal favorite Beatles song."
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The four members of the British hit band, the Beatles, have arrived in New York at the start of their first tour of the United States. 
