Obama continues presidential tradition
By Tony Grew - 13th April 2011
As reported on ePolitix.com today the president of the United States, Barack Obama, has accepted an invitation from the Queen to pay a state visit to the United Kingdom from Tuesday 24th May to Thursday 26th May 2011.
The president will be accompanied by Mrs Obama and will stay at Buckingham Palace.
HM The Queen has welcomed all but three American presidents of her reign to the UK.
See if you can spot the gaps.
Previous visits by American presidents:
President Eisenhower paid a visit to The Queen at Balmoral Castle in 1959:
President and Mrs Kennedy dined with The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace in June 1961;
President Nixon had lunch with The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace in February 1969 and again visited in 1970;
President Carter was received by The Queen in London in 1977;
President and Mrs Reagan made an official visit to the UK in June 1982, staying at Windsor Castle;
President and Mrs Bush had lunch with The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh in June 1989;
President and Mrs Clinton visited The Queen in December 2000;
President George W Bush and Mrs Bush had lunch with The Queen on 19th July 2001 at Buckingham Palace;
President George W Bush and Mrs Bush November made a State Visit to the UK in November 2003;
President George W Bush and Mrs Bush visited The Queen at Windsor Castle on 15th June, 2008;
President and Mrs Obama met The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace during the G20 meeting in London in April 2009.
So the missing presidents are Lyndon Baines Johnson and Gerald Ford - though Ford hosted the Queen in July 1976 for the US Bicentennial during one of her four state visits to the US.
Harry Truman was president when the Queen acceded to the throne in February 1952 and he left office in January 1953 - they met in Washington DC in 1951.
The Queen never met LBJ.
Photos of the Queen with 12 US presidents.
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