The 88-year-old's Twitter debut came during a visit to London's Science Museum as she opened a new gallery dedicated to the history of communication and information.
Photo: Queen Elizabeth posts her first tweet at London's Science Museum on Friday 24 October, 2014.
The royal tweet read: "It is a pleasure to open the Information Age exhibition today at the @ScienceMuseum and I hope people will enjoy visiting. Elizabeth R."
The message was sent via the official @BritishMonarchy Twitter account, which is run by royal aides, and has issued almost 19,000 messages since its inception in 2009 and has some 725,000 followers.
Another tweet on the same account shortly afterwards said that the previous one was "sent personally by The Queen", adding its own hash tag for the event #TheQueenTweets.
The message posted by the monarch was re-tweeted more than 4,000 times in the 45 minutes after it was sent.
The Queen, who removed her glove to post the tweet, has gamely tried to keep up with new technologies during her 62-year reign.
She received a mobile phone as a present from her son Prince Andrew in 2001 and sent her first official email in 2009 but is reportedly bemused by requests for "selfies" when on on royal walkabouts.
The US ambassador to London, Matthew Barzun, said she told him she finds it "strange" to be confronted by people holding up mobile phones wanting to take pictures and selfies on royal visits.
AFP
