Queen Elizabeth sent her first email as long as 30 years ago, according to a list of 80 facts about the monarch released by Buckingham Palace to mark her 80th birthday on April 21.

No details of the email were included, except that it was sent from a British army base in 1976.

The 40th monarch since William the Conqueror, she has undertaken over 256 official visits overseas during her 54-year reign and has received some bizarre gifts, the list revealed.

They included jaguars and sloths from Brazil, two black beavers from Canada, a grove of maple trees and seven kilograms of prawns.

The queen travelled on the London underground for the first time in 1939 and attended her first FA soccer cup final in 1953, two experiences she never showed much appetite for repeating.

But dogs and horses were a different matter: she has owned more than 30 corgis in her reign, starting with Susan who was an 18th birthday present in 1944. Her first pony, Peggy, was given to her by her grandfather King George V when she was four years old.

The 80 facts are on www.royal.gov.uk