From the Archives: Hear ye, tweet ye! Queen Elizabeth II sends first tweet

The queen has taken her reign to Twitter.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II sent her first tweet from the official British Monarchy account on Friday to open the Science Museum's Information Age exhibition in London and what better way to do it than partake in a bit of old meets new?

"It is a pleasure to open the Information Age exhibition today at the @ScienceMuseum and I hope people will enjoy visiting. Elizabeth R," her majesty wrote. (That "R" stands for Regina, or queen).

The tweet had been retweeted more than 24,000 times at last check.

The account, which launched in April 2000, is usually run by palace officials, and those guys got back to work soon after the queen sent her message to let everyone know that the message was indeed written by the 88-year-old sovereign.

"The last tweet was sent personally by The Queen from her official Twitter account @BritishMonarchy #TheQueenTweets," the next tweet said.

The blue-clad royal and her husband Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, visited the Science Museum on Friday morning to open the museum's first permanent gallery dedicated to the history of information and communications technology, the Guardian said. The queen was reportedly goaded by museum director Ian Blatchford to share the tweet.

"I mentioned earlier that Queen Victoria took a great interest in the invention of the telephone, and Your Majesty has followed in this tradition of embracing new technology," Blatchford said (via the Guardian). "You made the first live Christmas broadcast in 1957 and an event relished by historians took place on 26 March 1976, when you became the first monarch to send an email, during a visit to the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment. May I now invite you to join me so that you may send your first tweet."

Then she removed her white glove to send it from a touch screen in front of 600 guests.

QE2 has indeed kept up with the latest technology since starting her reign in 1953. For her coronation, she allowed TV cameras into Westminster Abbey for the first time, giving rise to the sale of a half-million TV sets in the weeks leading up to the event, according to the monarch's website.

In 1957, she was featured in the first live Christmas Broadcast on TV. In 1976, she became the first monarch to send an e-mail during a visit to an army base, which Blatchford referenced.

In 2008, she uploaded a video to YouTube while visiting Google's London offices.

Earlier this year, her grandsons Prince William and Prince Harry took part in the first royal Google Hangout video chat at Buckingham Palace to launch the Queen's Young Leaders program

Back in May, Prince Harry posted his first official tweet, promoting September's Invictus Games.

"Hope everyone will get behind #invictusgames. Great opportunity to support and thank the men and women who have given so much. Harry," the fourth in line to the British throne wrote.

Most Twitter-based royal news comes from the crown's official British Monarchy account or Prince Charles' Clarence House account, the latter of which usually posts updates about the prince of Wales and his wife, the duchess of Cornwall; Harry, his brother Prince William, and William's wife, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (That was also the account that announced the arrival of Prince George in a series of tweets in the summer of 2013.)

However, the members of the royal family are usually not direct users of the accounts.

Other royals on Twitter include Harry and William's uncle, Prince Andrew, Duke of York. Harry is believed to have a secret account he uses to keep an eye on what's being said about him on social media, according to the Guardian.

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