AS the Queen celebrates her 80th birthday today, we look back at her visits to Greater Manchester over the years and wish her many happy returns.

HAPPY, flag-waving crowds throng the streets whenever the Queen visits Greater Manchester.

The Queen never fails to raise cheers and smiles when she mingles with her subjects.

In a reign spanning more than half a century, she has opened some of Manchester's most famous buildings, walked the cobbles of Coronation Street, and hailed the rebirth of the city in the wake of the IRA bomb.

She last visited Manchester in 2002, when the Commonwealth Games formed the cornerstone of her regional Jubilee celebrations.

During the hot days of July and August, she took part in the Games' spectacular opening ceremony, watched badminton in Bolton and bowls in Heaton Park and visited Christie Hospital in Withington, where her caring conversation soothed cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

City bosses took great pride in showing her the city centre, which had been regenerated in the six years since the bomb - and the eight years since she reportedly dubbed Manchester "not such a nice place".

Once the revamped city had been given the royal stamp of approval, the Queen joined with church leaders at the cathedral, where the "miracle of Manchester" was celebrated.

Games

At the closing ceremony of the games, the Queen sheltered from Manchester's rain under an umbrella during her closing speech.

During the tour the royals kept up-to-date with the M.E.N, which Special Branch officers picked up from our Spinningfields office.

A decade before the Commonwealth Games, the Queen celebrated another phase in the modern city's development by opening the Metrolink system and taking a ride from Bury to Manchester - a visit which drew the biggest crowds since her pre-Coronation visit in 1951.

During the same whistle-top tour, a guide dog belonging to Middleton student Carol Pollington jumped at the chance to meet the Queen and put his paws, luckily clean, on her tailor-made mint green coat. The Queen, used to robust welcomes from her corgis, smiled and patted the dog before continuing with the tour of Hopwood College.

Shefirst captured Manchester's heart in 1951 when she visited the city as a young princess to inspect the Grenadier Guards.

Ever since then the Queen has received a rapturous reception in the city - with a gentle sprinkling of controversy.

In 2000, while attending the opening of The Lowry Centre, she was unwittingly given a "bouquet" of cannabis by pro-legalisation campaigner Colin Davies. Unfazed, the Queen went on to hail the regeneration of Salford's docklands as "a good example of well-considered urban renewal."

In 1994, she responded to reports she had told a Russian student Manchester was "not such a nice place" by thanking people for their "constant loyalty" and saying she had been "looking forward" to visiting Manchester.

Two years later, a student would be arrested after throwing an egg at the Queen during a visit to the city.

During the Falklands War the Queen spoke for the first time about Prince Andrew's experience of active service in Manchester, telling the Lord Mayor it was "a very anxious time for us all".

And back in 1954, Wigan cotton workers were allowed three hours off from work to meet the Queen who visited seven local towns with Prince Philip.

Before the visit, Manchester's Chief Constable made a newspaper plea for officers with their own motorbikes to volunteer for the Queen's escort, because "the force has not enough suitable machines of its own, and the escort may depend on whether enough private motorcycles are offered by members of the force".

Which of the Queen's visits did you find most memorable? Have your say below.

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