Cunard announced today that HRH Queen Elizabeth 2 will bid farewell to her namesake ship on June 2, a vessel she herself inaugurated some 40 years ago.

This got us to thinking about the magnificent ship's history, and noodling around in our news archives. Maybe it's a bit premature for a full-on "retrospective", but we thought you might enjoy these highlights...

• The upgrades and enhancements: $18M refurbishment in 1999, $45M extensive refit in 1995, and of course the massive $130M refit and converstion from steam to modern diesel engines in 1987
• The changing ownership: The upcoming sale to Dubai World, acquisition by Carnival Corp's in 1998, acquisition by Kvaener in 1996 (and before that, acquisition by Trafalgar House in 1971, but our archives don't go back that far)
• The exciting, and sometimes goofy, publicity events: 1000th voyage in 1995, a tie-in with NBC's "the Single Guy" in 1997, hosting a pioneering ship blogger in 2000, setting a "personal speed record" of 35 knots in 1987 (remember when fuel was cheap enough for that sort of stunt?)

For additional information: tour our archive's news stories about QE2.