Why, they're no different from anyone else.'' exclaimed a Canadian housewife as she watched Queen Elizabeth and her husband exchange knowing glances and share a common smile before the television cameras this week. It was a pretty compliment, but obviously something of an understatement as well; whatever the young person who stands as the embodiment of sovereign authority to some 640 million of the world's people is, she cannot, in the very nature of things, be like "everyone else." Four cover stories in the past 28 years have traced the career of Queen Elizabeth from a girl of three (1929) to Woman of the Year (1953). This week TIME'S cover story reports on the man who has played a major part in making "this monarchy business work" in the modern age. See FOREIGN NEWS, The Queen's Husband.

AMID all the clamor about how and why the U.S. lost the satellite race with Russia, the arguments that were hurled about--budgetary penny-pinching, interservice rivalries, underestimation of the Russians--overlooked some basic facts of the U.S. missile program. For the real reasons why the U.S.'s Project Vanguard failed to live up to its name, see NATIONAL AFFAIRS. Project Vanguard.

FOR Mexico City-based Photographer Juan Guzman, photographing the ancient remnants of Olmec and Mayan culture has been a long labor of love. Making it a vacation and free-time project, he spent nearly two years completing his self-set assignment, traveled by car, private plane, horseback and at times proceeded on foot, machete in hand. Most difficult site was Yaxchilan in the almost inaccessible Chiapas jungle. To get there, Guzman had to fly in, clear the site by hand, wait for days for a break in the rain. For a view of what Guzman brought out, including the first color shots of Yaxchilan's monumental "Palace of the King," see ART, "A Few Baktuns Ago."

THE Rev. Dr. John R. Baker of the Montgomery County (Md.) Unitarian Church was reading the Oct. 7 issue of TIME in the quiet of his study when his eyes came upon these words from Little Rock's Presbyterian Minister Dunbar H. Ogden Jr.: "This may be looked back upon by future historians as the turning point--for good --of race relations in this country. If the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Constitution can be made good in Little Rock, then it can be made good in Arkansas. If it can be made good in Arkansas, then eventually it can be made good throughout the South." The words ''turning point" gave Baker an idea: why not establish a Little Rock scholarship fund for the nine colored children of Central High School--and for the white children who befriended them in the face of mob violence? Baker went before his congregation, dug into his modest Minister's Fund, came up with $100 as a starter. By this week he had upwards of $600 in contributions. This week Baker planned to travel to Little Rock to discuss the scholarships with Minister Ogden.

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