The longest serving Prime Minister in British history, Margaret Hilda Thatcher, née Roberts was born in 1925.
She is the only woman to have ever held the position of Prime Minister, serving from 1979 'til late 1990, when she was succeeded by John Major.
A grocer's daughter, she won a place at Oxford and was originally trained as a research chemist, and later became a barrister.
She became involved in politics in 1950, running for local election in the Dartford constituency.
She married Denis Thatcher the following year, in 1951.
In 1975 she succeeded Edward Heath as leader of the Conservative Party, and Leader of the Opposition. 4 years later, she was Prime Minister.
She was re-elected Conservative Prime Minister in 1983:
She earned the nickname 'The Iron Lady' it was a phrase coined by a Soviet journalist, and was a staunch conservative.
In 1983 she was re-elected for a second term and in 1987 she won a third term.
Memorable moments
- 1979 - Elected for the first time
- 1980-81 - Republican prisoners in the Maze prison carry out hunger strikes
- 1982 - Sinn Féin politician Danny Morrison described Thatcher as "the biggest bastard we have ever known"
- 1982 - Falklands War causes her popularity to surge
- 1983 - Margaret Thatcher wins a second term
- 1984 - IRA assassination attempt, Brighton
- 1984-85 - Miners' strike, under Arthur Scargill
- 1985 - That and Garret Fitzgerald sign the Anglo-Irish agreement
- 1987 - Elected for a third time
- 1990 - Resigns from office
- 2002 - Thatcher suffers series of small strokes and is advised to withdraw from public speaking
Margaret Thatcher is survived by her two children Carol and Mark. Her husband Denis Thatcher passed away in 2003.
