Thatcher timeline: The making of Margaret Thatcher
Baroness Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s formidable first woman Prime Minister, has died. Here, Channel 4 News brings you a timeline of the key events that shaped her life, and Britain’s history.
Margaret Thatcher: an obituary
1925 October 13 Born in Grantham, Lincolnshire
1947 Graduates with a second-class honours degree in chemistry from Somerville College, Oxford
1951 Marries Denis Thatcher (pictured), who ran his family business before becoming an oil executive
1953 Gives birth to twins, Mark and Carol
1959 October 8 First enters Parliament as Conservative MP for Finchley
1970 Enters the Cabinet as Education Secretary
1975 February 11 Elected Conservative Party leader, beating Edward Heath.
1975-9 Leader of the Opposition
1979 May 4 The Conservative Party wins the general election, Thatcher succeeds James Callaghan as PM
(Margaret Thatcher and family in 1976 Image: Getty)
1981 Prisoners at Northern Ireland’s Maze Prison go on hunger strike to regain status as political prisoners
1982 Falklands War
1983 June 9 Second term as PM begins; the Conservatives secure a landslide election victory
1984 October 12 Narrowly escapes death after the IRA bombs the Conservative party conference in Brighton, killing five
1984-5 Miners’ strike, amid the closure and privatisation of unprofitable mines
1987 June 11 Third term as PM
1990 Poll tax riots culminate in a 200,000 strong march on central London
1990 November 13 Geoffrey Howe resigns in protest at Thatcher’s attitude to Europe
November 14 Heseltine challenges for the party leadership
November 28 Thatcher resigns, despite having won the first ballot. She is succeeded by John Major
1992 Thatcher leaves the House of Commons, joins the Lords as Baroness Thatcher
1994 Praises Tony Blair as “the most formidable Labour leader since Hugh Gaitskell”
2002 Thatcher suffers a number of small strokes, and announces she will retire from the speeches circuit
Thatcher’s book Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World, dedicated to Ronald Reagan, is published.
2003 Denis Thatcher dies
2004 Ronald Reagan dies
2005 Thatcher celebrates her 80th birthday
2007 Honoured with a bronze statue in the Houses of Parliament
2008 Thatcher collapses at a House of Lords dinner and is admitted for tests
2010 Thatcher is invited to 10 Downing Street to celebrate her 85th birthday, but pulls out due to illness