Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher
British politician & British Prime Minister (1979–1990)
Date of Birth: October 13, 1925
Place of Birth: Grantham, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom
Date of Death: January 1, 2011
Margaret Thatcher was British prime minister of the 20th century and the only woman who served as Prime Minister of Britain. Dubbed the "Iron Lady" for her firm opposition to the Soviet Union, she implemented a number of conservative policies that have come to be known as Thatcherism.
In general election of 1959 Thatcher became Member of Parliament (MP) for Finchley. Originally a chemist and then a barrister.
In 1970, Margaret Thatcher was appointed as Secretary of State for Education and Science. In 1975 Thatcher defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election and became Leader of the Opposition, as well as the first woman to head a major political party in the United Kingdom. She became prime minister after winning the 1979 general election.
Thatcher was re-elected for a third term in 1987. In 1990, Michael Heseltine challenged her leadership. She resigned as Prime Minister and party leader in November 1990 because her Community Charge was widely unpopular and her views on the European Community were not shared by others in her Cabinet.
Thatcher holds a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher, of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire, which entitles her to sit in the House of Lords.
Margaret Thatcher has been depicted in a number of television programmes, documentaries, films and plays. She was played by Patricia Hodge in Ian Curteis's long unproduced The Falklands Play (2002) and by Andrea Riseborough in the TV film The Long Walk to Finchley (2008). She is the titular character in two films, portrayed by Lindsay Duncan in Margaret (2009) and by Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady (2011).
