Then
U.S. President Ronald Reagan drives then British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher toward their meeting in Camp David in this November
15, 1986 file photo, after her arrival by helicopter from Washington.
Thatcher and Reagan spearheaded the neoconservative movement and are
considered its major figures today.
This is a 1980 file photo showing British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
In this Dec. 15, 1984 file photo, Mikhail S. Gorbachev poses with Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in London. A staunch opponent of communism and socialism, Thatcher famously quipped of Gorbachev: “I like Mr. Gorbachev. I can work with him.”
Then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher points skyward as she receives standing ovation at Conservative Party Conference in this October 13, 1989 file photo. In 1984 Thatcher survived an assasination attempt by the IRA at the conference, and was praised for delivering her speech as planned the next day.
Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Falklands veterans take part in a march in London, during a service to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Falkland Islands conflict in this June 17, 2007 file photo. Thatcher’s successful handling of Falklands’ crisis in 1982 made her a hero to many.
Margaret Thatcher and French President Francois Mitterrand talk to the media before a meeting at the Chateau de Benouville in Normandy in this March 23, 1987 file photo. Thatcher’s refusal to join the European Exchange Mechanism in the 1980s and 90s eventually made her unpopular within her own party and led to her political downfall.
In this June 12, 1987 file photo, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher waves to supporters from Conservative Party headquarters in London after claiming victory in Britain’s general election. Thatcher resigned as Prime Minister in 1990 under pressure from her party. She was the UK’s longest serving prime minister.
TIMELINE
1925
1925
October 13 Margaret Roberts born in Grantham, Lincolnshire
1943-1947
Reads chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, later becoming president of the Oxford University Conservative Association
1949
January 31 Selected as the Conservative candidate for Dartford, the youngest woman candidate in the country, but is defeated in 1950 and 1951 elections
January 31 Selected as the Conservative candidate for Dartford, the youngest woman candidate in the country, but is defeated in 1950 and 1951 elections
1951
December 13 Marries Denis Thatcher
1953
August 15 Gives birth to twins, Mark and Carol
December 1 Qualifies as a barrister
1959
October 8 Enters Parliament as the MP for Finchley, having won the seat by 16,260 votes
1961
October 9 Appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary (Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance)
1965
Moves to become shadow housing and land spokesperson
1966
April 19 Moves to shadow spokesperson in Treasury as deputy to Iain Macleod
1967
October 10 Appointed to Shadow Cabinet, responsible for fuel and power
1968
November 14 Moves to shadow transport as spokesperson
1969
October 21 Appointed shadow education spokesperson
1970
February 10 Alfred Roberts, Margaret Thatcher’s father, dies
June 19 Appointed Secretary of State for Education and Science in newly elected Conservative Government
1971
August 9 Internment introduced in Northern Ireland.
September A proposal to end free school milk for over-sevens leads to the nickname ‘milk snatcher’
1972
January 9 Miners’ strike begins
January 30 ‘Bloody Sunday’: British troops kill 13 in Londonderry
March 24 Stormont suspended; direct rule begins in Northern Ireland
1973
January 1 UK joins the European Community
March 6 Budget introduces VAT, at 10 per cent
October 6 Arab-Israeli War (ends October 24); oil price increased by 70 per cent
November 12 National Union of Miners overtime ban begins; State of Emergency the following day
December 13 Three-day week announced
1974
February 5 National Union of Miners strike ballot: 81 per cent in favour
February 10 Miners’ strike begins (ends March 11)
February 28 General election: no overall majority for any party
August 9 President Richard Nixon resigns over Watergate
October 5 IRA bomb two pubs in Guildford: five killed, 65 wounded
October 10 General election: Labour win (majority of three)
November 7 Reshuffle of Shadow Cabinet: assists Robert Carr on Treasury questions
November 21 Mrs Thatcher decides to stand for Conservative Party leadership
1975
February 11 Elected Leader of the Conservative Party after challenging Edward Heath
April 30 Fall of Saigon, Vietnam
June 5 European Common Market referendum: 67.2 per cent for; 32.8 per cent against (64 per cent turnout)
November
27 Ross McWhirter murdered by IRA after putting up reward for capture
of bombers; Mrs Thatcher given 24-hour police protection
1976
January 24 A Soviet newspaper attacks the ‘Iron Lady’, establishing her nickname
February 19 Iceland breaks off diplomatic relations with UK over ‘cod war’
March 16 Harold Wilson announces his resignation as prime minister (succeeded April 5 by James Callaghan)
May 10 Jeremy Thorpe resigns as Liberal leader over Norman Scott affair
September 28 Sterling crisis: Denis Healey turns back from Heathrow as IMF called in
November 2 Jimmy Carter elected US President
1977
February 6 Queen’s Silver Jubilee
March 23 Lib-Lab pact negotiated between David Steel and James Callaghan
June 13 Mass picketing begins in dispute at Grunwick film processing laboratories, north London
November 19 Egypt/Israeli accord: Anwar Sadat visits Jerusalem.
1978
May 25 David Steel announces end of Lib-Lab pact
1979
January 3 Lorry drivers’ strike begins; Winter of Discontent at peak
January 22 One million local authority workers’‘Day of Action’
February 1 Ayatollah Khomeini returns from exile to Iran
March 1 Devolution referendums in Scotland and Wales: devolution defeated
March 30 Tory MP Airey Neave murdered by INLA in House of Commons car-park
April 23 Death of protester Blair Peach at Anti-Nazi League demonstration in Southall, London
May 3 General election: Conservative victory (43 majority)
May 4 Margaret Thatcher becomes the UK’s first female prime minister
June 18 Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty II signed by Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev
July 1 First Sony Walkman goes on sale
July 16 Iraqi President Hassan al-Bakr resigns, replaced by Saddam Hussein
August 9 First British nudist beach established in Brighton
August 14 Freak storm during the Fastnet Race results in the death of 15 sailors
August 27 IRA murders Earl Mountbatten at Mullaghmore, Co Sligo
September 10 Lancaster House Conference on Rhodesian independence opens (ends December 21)
November 4 US embassy in Tehran occupied by students demanding extradition of Shah from US
December 24 USSR invades Afghanistan
1980
February 13 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid open; Robin Cousins wins gold for figure skating
April 2 Race riots in St Pauls, Bristol
April 18 Zimbabwe gains independence; Robert Mugabe becomes prime minister
May 5 SAS storms Iranian embassy in London to end siege after takeover by Iranian Arab separatists
July
19 Summer Olympics open in Moscow, boycotted by 65 countries following
USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan; Sebastian Coe (1500m), Steve Ovett
(800m), Daley Thompson (decathlon) and Allan Wells (100m) win gold
medals
September 22 Iran-Iraq war begins
October 3 Housing Act provides people with ‘right to buy’ their council houses at reduced rate
October 5 British Leyland launches its Metro car, designed as eventual replacement for the Mini
October
10 Mrs Thatcher’s ‘The lady’s not for turning’ speech at the
Conservative Party Conference in response to criticism of economic
policies
October 27 First IRA hunger strike in Northern Ireland begins
November 4 Ronald Reagan elected US President
November 21 The ‘Who shot JR?’ episode of the soap opera Dallas shown in the US
December 8 John Lennon shot dead in New York by Mark Chapman
1981
January 4 Peter Sutcliffe, Yorkshire Ripper, arrested
January
25 Four former Labour cabinet ministers (Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams,
Bill Rodgers and David Owen) issue the Limehouse Declaration, leading
to formation of the Social Democratic Party
February 13 Rupert Murdoch buys The Times and The Sunday Times for £12 million
March 30 Ronald Reagan shot and wounded in Washington DC by John Hinckley Jr
April 4 Bucks Fizz win the Eurovision Song Contest with Making Your Mind Up
April 9 IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands elected an MP
April 12 Space Shuttle Columbia launched, returning to Earth on April 14
May 5 Bobby Sands dies
May 8 Ken Livingstone becomes leader of the Greater London Council (GLC)
May 13 Turk Mehmet Ali Aca shoots and wounds Pope John Paul II
June 13 Marcus Sarjeant fires six blank shots at the Queen at Trooping the Colour ceremony
July 4 Toxteth riot breaks out in Liverpool following tension between black community and police; riots in Moss Side, Manchester
July 29 Wedding of the Prince of Wales and Diana Spencer at St Paul’s Cathedral
August 1 MTV launches
October 10 IRA bombs Chelsea Barracks
November 12 Church of England General Synod votes to admit women to holy orders
November 26 Crosby by-election: Shirley Williams wins Conservative seat for SDP
December 11 Muhammad Ali loses his last fight to Trevor Berbick
December 13 Martial law imposed in Poland and Solidarity suppressed
1982
January
1 Central Independent Television, Television South and Television South
West replace ATV, Southern Television and Westward Television
January 11 Mark Thatcher disappears in the Sahara during the Paris-Dakar Rally (rescued January 14)
February 5 Laker Airways collapses with debts of £270 million
February 19 The DeLorean Motor Company factory in Belfast is put into receivership
March 29 Chariots of Fire wins best picture Oscar; screenwriter Colin Welland announces, ‘The British are coming’
April 2 Argentina invades and occupies the Falkland Islands. Task force leaves Portsmouth three days later
May 2 Nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano
June 14 Argentine surrender in the Falklands
June 19 ‘God’s Banker’, Roberto Calvi, found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge, London
June 21 Prince William is born at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington
July 20 IRA bombs Hyde Park and Regent’s Park
October 11 The Mary Rose, Henry VIII’s flagship, which sank in the Solent in 1545, is raised
October 13 The Ford Sierra is launched in Europe, replacing the Ford Cortina
November
2 Channel 4, the fourth terrestrial television channel, is launched;
first programme broadcast is the game show Countdown
November 10 Leonid Brezhnev dies, succeeded as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union by Yuri Andropov
November 30 Michael Jackson releases Thriller, now the biggest-selling album of all time.
1983
January 17 First British breakfast television programme, Breakfast Time, broadcast by the BBC
March 23 Reagan announces Star Wars programme
April 11 Gandhi, directed by Richard Attenborough, wins eight Oscars
April 21 The £1 coin introduced in England and Wales
May 6 Stern magazine publishes the ‘Hitler Diaries’ (later found to be forgeries)
June 9 General election: Mrs Thatcher wins with a majority of 144
June 14 David Owen succeeds Roy Jenkins as leader of the Social Democratic Party
September 1 Korean Air Lines Flight 007 shot down by a Soviet fighter after entering Soviet airspace
September 25 38 IRA prisoners escape from the Maze prison in Co Antrim, the largest prison escape in UK history
October 2 Neil Kinnock succeeds Michael Foot as Labour Party leader
October 7 Plan to abolish the Greater London Council is announced
October 14 Cecil Parkinson resigns as Trade and Industry Secretary over his affair with Sara Keays
October 23 Suicide truck-bombings destroy French and US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut
November 4 Serial killer Dennis Nilsen sentenced to life imprisonment
November 14 Cruise missiles arrive at Greenham Common, Berkshire, despite protests by the Women’s Peace Camp
November 26 Gold bars worth nearly £26 million stolen from the Brink’s-MAT vault at Heathrow Airport
December 17 IRA bombs Harrods
1984
January 24 Steve Jobs unveils the Apple Macintosh computer
February 7 Opening of Winter Olympics in Sarajevo at which Torvill and Dean win ice-dancing gold
February 9 Yuri Andropov dies; succeeded by Konstantin Chernenko
March
12 Miners’ strike begins, after closure of 20 pits. The year-long
action is characterised by violent clashes between strikers and police
April 15 Comedian Tommy Cooper dies on live TV
April 17 Libyan Embassy siege begins after murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher
June 20 Sir Keith Joseph, the Education Secretary, announces O-level and CSE exams to be replaced by the GCSE
July
28 Olympics open in LA, boycotted by 14 Eastern Bloc countries; Carl
Lewis wins four gold medals, Steve Redgrave his first and Daley Thompson
and Sebastian Coe their second
September 15 Prince Harry born
September 26 The UK and China sign initial agreement to return Hong Kong to China in 1997
October 12 IRA bombs Grand Hotel Brighton during Tory party conference, intending to kill Mrs Thatcher
October 23 Michael Buerk reports for BBC on famine in Ethiopia
October 31 Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi assassinated by her Sikh security guards
November 6 Ronald Reagan re-elected US President
November 20 Flotation of British Telecom
November 29 Band Aid single Do They Know It’s Christmas? released
December 3 Leak from Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, kills thousands
December 16 Mrs Thatcher meets Mikhail Gorbachev for the first time and declares, ‘We can do business together’
1985
January 14 Sterling falls to $1.11; interest rates rise 1.5 per cent to 14 per cent
February 11 Clive Ponting acquitted of breaching Official Secrets Act in sending General Belgrano documents to MP Tam Dalyell
February 19 EastEnders begins on BBC1
March 3 National Union of Miners votes to end year-long strike
March 11 Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party
May 11 Bradford City football stadium fire kills 56
May
29 38 spectators killed in rioting on the terraces before European Cup
final between Liverpool and Juventus at Heysel Stadium in Brussels
July 4 Ruth Lawrence, 13, achieves a first in mathematics at Oxford University
July 13 Live Aid concerts in London and Philadelphia raise more than £50 million for famine relief in Ethiopia
September 9 Two days of rioting in Handsworth suburb of Birmingham; two dead
September 28 Brixton race riots are sparked by the shooting of Dorothy ‘Cherry’ Groce by the Metropolitan Police
October 2 Actor Rock Hudson dies, one of first celebrities to die of Aids-related illness
October 6 Broadwater Farm riot; murder of PC Keith Blakelock
October
7 Cruise ship Achille Lauro hijacked in the Mediterranean by
Palestinian terrorists; American passenger Leon Klinghoffer is killed
November 15 Anglo-Irish Agreement signed at Hillsborough Castle by Mrs Thatcher and Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald
1986
January 9 Defence Secretary Michael Heseltine resigns in row over Westland helicopter company; he favoured European rescue
January 24 Leon Brittan resigns as Trade and Industry Secretary over Westland affair
January 28 Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates after launch, killing crew of seven
February 15 Violence at Rupert Murdoch’s News International plant in Wapping following strike by print workers
February 17 Single European Act signed, setting EC objective of establishing a single market by end of 1992
March 4 Today newspaper launched
April 15 US air raids on Libya, mainly flown from British bases, following bombing of a Berlin disco
April 17 British journalist John McCarthy kidnapped in Beirut (released in August 1991)
April 26 Chernobyl disaster, Ukraine: the worst nuclear power plant accident in history
May
30 John Stalker, deputy chief constable of Greater Manchester Police,
suspended over allegations he consorted with criminals; cleared and
reinstated in August
June 22 England lose to Argentina in World Cup quarter-final; Diego Maradona scores ‘hand of God’ goal
July
20 Reports of rift between Mrs Thatcher and the Queen, principally over
South Africa: the Queen said to fear break-up of Commonwealth following
Mrs Thatcher’s rejection of sanctions
July 23 Prince Andrew, Duke of York, marries Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey
July 24 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh; 32 nations boycott over South Africa
October 7 The Independent newspaper launched with the slogan ‘It is. Are you?’
October 27 City of London ‘Big Bang’: deregulation of the financial markets
November 12 Ronald Reagan admits US had sold arms to Iran
November
17 Government seeks injunction to prevent sale of Spycatcher, the
autobiography of ex-MI5 officer Peter Wright, in Australia
November 26 Mike Tyson becomes the youngest heavyweight boxing champion of the world aged 20, beating Trevor Berbick
December 3 Flotation of British Gas, backed by ‘If you see Sid, tell him’ ads
1987
January 20 Church of England envoy Terry Waite kidnapped in Lebanon trying to free hostages including John McCarthy
February 11 British Airways privatised
March 6 Roll-on, roll-off ferry Herald of Free Enterprise sinks off Zeebrugge; 187 killed
April 27 Independent publishes extracts from Spycatcher
May 28 West German pilot Mathias Rust, 19, lands a private plane in Red Square, Moscow
June 11 General election: Mrs Thatcher wins record third term in office with reduced majority of 102
June 12 During a visit to Berlin, President Reagan challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall
July 11 World population reaches five billion, according to the United Nations
August 19 Michael Ryan shoots and kills 16 people in Hungerford, Berkshire
October 16 ‘The Great Storm’: hurricane-force winds hit southern England, despite earlier reassurance by weatherman Michael Fish
October 19 ‘Black Monday’: stock markets around the world crash
October 23 Jockey Lester Piggott jailed for three years after being convicted of tax evasion
October 31 French and Irish intercept huge IRA arms shipment from Libya aboard MV Eksund
November 8 IRA bombs Enniskillen remembrance service; 11 killed
November 18 King’s Cross Underground fire kills 31 people
December
9 England cricket team’s tour of Pakistan threatened when captain Mike
Gatting and umpire Shakoor Rana argue during a Test match
December 25 More than 26 million watch Hilda Ogden (Jean Alexander) make her last appearance in ITV’s Coronation Street
1988
January 3 Margaret Thatcher becomes longest-serving British prime minister of 20th century
March
3 SDP merges with the Liberal Party to create the Social and Liberal
Democratic Party; its interim leaders are David Steel and Robert
Maclennan
March 7 Operation Flavius: the SAS fatally shoots three unarmed Provisional IRA members in Gibraltar
March 15 Budget cuts higher rate of income tax to 40 per cent
March
16 Lt Col Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter indicted on
charges of conspiracy to defraud the US in the Iran-Contra Affair
March 24 Mordechai Vanunu sentenced to 18 years in prison for disclosing Israel’s nuclear programme to The Sunday Times
April 11 The Last Emperor, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, wins nine Oscars
May 24 Section 28, outlawing promotion of homosexuality in schools, passed into law
July
6 Piper Alpha drilling platform in the North Sea destroyed by
explosions and fires, killing 165 oil workers and two rescuers
July 16 Paddy Ashdown elected as first leader of the Social and Liberal Democrats
July 18 Paul Gascoigne becomes UK’s first £2 million footballer in move from Newcastle United to Tottenham Hotspur
July 29 Education Reform Act introduces grant-maintained schools and national curriculum
August 20 Iran-Iraq War ends, with an estimated one million lives lost
October 19 Broadcasting ban imposed on terrorists and apologists; BBC uses professional actors’ voices
November 8 George HW Bush elected US President, defeating Michael Dukakis
November 30 Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co buys RJR Nabisco for $25 billion in the biggest leveraged buyout deal of all time
December
2 Benazir Bhutto becomes prime minister of Pakistan, the first woman to
head the government of an Islam- dominated state
December 5 British Steel flotation
December 12 Clapham rail crash; 34 killed
December 16 Health minister Edwina Currie resigns after stating that most of the UK’s egg production is infected with salmonella
December 21 Pan Am Flight 103 is blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people
1989
February 5 Sky Television begins first satellite TV service in the UK
February
14 Protests after Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini encourages Muslims
to kill Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses
February 15 Soviet Union announces that all of its troops have left Afghanistan
March 24 Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels of oil after running aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska
April 1 New local government tax, the ‘poll tax’, introduced in Scotland
April 15 96 Liverpool supporters die in the Hillsborough, Sheffield, stadium disaster
June 4 Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing, China
August 20 Marchioness pleasure boat collides with a dredger on the Thames, killing 51
September 22 IRA bombs the Royal Marine School of Music in Deal, Kent, killing 11
October 19 The Guildford Four are freed after 14 years
October
26 Nigel Lawson resigns as Chancellor over ERM, which was opposed by
Mrs Thatcher’s economic adviser Alan Walters; succeeded by John Major
November 9 Fall of the Berlin Wall: East Germany opens checkpoints allowing its citizens to travel to West Germany
November 21 The House of Commons is televised live for the first time
November 28 Mrs Thatcher challenged for party leadership by pro-European ‘stalking horse’ Sir Anthony Meyer
December 5 Mrs Thatcher wins leadership election by 314 to 33
December 17 First episode of The Simpsons shown
December
25 Romanian leader Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, are executed
by military troops after being found guilty of crimes against humanity
December 29 Václav Havel elected president of Czechoslovakia
1990
February 11 Nelson Mandela released from Victor Verster Prison, near Cape Town, after 27 years behind bars
February 15 The UK and Argentina restore diplomatic relations after eight years
March 31 Protest in Trafalgar Square turns into a riot, a week before Community Charge due to be introduced
April 24 The Hubble Space Telescope is launched aboard Space Shuttle Discovery.
May
19 Agriculture minister John Gummer feeds a hamburger to his
five-year-old daughter to counter rumours about the spread of CJD
June 24 Kathleen Young and Irene Templeton ordained in St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, the first Anglican women priests in the UK
July 4 England’s footballers lose to West Germany in a penalty shoot-out in the semi-finals of the Italia ’90 World Cup
July
14 Trade and Industry Secretary Nicholas Ridley resigns following
interview in The Spectator in which he likens the EU to Hitler’s Germany
July 30 IRA car bomb kills Tory MP Ian Gow outside his home in East Sussex
August 2 Iraq invades Kuwait, leading to the Gulf War
October 3 East Germany and West Germany reunify into a single Germany
October 8 Pound joins ERM
November 1 Deputy Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Howe resigns over Mrs Thatcher’s stance on Europe
November 13 Howe’s resignation speech
November 14 Michael Heseltine challenges for Tory Party leadership
November 20 Leadership election first ballot (Thatcher 204, Heseltine 152)
November 22 Mrs Thatcher announces she will not contest the second ballot. Falls from power after 11 years as prime minister
November 27 Leadership election second ballot; John Major becomes leader
November 28 Margaret Thatcher leaves Downing Street for the last time.
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