When was mrs thatcher prime minister

President Ronald Reagan. The longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century, Thatcher was eventually pressured into resigning by members of her own Conservative Party. Her parents, Alfred and Beatrice, were middle-class shopkeepers and devout Methodists.

Alfred was also a politician, serving as a town council member for 16 years before becoming an alderman in and mayor of Grantham from to While there she studied chemistry and joined the Oxford Union Conservative Association, becoming president of the organization in After graduation she worked as a research chemist, but her real interest was politics.

In December Margaret married Denis Thatcher, a wealthy businessman. Less than two years later she gave birth to twins, Carol and Mark. Meanwhile, she was studying for the bar exams, which she passed in early She then spent the next few years practicing law and looking for a winnable constituency.

Thatcher ran for parliament once more in —this time in the Conservative-dominated constituency of Finchley—and easily won the seat. The first bill she introduced affirmed the right of the media to cover local government meetings. Speaking about the bill in her maiden speech, she focused not on freedom of the press but instead on the need to limit wasteful government expenditures—a common theme throughout her political career.

By Thatcher had accepted an invitation to become parliamentary undersecretary in the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance. She then steadily moved up the ministerial ranks, becoming secretary of state for education and science when the Conservatives retook power in Nonetheless, she was able to keep her job, and in , with the Conservatives back in the opposition, she defeated former Prime Minister Edward Heath to take over leadership of the party.

Thatcher was now one of the most powerful women in the world. She rejected the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes, who advocated deficit spending during periods of high unemployment, instead preferring the monetarist approach of Chicago economist Milton Friedman.

In April , Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands , a sparsely populated British colony located miles from Argentina and 8, miles from the United Kingdom. Thatcher dispatched troops to the area. Here's everything you need to know about the late prime minister. Margaret Thatcher was Great Britain's first female prime minister, serving three consecutive terms in office — Her economic and social policies evolved into a political philosophy known as Thatcherism, similar to Reaganomics in the United States, and part of a world-wide neoliberal movement in the s.

She was dubbed the Iron Lady by a Soviet newspaper following a speech she gave in - a nickname that she proudly claimed. Her parents ran a grocery business and lived in an apartment above the shop. They were Methodists who were very involved in the local congregation, raising Margaret and her older sister Muriel in an atmosphere that emphasized self-help, charity, and personal truthfulness. Alfred Roberts was a local councilor in Grantham and a Conservative, and the family would often discuss current political issues.

Margaret attended a local state school and won a place at Somerville College, Oxford, where she studied chemistry from to She was elected president of the student Conservative Association at Oxford in and met many prominent politicians.

Her final year, she studied x-ray crystallography with Dorothy Hodgkin, who won a Nobel Prize in chemistry in She was still highly involved in politics, and in the and General Elections, she ran as the Conservative candidate for Dartford. Although she lost both times, she received national publicity as the youngest female candidate in the country. She also met her husband, Denis Thatcher, in Dartford.

He was a local businessman and oil industry executive. After their marriage, Thatcher was able to resign her position at BX Plastics and become a lawyer specializing in taxation. On August 15, , she gave birth to twins Mark and Carol and six months later passed the bar exam.

In , Thatcher was elected as Member of Parliament for Finchley. By , she was given a junior office in the administration of Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister from January to October When the Conservatives were in Opposition from , Thatcher served continuously in various shadow cabinet positions and was appointed Education Secretary when Edward Heath became Prime Minister in The Heath government was elected on promises of economic revival that would be spurred by introducing more free-market policies and taming the trade unions but became one of the most interventionist governments in British history.

Thatcher herself faced a difficult job as Education Secretary at the height of student radicalism, with protesters disrupting her speeches, harsh criticism in the opposition press for not being liberal enough, and criticism from Conservatives for veering too far to the left. When the Heath Government lost a second General Election in October , Thatcher decided to run against Heath for the leadership of the Conservative Party and won in February , becoming the first woman to lead a Western political party and to be the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons.

The economic difficulties experienced by the United Kingdom under the Labour government - requiring credit from the International Monetary Fund in and causing extensive trade union strikes over pay demands in the winter of — swung public opinion back to the favor of the Conservatives.

The Thatcher government had pledged to turn Britain's economic decline around, mainly by increasing taxes and balancing the budget. By the spring of , recovery had begun, followed by eight years of steady growth. Thatcher demonstrated her confidence, determination, and decisiveness again during the Falklands War—on April 2, , Argentina invaded the British-held Falkland Islands and South Georgia Island.

Although she first pursued a diplomatic resolution, a British military task force was on-hand when that effort failed. In , after marrying businessman Denis Thatcher and later giving birth to twins, she was elected to Parliament as a Conservative for Finchley, a north London district. With the victory of the Conservative Party under Edward Heath in , Thatcher became secretary of state for education and science.

In , the Labour Party returned to power, and Thatcher served as joint shadow chancellor before replacing Edward Heath as the leader of the Conservative Party in February She was the first woman to head the Conservatives.

The next day, Prime Minister Thatcher immediately set about dismantling socialism in Britain. She privatized numerous industries, cut back government expenditures, and gradually reduced the rights of trade unions. In , despite the worst unemployment figures for half a decade, Thatcher was reelected to a second term, thanks largely to the decisive British victory in the Falklands War with Argentina.

The prime minister narrowly escaped harm. In , an upswing in the economy led to her election to a third term, but Thatcher soon alienated some members of her own party because of her poll-tax policies and opposition to further British integration into the European Community. She withdrew her nomination, and John Major, the chancellor of the Exchequer since , was chosen as Conservative leader. On November 28, Thatcher resigned as prime minister and was succeeded by Major. In , she was made a baroness and took a seat in the House of Lords.

In later years, Thatcher worked as a consultant, served as the chancellor of the College of William and Mary and wrote her memoirs, as well as other books on politics. She continued to work with the Thatcher Foundation, which she created to foster the ideals of democracy, free trade and cooperation among nations.

Though she stopped appearing in public after suffering a series of small strokes in the early s, her influence remained strong.

In , the former prime minister was the subject of an award-winning and controversial biographical film, The Iron Lady , which depicted her political rise and fall. Margaret Thatcher died on April 8, , at the age of But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Mays would finish his career with home runs, good for third on the all-time list at the time of his retirement. Willie Howard