Margaret Thatcher

Born Margaret Hilda Roberts in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Her father is a grocer and local alderman. She lives above the shop. No indoor plumbing. She wins a scholarship to Oxford and studies chemistry at Somerville College. Works briefly as a research chemist developing soft-serve ice cream at J. Lyons. Passes the bar. Marries Denis Thatcher, a wealthy businessman, in 1951.

Defeats Edward Heath to become leader of the Conservative Party. Nobody expected it. She's a backbencher who'd served as Education Secretary. Heath is stunned. She's the first woman to lead a major British political party. A Soviet military newspaper calls her the "Iron Lady." She adopts the name.

Becomes Prime Minister after a landslide victory. Britain is coming off the Winter of Discontent: uncollected garbage, unburied dead, a collapsed economy. She raises interest rates, cuts spending, breaks strikes. Unemployment doubles. Her approval rating drops to 23%, the lowest ever recorded for a PM. She tells the Conservative conference: "You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning."

Argentina surrenders in the Falklands War, 74 days after invading. Thatcher dispatches a naval task force 8,000 miles to the South Atlantic. 255 British troops die. 649 Argentines. Her approval rating soars from 23% to 59%. She wins a 144-seat majority in 1983.

Resigns as Prime Minister after 11 years, driven out by her own party over the poll tax and her hardening stance against European integration. She weeps in the back of her car leaving Downing Street. She'd survived an IRA assassination attempt in Brighton in 1984 that killed five people. She gave her conference speech the next morning at 9:30.

Dies of a stroke at the Ritz Hotel in London at 87. She receives a ceremonial funeral at St Paul's Cathedral attended by 2,300 guests. In some parts of northern England, people hold street parties. She remains the most polarizing figure in modern British politics.