Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has died at age 87. She was the only woman to serve as British prime minister.
She suffered a stroke, according to her spokeswoman, who spoke with CNN. Thatcher's funeral will be held at St. Paul's Cathedral with full military honors, and will be followed by private cremation, the British prime minister's office announced.
Thatcher served as the leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990, where she became known as the "Iron Lady." The nickname resulted from a reputation for both personal and political toughness.
"To those waiting with bated breath for that favorite media catchphrase, the U-turn, I have only one thing to say. You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning," said Thatcher, at a conference for the Conservative Party, in a statement demonstrative of how she received her nickname.
She was given the nickname of the "Iron Lady" by the Soviet press after she declared, "The Russians are bent on world dominance."
She was elected prime minister in 1979, which was the first of three elections during which she headed her party.
Thatcher resigned from the Conservative Party in 1990, during an internal leadership struggle, after she introduced a poll tax on community residents that led to rioting in the streets.
She retired from public life after suffering a stroke in 2002. She had since suffered additional strokes.
"I don't think there will be a woman prime minister in my lifetime," Thatcher said in a television interview, six years prior to becoming prime minister herself.
"There is no such thing as society," Thatcher stated in 1987, emphasizing the rights of the individual over those of the state, a theme that ran throughout her tenure in office, where she also emphasized moral absolutism and nationalism.
Thatcher had a close working relationship with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, as the two shared similar conservative views.
Thatcher was born in October 1925 in Grantham, a small town in eastern England. She studied chemistry at Oxford, and was involved in politics from a young age. She gave her first political speech at 20, according to her official biography.
She married Denis Thatcher, a local businessman who became an executive in the oil industry. They had twins, Mark and Carol, in 1953. Her husband died in 2003.
Thatcher was first elected to Parliament in 1959 and served in various positions, including education secretary, before her terms as prime minister.
She was awarded the U.S. Medal of Freedom by President George H. W. Bush in 1991, and was named Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven after leaving office.
After Reagan's death in 2004, Thatcher, attended the funeral, where she said in prerecorded video that Reagan was "a great president, a great American, and a great man, and I have lost a dear friend."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
