22 NOVEMBER Margaret Thatcher resigned as Prime Minister.

One of the most divisive figures in political history and Britain’s first woman PM, she failed to win the Conservative Party’s annual leadership vote. The Iron Lady had been in power for 11 years, and was the country’s longest-serving 20th-century premier.

To her critics, her time in office included cutting back on Government public spending, shutting coal mines and attempting to force the Poll Tax on an unwilling population. To her supporters, she was the figurehead of a booming economy that cemented Britain’s status as a global powerhouse in the 80s.