Thatcher 'helped push ties with China'

Margaret Thatcher

Biography of Margaret Thatcher

RISE TO POWER

• Oct 13, 1925

Margaret Hilda Roberts born in Grantham, eastern England.

• Dec 13, 1951

Marries businessman Denis Thatcher.

• Aug 15, 1953

Birth of twin children Carol and Mark.

• Oct 8, 1959

Thatcher elected Conservative member of Parliament for Finchley, north London.

• Oct 15, 1964

Re-elected despite Labour Party victory; becomes opposition spokeswoman on pensions, then housing, treasury (deputy to finance spokesman), energy, transport and education.

• June 19, 1970

Conservatives regain power; Thatcher appointed education and science secretary.

• Feb 11, 1975

Thatcher elected Conservative leader after party enters opposition.

• May 3, 1979

Conservatives in election landslide victory after financial and social problems of Labour government; Thatcher becomes Britain's first female prime minister.

IN OFFICE

• April 2, 1982

War breaks out between Britain and Argentina over the Malvinas Islands, known as the Falkland Islands in the UK. Thatcher sends troops and ships to the islands.

• June 9, 1983

Thatcher leads Conservatives to re-election.

• March 12, 1984

Coal miners' strike begins in northern England; drags on for a year before miners accept sweeping pit closures.

• Oct 12, 1984

Irish Republican Army bombs Thatcher's hotel at Conservative annual conference in Brighton, southern England; she escapes injury but five others killed.

• Dec 16, 1984

Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meets Thatcher; afterwards she calls him a man she "can do business with".

• Dec 19, 1984

Thatcher signs joint declaration to return Hong Kong to China in July 1997.

• June 11, 1987

Thatcher leads Conservatives to third straight term in office.

• Nov 28, 1990

Resigns after revolt among Conservatives.

POST-POLITICS

• June 30, 1992

Takes her place in the upper House of Lords as Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven.

• Feb 5, 1994

Becomes chancellor of College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

• May 1997

Endorses William Hague as he becomes new Conservative leader.

• March 26, 1999

Pays controversial visit to right-wing former Chilean president Augusto Pinochet.

• June 26, 2003

Husband Denis dies.

• June 11, 2004

Attends funeral in Washington for former US president Ronald Reagan.

• Oct 13, 2005

Celebrates 80th birthday with party at chic London hotel with Queen Elizabeth among the guests.

• Oct 14, 2010

Misses her 85th birthday party at Downing Street with flu before being admitted to a hospital with infection.

• December 20, 2012

Admitted to a hospital after procedure to remove growth from her bladder.

• April 8, 2013

Dies aged 87 after a stroke.