Baroness Thatcher, Britain’s Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990 has died of a stroke.

Margaret Thatcher was recognised for her achievements in making Britain a performer on the world’s economic stage, her defiant 1981 military conflict with Argentina over the Falkland Islands and her role in cold war international relations.

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In 1975 Mrs Thatcher became the first woman to head a major United Kingdom political party and four year later she was elected Prime Minister, another first for a woman.

While she supported the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the ’60s, her government introduced the controversial Clause 28 in 1988 which stopped the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities.

Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference in 1987, Baroness Thatcher highlighted in her speech her concern about “positive images” of gay people saying, “Children are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay.”

The law was repealed in Scotland in 2000 and in England in 2003. In 2009 David Cameron apologised on behalf of the party.

Margaret Thatcher was portrayed by Meryl Streep in the film ‘The Iron Lady’.

OIP Staff

UPDATED: 8:58pm: Additional information added.