Thatcher Born: Britain's Iron Lady Enters the World
Margaret Thatcher came from Grantham, the daughter of a grocer. She became a research chemist, then a barrister, then a politician. She led the Conservative Party at a time when nobody expected a woman to do it, became Prime Minister in 1979, and spent eleven years dismantling the postwar consensus — nationalised industries privatised, union power broken, council houses sold. Her supporters called it liberation. Her opponents called it an attack on the working class. Both were partly right. She resigned in 1990, in tears, after her own Cabinet withdrew its support.
October 13, 1925
101 years ago
What Else Happened on October 13
Nero ascends the throne after Claudius dies from poison, sidelining the emperor's biological son Britannicus. This succession shift unleashes a decade of brutal…
Claudius died at dinner after eating mushrooms. He was 63. His wife Agrippina probably poisoned him — she'd married him five years earlier to position her son N…
Vandals and Alans breached the Pyrenees on this day, ending Roman administrative control over the Iberian Peninsula. This migration fractured the Western Empire…
Westminster Abbey's current building was consecrated on October 13, 1269, after 23 years of construction. Henry III had demolished the old Norman church to buil…
King Philip the Fair ordered the arrest of hundreds of Knights Templar across France at dawn, crushing a powerful military order that had long held vast wealth …
King Philip IV of France ordered sealed arrest warrants opened simultaneously across the country at dawn on Friday, October 13, 1307. Hundreds of Knights Templa…
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