Margaret Thatcher was born 100 years ago
Margaret Thatcher, often known as the 'Iron Lady', became the first female British Prime Minister when she won the general election in 1979. She stayed in office until 1990, the longest to hold the role for over 150 years.
She died in April 2013 at The Ritz Hotel in London.
To mark the centenary of her birth on October 13, we have curated a selection of photos from The Associated Press archive.
Margaret Thatcher, the newly-appointed Joint Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance, talks with Minister John Boyd Carpenter, as she begins her new job, Oct. 12, 1961, in London, England. (AP Photo/Robert Dear)
Margaret Thatcher, addresses a Young Conservatives conference at Eastbourne, England on Feb. 8, 1975. (AP Photo/Robert Dear)
Margaret Thatcher addresses the press in February 1975 after she was elected leader of Britain’s opposition Conservative Party and also becoming the first woman to lead a British political party. (AP Photo)
Margaret Thatcher, British Conservative Party leader speaks to the press in New York, on Sept. 8, 1977. (AP Photo/Carlos Rene Perez)
Britain’s Leader of the Conservative Party, Margaret Thatcher admires twelve-month-old calf “Lady Maggie” at Willisham Farm near Ipswich, England, April 18, 1979, during her nationwide election campaign tour. (AP Photo/Robert Dear)
Margaret Thatcher, leader of Britain’s Conservative Party, arrives in Scotland by helicopter on April 25, 1979. (AP Photo)
Margaret Thatcher holds a large fake key to 10 Downing Street over her head, helped by party workers, in London, on April 30, 1979. (AP Photo/Robert Dear)
Britain's Margaret Thatcher waves in celebration at Conservative Party Headquarters in London in the early hours of May 4, 1979, after winning the General Election. At right is her son Mark Thatcher. (AP Photo/Robert Dear)
Britain's Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher waves as she arrives at 10 Downing Street, London, on May 4, 1979, with her husband Denis, right. Thatcher led her party to victory in the General Election and was asked to form a new government. (AP Photo/Robert Dear)
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher leaves her official 10 Downing Street residence in London, April 14, 1982, for an emergency session of Parliament on the Falklands crisis. (AP Photo/Robert Dear)
President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, pictured June 23, 1982, at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo)
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher crouches down to get an eye level view of one of the displays when she visited a supermarket at Finchley in north London, on May 22, 1983. (AP Photo/Peter Kemp)
Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her husband, Denis, leave the Castle Lane, Polling Station, in Westminster, London on June 9, 1983, after casting their votes in the General Election. (AP Photo/John Redman)
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher poses with her husband, Denis, on the steps of Number 10 Downing St., London on June 10, 1983, following her victory, returning her to Parliament for a second term of office. (AP Photo/Peter Kemp)
Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher listens closely to a delegate’s speech, during a debate on law and order, on the first day of the annual Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool, England, Oct. 12, 1983. (AP Photo/Dave Caulkin)
Britain’s Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, launches the European Parliament election campaign on behalf of the Conservative Party, at their headquarters in London, on May 21, 1984. (AP Photo/Dave Caulkin)
A gaping hole in the fifth floor level in the facade of the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England on Oct. 12, 1984, following a bomb explosion. Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and most of her 22 member Cabinet were staying at the hotel for their party's conference. (AP Photo/Dave Caulkin)
Jacques Delors, European Commission President, Canada’s Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, U.S. President Ronald Reagan, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, host West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, French President Francois Mitterrand, and Italy’s Prime Minister Bettino Craxi, pose in the garden of Palais Schaumburg in Bonn, for the official family group shot of the Economic Summit, on May 3, 1985. (AP Photo)
A denouncement of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, painted on a wall of the Harland and Wolf shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1985. (AP Photo/Peter Kemp)
Demonstrators in London, England take part in a rally in support of the strike of mine workers in February 1985. (AP Photo/John Redman)
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher stands in a British tank during a visit to British forces in Fallingbostel, south of Hamburg, Germany, on Sept. 17, 1986. (AP Photo/Jockel Fink)
Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev is engaged in a conversation with Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at a reception held at the Kremlin on March 30, 1987. (AP Photo/Boris Yurchenko)
Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher take time out from her hectic election campaign on May 31, 1987, in St. James Park, London, to pour a drink for her and husband Denis. (AP Photo/Dave Caulkin)
Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher tries her hand with a television camera, during a visit to her constituency of Finchley, London, on the day of the General Election, on June 11, 1987. (AP Photo/Dave Caulkin)
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher waves to supporters from the Conservative Party headquarters in London after claiming victory in Britain's General Election, on June 12, 1987. (AP Photo/Gerald Penny)
Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher holds up an “I Love Maggie” T-shirt for sale on a stall at the Conservative Party Conference, in Blackpool, England, on Oct. 7, 1987. (AP Photo/Dave Caulkin)
U.S. President George Bush and Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher raise their glasses in a toast during a banquet at 10 Downing Street, in London, on June 2, 1989. (AP Photo/Doug Mills)
An anti-Poll Tax (Community Charge) protester faces police in riot gear in London's Trafalgar Square on March 31, 1990. (AP Photo/Martyn Hayhow)
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is driven through the gates of Buckingham Palace after seeing Queen Elizabeth II in London, on Nov. 22, 1990. She told the Queen about her decision to resign as soon as the Conservative Party elects a new leader. (AP Photo/Malcolm Linton)
Margaret Thatcher makes a statement to reporters as she leaves No. 10 Downing Street, Westminster on Nov. 28, 1990 for Buckingham Palace where she will resign as Prime Minister, in a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II. (AP Photo/Martin Cleaver)
Floral tributes and memorabilia, seen outside the house of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who died from a stroke at the age of 87, in London, April 8, 2013. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)
Text and photo curation by Katherine O'Mara