13th October: Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher was born on this date in 1925. She would have been 90 today. Love her or hate her, she certainly made history. She was the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th century and is the only woman to have held the office. Update: until Teresa May.

1. At school, she was a hard worker and her extracurricular activities included the Piano, field hockey, poetry recitals, swimming and walking. She was head girl in 1942–1943.
2. She applied for a scholarship to study chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, but she was initially rejected and was offered a place only after another candidate withdrew. She graduated in 1947 with Second-Class Honours in the four-year Chemistry Bachelor of Science degree, specialising in X-ray crystallography.
3. Being the first Prime Minister with a science degree was more a source of pride than being the first woman Prime Minister in her eyes.
4. In 1948 she applied for a job at ICI, but was rejected after the personnel department assessed her as "headstrong, obstinate and dangerously self-opinionated".
5. One of her University friends was also a friend of the Chair of the Dartford Conservative Association in Kent, which led to her being selected as the Conservative candidate for Dartford, a safe Labour seat. Officials were so impressed by her that they chose her even though she wasn't on the approved list. It was at the dinner celebrating her selection that she first met Denis Thatcher, a wealthy divorced businessman. He gave her a lift to the train station afterwards.
6. While campaigning in Dartford, her day job was research chemist for J. Lyons and Co. in Hammersmith, part of a team developing emulsifiers for Ice cream.
7. Thatcher's maiden speech was in support of her private member's bill (Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960), requiring local authorities to hold their council meetings in public.
8. In 1970, people were already predicting that Margaret Thatcher would be Prime Minister one day. She didn't share their opinion, and said, "There will not be a woman prime minister in my lifetime—the male population is too prejudiced."
9. In February 2007, Thatcher became the first living British Prime Minister to be honoured with a statue in the Houses of Parliament. The bronze statue stands opposite that of Sir Winston Churchill. Thatcher was at the unveiling ceremony and made a brief speech saying: "I might have preferred Iron — but bronze will do ... It won't rust."
10. Margaret Thatcher had her own coat of arms, granted to her when she became a baroness. It features two Lions, a key, a portcullis, a navy admiral and Sir Isaac Newton. The motto is "Cherish Freedom".