Margaret Thatcher Dead at 87

Margaret Thatcher suffered a stroke and died this morning at the age of 87, the BBC reports. "It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol Thatcher announce that their mother, Baroness Thatcher, died peacefully," spokesman Lord Bell said in a statement today. Thatcher was Britain's first woman prime minister, holding the job from 1979 to 1990. A staunch conservative known as the "Iron Lady," she privatized several previously state-owned industries and presided over the 1982 Falklands war with Argentina.

"It was with great sadness that l learned of Lady Thatcher’s death," David Cameron tweeted. "We've lost a great leader, a great Prime Minister and a great Briton." Buckingham Palace announced that Queen Elizabeth, too, was saddened to hear of Thatcher's passing, and would send a private message to her family, according to the Guardian. Thatcher hasn't been heard from much since an earlier series of mini-strokes in 2002. You can read the full BBC obituary here, while the New York Times has dug up a charming piece from last year about Thatcher's home town. (More Margaret Thatcher stories.)