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'Iron Lady' Margaret Thatcher Dies at 87

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Credit: The White House (Image credit: The White House)

One of the world's most powerful women leaders, former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher died of a stroke Monday morning (April 8).

"It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol Thatcher announced that their mother Baroness Thatcher died peacefully following a stroke this morning," said Lord Bell as reported by BBC News.

Born Margaret Roberts, the original "Iron Lady" had a hand in the fall of Communism, pushed her Conservative policies unabashedly and even survived an IRA bomb attack, raising two kids all the while.

In 2008, her daughter disclosed that the former prime minister was suffering from Alzheimer's disease; In 2011, Meryl Streep's portrayal of a frail Thatcher in the film "The Iron Lady" drew fire from friends and supporters, the Wall Street Journal reported at the time.

Follow us @livescience, Facebook& Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

Jeanna Bryner
Managing editor, Scientific American

Jeanna Bryner is managing editor of Scientific American. Previously she was editor in chief of Live Science and, prior to that, an editor at Scholastic's Science World magazine. Bryner has an English degree from Salisbury University, a master's degree in biogeochemistry and environmental sciences from the University of Maryland and a graduate science journalism degree from New York University. She has worked as a biologist in Florida, where she monitored wetlands and did field surveys for endangered species, including the gorgeous Florida Scrub Jay. She also received an ocean sciences journalism fellowship from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She is a firm believer that science is for everyone and that just about everything can be viewed through the lens of science.

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