November 22, 1990: Margaret Thatcher Is Fired By Her Own Party

November 22, 1990: Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of Great Britain, and Leader of its Conservative Party, is forced out of power by that Party. It was a stunning development, and a very personal one directed at the country's 1st female head of government, and its longest-serving Prime Minister of the modern era.

She had led the Conservatives, a.k.a. the "Tories," to victory in the general elections of 1979, 1983 and 1987, each time with a solid mandate. She introduced a series of economic policies intended to reverse high inflation and Britain's economic struggles. And she led the country to victory over Argentina in the Falkland Islands War in 1982.

But she divided the country over her  reducing the power and influence of trade unions, and her seeming indifference to the suffering of Catholics in Northern Ireland. She eventually fell to 40 percent, the 2nd-lowest average approval rating of any post-war Prime Minister. A self-described conviction politician, "The Iron Lady" always insisted that she did not care about her poll ratings, and pointed instead to her unbeaten election record.

In December 1989, Thatcher was challenged for the leadership of the Conservative Party by the little-known backbench MP Sir Anthony Meyer. She won it easily. But opinion polls in September 1990 reported that the Opposition Labour Party had established a 14 percent lead over the Conservatives.

On November 13, 1990, Geoffrey Howe, her former Foreign Secretary, and by then the last remaining member of Thatcher's original 1979 cabinet, resigned as Deputy Prime Minister. On November 14, Michael Heseltine, Secretary of State for Defence from 1983 to 1986, mounted a challenge for the leadership of the Conservative Party. Opinion polls had indicated that he would give the Conservatives a national lead over Labour.

Although Thatcher led on the first ballot with the votes of 204 Conservative MPs to 152 for Heseltine, with 16 abstentions, she was four votes short of the required 15 percent majority. A second ballot was therefore necessary. Thatcher initially declared her intention to "fight on and fight to win" the second ballot, but consultation with her cabinet persuaded her to withdraw.

After holding an audience with the nation's head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, calling other world leaders, and making one final Commons speech, she announced her resignation on November 22. She officially left 10 Downing Street in tears on November 28. She reportedly regarded her ousting as a betrayal.

John Major, Thatcher's Chancellor of the Exchequer (equivalent to the Secretary of the Treasury in the U.S.), replaced Thatcher as head of government and party leader, whose lead over Heseltine in the second ballot was sufficient for Heseltine to drop out. Major oversaw an upturn in Conservative support in the 17 months leading to the 1992 general election, and led the party to a 4th successive victory.

Thatcher remained in the House of Commons until 1992, was created Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven, and served in the House of Lords until her death.

America and Britain are different. In 2004, when Thatcher's great international partner, former President Ronald Reagan, died, America's liberals held their tongues for a week, until the funeral, not talking about the damage Reagan had done. On April 8, 2013, when Thatcher died, half of Britain was deeply saddened, and the other half cheered.

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November 22, 1990 was a Thursday. In America, it was Thanksgiving Day. Britain does not celebrate that holiday, although many people throughout the United Kingdom were thankful that Thatcher was out.

The NFL had its usual 2 games. The Detroit Lions beat the Denver Broncos, 40-27 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan. And the Dallas Cowboys beat their arch-rivals, the Washington Redskins, 27-17 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

There was 1 game in college football, and it wasn't a traditional rivalry: South Carolina beat West Virginia, 29-10 at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina.

Baseball was out of season. No games were scheduled in the NBA. There were 2 games in the NHL. The New York Islanders beat the Winnipeg Jets, 3-1 at the Nassau Coliseum. And the Calgary Flames beat the Los Angeles Kings, 6-3 at the Saddledome in Calgary.