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"Margaret Thatcher, the prime-minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 until 1990, died today at the age of 87. Her spokesman, Lord Bell, released a statement in which her son and daughter confirmed the reports of her death. \"It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol Thatcher announced that their mother Baroness Thatcher died peacefully following a stroke this morning.\"\nThatcher was the longest running UK prime minister of the 20th Century and the UK's only female one \u2014 ever. She had been a key figure in British and world history.  London daily The Guardian characterized her as \"the most dominant British prime minister since Winston Churchill in 1940 and a global champion of the late 20th century free market economic revival.\" Even more than 20 years since she left office, Thatcher remained a divisive and influential figure.\nSEE ALSO: This Is How Far North Korea's Missiles Can Reach\n\nHer uncompromising and controversial style was well known and she stayed true to her character until her last day in the office. Here are a couple of exchanges she had with two opposition MP's on her last speech in the House of Commons on 22 November 1990.\n\nAfter her death, in a sign of official mourning, flags at 10 Downing Street, the residence of the UK Prime Minister, were at half mast.\n\nThe current resident of 10 Downing Street, prime minister David Cameron, reacted to her death on Twitter.\n\n\"It was with great sadness that l learned of Lady Thatcher\u2019s death. We've lost a great leader, a great Prime Minister and a great Briton\"\n\u2014 UK Prime Minister (@Number10gov) April 8, 2013\n\n\nPrime Minister David Cameron on the death of Lady Thatcher: \"She didn't just lead our country; she saved our country.\"\n\u2014 UK Prime Minister (@Number10gov) April 8, 2013\n\nReactions from the world quickly followed, with #Thatcher and #IronLady instantly rising to the top of Twitter World Wide Trends. India's Prime Minister expressed his condolences and stressed Thatcher's influence.\n\nPM: \"She was a transformative figure under whom the United Kingdom registered important progress on the national and international arena.\"\n\u2014 Dr Manmohan Singh (@PMOIndia) April 8, 2013\n\nColombia's President Juan Manuel Santos joined in mourning Thatcher. He tweeted in Spanish: \"We mourn the death of the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher. Controversial, brave, with character and Colombia's friend.\" And European Union President linked to a lengthier statement through his Twitter account.\n\nLamentamos la muerte de la Dama de Hierro, Margaret Thatcher. Controvertida, valiente, con car\u00E1cter y amiga de Colombia.\n\u2014 Juan Manuel Santos (@JuanManSantos) April 8, 2013\n\n\nMy regrets on the death of Baroness #Thatcher:bit.ly/12Av3m7\n\u2014 Jos\u00E9 Manuel Barroso (@BarrosoEU) April 8, 2013\n\nIn the United States, President Barack Obama tweeted a quote from the White House official statement, in which he said that \"the world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend.\" And Speaker of the House John Boehner expressed his admiration for the Iron Lady on Twitter. \n\n\"She stands as an example to our daughters that there is no glass ceiling that can\u2019t be shattered.\" \u2014Obama on Margaret Thatcher's passing\n\u2014 Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 8, 2013\n\n\nThere was no secret to Lady Thatcher\u2019s values - hard work &amp; personal responsibility - &amp; no nonsense in her leadership j.mp/10LaFOH\n\u2014 Speaker John Boehner (@SpeakerBoehner) April 8, 2013\n\nEver a divisive figure, politicians and the public alike reacted with passion to her death, defending or attacking her legacy. Daniel Hannan, a British journalist and member of the European Parliament, exalted her accomplishments. \n\nMargaret Thatcher took a country that was demoralized, dishonoured &amp; bankrupt, and left it prosperous, confident &amp; free. Our greatest PM.\n\u2014 Daniel Hannan (@DanHannanMEP) April 8, 2013\n\nRobert Reich, the former Secretary of Labor for the Clinton administration, criticized her conservative views. \n\nMargaret Thatcher famously dismissed the idea of a \"society.\" In her view, nations are composed of individuals with no duties to one other.\n\u2014 Robert Reich (@RBReich) April 8, 2013\n\nPoliticians were obviously not the only ones to react to Thatcher's death. Her importance in defining a whole generation of Britons was underlined by Emily Bell, the former director of digital content for the Guardian and now a professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and by Robert Peston, Business Editor of the BBC.\n\nThatcher politicized all those of us who grew up in the 80s, left and right.\n\u2014 emily bell (@emilybell) April 8, 2013\n\n\nFor my generation, hard to imagine a world without Margaret Thatcher. We still define ourselves by whether we were for or against her\n\u2014 Robert Peston (@Peston) April 8, 2013\n\nAs a bonus, here's Thatcher talking about the Internet.\n\nLead image via Suzanne Plunkett - WPA Pool/Getty Images, image via Oli Scarff/Getty Images\n      window._msla=window.loadScriptAsync||function(src,id){if(document.getElementById(id))return;var js=document.createElement('script');js.id=id;js.src=src;document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0].parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);};\n_msla(\"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\",\"twitter_jssdk\");"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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