In 1989, on this day, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher finally succumbed to pressure from Cabinet colleagues and resigned from her post. Thatcher had served three consecutive terms until an unprecented run of government crises in the late 1980 had made her position untenable. The stock market crashed and poll tax riots had been just two of the events in a traumatic year of spasms. Violent fast-moving change was racing across the Western democracies and the end of capitalism was in sight. The reinvigorated Soviet Union under the decisive leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev was on the march, and already people were talking about 'the end of history'.