John Major

Sir John Major, born March 29, 1943, in Carshalton, Surrey, served as Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from November 1990 to May 1997, succeeding Margaret Thatcher. His government negotiated British opt-outs from the single currency and the Social Chapter in the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, and led Britain through the 1990 to 1991 Gulf War and the September 1992 currency crisis known as Black Wednesday, when the pound was forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. He won a surprise victory in the 1992 general election but lost by a landslide to Tony Blair's Labour Party in 1997.