Argentina invades the Falkland Islands.

The Falkland Islands were first settled by the French – in 1764 Louis Antoine de Bougainville established a settlement there. The British turned up some time later, but left in 1774. They did leave a note saying not to touch them, however, because they belonged to King George.

By the time the British did return in 1833, Argentina had claimed the islands, and had stationed a garrison there to back this up. But they were booted out, and the islands have been in British hands ever since.

Well, apart from 74 days in 1982.

In the 1980s, Argentina was having a few political and economic problems. The 1976 coup had left a military junta in charge. But by the early ’80s, it was becoming increasingly unpopular, with a collapsing economy, rampant inflation, and government death squads ‘disappearing’ thousands of political opponents.

To divert the public’s attention from all the unpleasantness, General Leopoldo Galtieri decided to whip up a bit of nationalistic fervour by reclaiming the ‘Malvinas’ for the motherland.

And so, on 2 April 1982, 3,000 Argentinian troops landed, quickly put an end to the resistance of the 80 or so Royal Marines, and raised the Argentinian flag over Government House.

But if Argentina thought Britain would just give up their remote windswept possession 8,000 miles away, they were wrong. Mrs Thatcher, her own popularity waning, decided to fight back.

A naval task force was dispatched within days. Vulcan bombers flew raids from Ascension Island, 4,000 miles away, in an attempt to put the Port Stanley airport out of action. Harrier jump jets played a starring role. Foreign correspondents made their names.

The bitter war lasted just ten weeks. By 14 June, it was all over. Britain had retaken the islands. Over 900 people were dead.

Argentina invades the Falkland Islands.

Argentine amphibious forces rapidly overcame the small garrison of British marines at the town of Stanley on East Falkland and the next day seized the dependent territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich group. The 1,800 Falkland Islanders, mostly English-speaking sheep farmers, awaited a British response.

The Falkland Islands, located about 300 miles off the southern tip of Argentina, had long been claimed by the British. British navigator John Davis may have sighted the islands in 1592, and in 1690 British Navy Captain John Strong made the first recorded landing on the islands. He named them after Viscount Falkland, who was the First Lord of the Admiralty at the time. In 1764, French navigator Louis-Antoine de Bougainville founded the islands’ first human settlement, on East Falkland, which was taken over by the Spanish in 1767. In 1765, the British settled West Falkland but left in 1774 for economic reasons. Spain abandoned its settlement in 1811.

In 1816 Argentina declared its independence from Spain and in 1820 proclaimed its sovereignty over the Falklands. The Argentines built a fort on East Falkland, but in 1832 it was destroyed by the USS Lexington in retaliation for the seizure of U.S. seal ships in the area. In 1833, a British force expelled the remaining Argentine officials and began a military occupation. In 1841, a British lieutenant governor was appointed, and by the 1880s a British community of some 1,800 people on the islands was self-supporting. In 1892, the wind-blown Falkland Islands were collectively granted colonial status.

For the next 90 years, life on the Falklands remained much unchanged, despite persistent diplomatic efforts by Argentina to regain control of the islands. In 1981, the Falkland Islanders voted in a referendum to remain British, and it seemed unlikely that the Falklands would ever revert to Argentine rule. Meanwhile, in Argentina, the military junta led by Lieutenant General Leopoldo Galtieri was suffering criticism for its oppressive rule and economic management, and planned the Falklands invasion as a means of promoting patriotic feeling and propping up its regime.

In March 1982, Argentine salvage workers occupied South Georgia Island, and a full-scale invasion of the Falklands began on April 2. Under orders from their commanders, the Argentine troops inflicted no British casualties, despite suffering losses to their own units. Nevertheless, Britain was outraged, and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher assembled a naval task force of 30 warships to retake the islands. As Britain is 8,000 miles from the Falklands, it took several weeks for the British warships to arrive. On April 25, South Georgia Island was retaken, and after several intensive naval battles fought around the Falklands, British troops landed on East Falkland on May 21. After several weeks of fighting, the large Argentine garrison at Stanley surrendered on June 14, effectively ending the conflict.

Britain lost five ships and 256 lives in the fight to regain the Falklands, and Argentina lost its only cruiser and 750 lives. Humiliated in the Falklands War, the Argentine military was swept from power in 1983, and civilian rule was restored. In Britain, Margaret Thatcher’s popularity soared after the conflict, and her Conservative Party won a landslide victory in 1983 parliamentary elections.