Under military ruler Leopoldo Galtieri, Argentina invaded the British-held Falkland Islands to reassert its long-standing sovereignty claim and distract from domestic economic crisis. Just over 50 Royal Marines mounted a brief defense before surrendering. The invasion provoked Margaret Thatcher to dispatch a naval task force, leading to a war that killed 649 Argentines and 255 British troops before Argentine forces surrendered on June 14.
At dawn, Argentine special forces came ashore near Mullett Creek on East Falkland, part of a force that would grow to some 10,000 troops against a garrison of fewer than 70 Royal Marines. Governor Rex Hunt read a formal protest over the radio even as his security detail exchanged fire with the invaders outside Government House. By midday the marines had been ordered to lay down arms to avoid needless casualties among the 1,800 islanders.
The operation, codenamed Rosario, was meant to be a quick, low-cost win that would rally Argentines behind a junta drowning in debt and 'Dirty War' scandal. Instead it produced the opposite of what Galtieri intended. Margaret Thatcher, whose government had faced criticism for planning to withdraw the survey ship HMS Endurance, seized on the crisis; within days a task force of over 100 ships was steaming 8,000 miles south.
The war that followed sank the cruiser ARA General Belgrano and the destroyer HMS Sheffield, killed 649 Argentine and 255 British service members, and ended in Argentine surrender on June 14. Galtieri's junta collapsed within days, hastening Argentina's return to democracy, while Thatcher's political fortunes were transformed by victory.