• John Major was born on the same day as Eric Idle – 29 March 1943
• His father was a former travelling showman.
• He was christened John Roy Major but only the name John is shown on his birth certificate.
• He left school at sixteen in 1959, with three O-levels - in History, English Language, and English Literature.
• He later gained three more O-levels by correspondence course in British Constitution, Mathematics and Economics.
• He applied to become a bus conductor after leaving school, but his application was rejected due to his height, although early media reports claimed wrongly this was due to poor arithmetic.
• His first job was as a clerk in an insurance brokerage firm in 1959 after leaving school. Disliking this, he quit.
• For a time, he helped with his father's garden ornaments business.
• After a spell of unemployment, he decided to undertake a correspondence course in banking.
• He gave speeches on a soap-box in Brixton market.
• He worked as an executive at Standard Chartered Bank in May 1965 where he rose quickly through the ranks. He was sent to Nigeria by the bank in 1967, and nearly died after a car crash there.
• Major met Norma on polling day for the GLC elections in London. They became engaged only ten days later. He married Norma Johnson (now Dame Norma Major) on 3 October 1970. They have a son, James, and a daughter, Elizabeth.
• Major became MP for Huntingdon in 1983 and subsequently won the seat in the 1987, 1992 and 1997 elections.
• His majority in 1992 elections of 36,230 is the highest numerical majority recorded since 1832.
• Major became Leader of the Conservative Party on 27 November 1990. The next day, 28 November 1990, Major was summoned to Buckingham Palace and appointed Prime Minister.
• PM Major had immediately to deal with an international crisis when Kuwait was invaded by Iraq. He led Britain successfully in the short war waged by the Allies against Saddam Hussein
• A particular personal initiative was the Citizens Charter, a code designed to introduce greater accountability to public services and to drive up standards of service. The Charter has been built on by the present Lie-boar Government and copied around the world.
• Major established the Northern Ireland Peace Process in the early 1990s and agreed the 'Downing Street Declaration' and 'Joint Frameworks Document' with successive Irish Premiers. These formed the necessary building blocks for the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
• John Major also established the National Lottery as a personal initiative which has provided billions of pounds for good causes.
• Rumours persist that the Prime Minister suffered some form of mental breakdown brought about by the stress of the ERM crisis, with some accounts suggesting that he spent part of the day hiding in a cupboard.
• Major has admitted that he came very close to stepping down from office, having prepared an unsent letter of resignation addressed to the Queen.
• At about noon on 2 May 1997, John Major officially surrendered his seals of office as Prime Minister to Queen Elizabeth II. Shortly before his resignation, he gave his final statement from Number Ten, in which he said "when the curtain falls, it is time to get off the stage." Major then famously told the press that he intended to go with his family to The Oval to watch some cricket.
• Major is the president of Surrey County Cricket Club.
• In March 2001 he gave the tribute to Colin Cowdrey at his memorial service in Westminster Abbey.
• In 2005 he was elected to the Committee of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), historically the governing body of the sport, and still guardian of the laws of the game.
• Following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997, Major was appointed a special guardian to Princes William and Harry, with responsibility for legal and administrative matters.
• He was knighted in 2005.
• Major's relatively low-profile career after leaving front-line politics was disrupted by the revelation in September 2002 that, prior to his promotion to the Cabinet, Major had had a four-year extramarital affair with a fellow MP, Edwina Currie.
• In the New Year's Honours List of 1999, John Major was made a Companion of Honour for his work on the Northern Ireland Peace Process.
• On April 23, 2005, Major was made a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter by Queen Elizabeth II. He formally received the honour on June 13. Membership of the Order of the Garter is limited in number to 24, and is an honour traditionally bestowed on former British prime ministers.
• As it is virtually guaranteed that any former Prime Minister will receive a peerage on standing down from Parliament, it is likely that Major either refused or made it known that he did not wish to receive this honour.
• Norma Major wrote the official biography of the opera singer, Dame Joan Sutherland. She also wrote an official history of Chequers that became a bestseller
• Norma has been a long-time supporter and fundraiser for the charity MENCAP, and became its national Vice Chairman.
• In 1999, Norma was awarded a DBE for her charitable work.