UK politicians coin the phrase "May the fourth be with you" to celebrate Margaret Thatcher's election - May 4th, 1979

On this day in 1979, in celebration of Margaret Thatcher’s election victory, members of the Conservative Party took out a newspaper ad proclaiming, “May The Fourth Be With You, Maggie."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that gives a quick look that's something that
happened a long time ago. Today I'm Gay Bluesier, and
today we're exploring the surprising political origins of May the

(00:23):
Fourth Be with You, a nerdy play on words that
took on a life of its own and eventually became
a worldwide holiday, both online and on the day was

(00:43):
May four, nineteen seventy nine. In celebration of Margaret Thatcher's
election victory, members of the Conservative Party took out a
newspaper ad proclaiming, May the Fourth be with you, Maggie, congratulations.
The half page ad ran in the London Evening Times

(01:04):
and marked the first recorded use of the phrase May
the Fourth be with you. Thatcher had just become Britain's
first female prime minister, and for whatever reason, her fellow
Tories thought a Star Wars pun was the best way
to mark the historic occasion for anyone who's never heard
of Star Wars, if there are such people. There's a

(01:26):
concept in the series called the Force, an intangible field
of energy that connects every living thing in the universe.
Characters who are conscious of this energy often use the
phrase may the Force be with you as a way
to wish others good fortune. As you're probably aware, fourth
sounds an awful lot like force, and for geeks, Dad's

(01:49):
and apparently British politicians, that similarity was just too good
to ignore. A silly pun on a movie catchphrase was
an odd way to congradulate Prime Minister Thatcher, especially when
you consider that it wasn't all that topical a reference.
The first Star Wars film had been released two years earlier,

(02:10):
and the second wouldn't hit theaters until nineteen eighty. The
pun's appearance in the London Evening Times is a testament
to the movie's cultural impact even in those very early
days of the franchise. The pun on may the Force
Be with You gain traction with fans in the following years,
but it wouldn't return to national prominence until fifteen years later.

(02:34):
On May fourth, nine four, once again British politicians were
responsible for the usage, though this time it was a
member of the opposition, the Labor Party, who trotted out
the phrase during a parliamentary debate that afternoon, while discussing
the defense budget Harry M. Cohen noted that quote May

(02:56):
the fourth is an appropriate date for a defense debate.
My researcher, who is a bit of a wit, said
that it should be called National Star Wars Day. He
was talking about the film Star Wars rather than President
Reagan's defense fantasy, and he added, May the fourth be
with you. That is a very bad joke. He deserves

(03:16):
the sack for making it, but he is a good researcher.
In case you're wondering, Cohen's jab at President Reagan was
in reference to his Strategic Defense Initiative, a Soviet missile
defense plan that critics had called a reckless Star Wars scheme.
The May the fourth pun finally escaped the realm of

(03:37):
British politics in the mid two thousands when online fan
groups adopted it as the slogan of an unofficial Star
Wars holiday. In eleven, the May fourth celebration made the
jump to the real world when Toronto Underground Cinema in
Canada held a costume contest and film festival in honor

(03:58):
of all things Star Wars. Other fan groups and venues
quickly copied the idea, transforming a corny turn of phrase
into an annual event recognized around the globe. Lucasfilm, the
production company behind Star Wars, never formally recognized the May
the fourth holiday, but that changed in a big way

(04:19):
after Disney bought the rights to Star Wars In the
following year. The Disney marketing machine kicked into hyper drive,
launching a series of movie screenings, theme park firework shows,
and of course, merchandizing deals, my chendizing, my chendizing where
the real money from the movie is may. From that

(04:41):
point on, May the fourth has steadily grown in popularity,
with more and more fans, politicians, and companies joining in
the festivities each year. Even with Disney's backing, May the
Fourth Be with You still wasn't an official holiday, that is,
unti ill twenty nineteen, when the California legislature voted to

(05:03):
officially declare May fourth as Star Wars Day. The resolution
was put forward by Democratic Assemblyman Tom Daily as a
way to recognize the opening of a new Star Wars
themed land at Disneyland and Anaheim. The expansion was expected
to bring in about fourteen million dollars in tax revenue

(05:25):
to the city every year, something that the state legislature
agreed was caused for celebration. May the Fourth Be with
You has gone on a strange journey from being politicized
to corporatized, but at its heart the pun and the
holiday it gave rise to our expressions of love For

(05:45):
a series that's captured the public's imagination for four decades
in County, it's also one of the most warmly received
puns in recent memory. That rare kind of dad joke
that isn't met exclusively with grown. Thankfully, Star Wars continues
to have as little to do with Margaret Thatcher today

(06:06):
as it did in nineteen seventy nine. It's worth noting, though,
that for better or worse, the force was indeed with
Britain's Iron Lady. May fourth, nineteen seventy nine was the
first day of what proved to be the longest continuous
tenure of a British Prime minister since the early eighteen hundreds.

(06:27):
All told, Thatcher served three back to back terms spanning
nineteen seventy nine to nineteen ninety. Whether you agree with
our politics or not, you have to admit that's impressive,
most impressive. I'm gay, bluesier and hopefully you now know

(06:48):
a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
You can learn even more about history by following us
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and if you have any comments or suggestions, you can
always send them my way at this Day at I
heart media dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing

(07:10):
the show, and thank you for listening. I'll see you
back here again tomorrow for another day in History class.