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Ronald Wilson Reagan is born in Tampico, Illinois to Nelle Wilson Reagan and John Edward Reagan
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After a series of moves in rural northern Illinois, the Reagans settle in Dixon, Ill., which Reagan considered his hometown.
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Reagan begins work as a lifeguard at Lowell Park, near Dixon. He was credited with saving 77 lives during the seven summers he worked there.
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Reagan graduates from Dixon High School, where he was student body president and participated in football, basketball, track, and school plays.
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Reagan attends Eureka (Illinois) College, where he majored in economics and sociology. During his sophomore year, Reagan becomes interested in drama. Reagan also serves as student body president.
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Reagan receives a temporary sports broadcasting job with WOC, a small radio station in Davenport, Iowa. After WOC consolidates with WHO in Des Moines, "Dutch" recreates Chicago Cubs baseball games from the studio. WHO, an NBC affiliate, gives Reagan national media exposure.
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Reagan enlists in the Army Reserve as a private but is soon promoted to 2nd lieutenant in the Officers Reserve Corps of the Cavalry. An agent for Warner Brothers "discovers" Reagan in Los Angeles and offers him a seven-year contract.
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Reagan marries actress Jane Wyman, whom he met while making the movie Brother Rat.
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Daughter Maureen is born.
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Reagan is called to active duty by the Army Air Force. He is assigned to the 1st Motion Picture Unit in Culver City, Calif., where he makes over 400 training films.
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The Reagans adopt Michael.
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After the war, Reagan resumes his acting career, which continues for 20 years. Reagan makes 53 motion pictures and one television movie during his career.
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Reagan and Wyman divorce.
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Reagan and movie actress Nancy Davis wed.
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Daughter Patricia (Patti) is born.
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Son Ronald Prescott (Ron) is born.
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Reagan campaigns as a Democrat for Richard Nixon for president
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Reagan makes a tentative run for the presidency, waiting until the Republican National Convention in Miami to announce his candidacy. He later joins in supporting nominee Richard Nixon.
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Reagan is re-elected California governor
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Reagan announces his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president.
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He loses the Republican Party's nomination to Gerald Ford, but a strong showing sets the stage for Reagan's election in 1980. In the meantime, Reagan works on his ranch, gives speeches, does radio commentaries and writes a weekly newspaper column.
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Reagan announces his candidacy for president. After winning the party's nomination, he chooses George Bush as his running mate. The platform calls for "a new consensus with all those across the land who share a community of values embodied in these words: family, work, neighborhood, peace, and freedom."
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Reagan is elected president in a landslide victory over incumbent Jimmy Carter.
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Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as the fortieth president of the United States. Minutes Later, 52 U.S. Hostages In Iran Fly To Freedom After 444-Day Ordeal.
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Reagan sends budget proposal for fiscal year 1982 to Congress. The budget calls for spending $695.3 billion with a projected deficit of $45 billion. It includes funding cuts for 200 programs in addition to those cuts already proposed by President Carter.
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Reagan proposes increased defense spending, and decreased taxes and domestic spending in speech to Congress.
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On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot by John W. Hinkley, Jr., while leaving the Washington Hilton Hotel after giving a speech. The President was hit under his left arm by a bullet that ricocheted off his limousine. Once the sound of shots rang in the air, Secret Service agent Jerry Parr shoved Reagan into his limousine, and then, after noticing the President had been shot, directed the car to the George Washington University Hospital. Press Secretary James Brady, Secret Service Ag
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President Reagan, smiling broadly but walking stiffly, left the hospital to return to the White House yesterday, 12 days after the nation's heart skipped a beat as Americans saw Reagan struck by a bullet that pierced his left lung.
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Reagan nominates Sandra Day O'Connor to fill the seat of retiring Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart, making O'Connor the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court
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Ronald Reagan signs the Economic Recovery Tax Act (ERTA), a historic package of tax and budget reductions that set the tone for his administration’s overall economic polic
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Reagan declares that the United States will produce the B-1 bomber and MX missiles as part of military buildup.
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Reagan states that he will not deploy intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe if the Soviet Union agrees to dismantle similar weapons already in place.
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Reagan imposes economic sanctions on Poland following that government's imposition of martial law
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Reagan calls for “New Federalism” in his State of the Union address, advocating less federal spending and more state initiative to solve social and economic problems
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Reagan becomes the first U.S. President to address the combined Houses of Parliament, taking Britain's side in the Falkland Islands conflict with Argentina.
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Reagan establishes the President's Private Sector Survey on Cost Control through Executive Order 12369
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Reagan visits West Berlin.
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Reagan signs into law a five cents per gallon gasoline tax increase
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In his State of the Union address, Reagan calls for a freeze on domestic spending and increases in military outlays.
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Reagan urges development of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), an attempt to create a high-technology anti-ballistic missile shield to protect the United States from nuclear attack
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President Reagan signs the Social Security Reform Bill into law.
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The U.S. GNP shows dramatic growth for the first quarter of 1983, signaling the end of the recession.
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Reagan nominates Paul Volcker to a second term as head of the Federal Reserve Board
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On October 23, 1983, suicide bombers crashed a truck bearing more than 2,000 pounds of explosives through protective barricades at U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon, Beirut. Since the attack took place early on a Sunday morning, it found most of the troops asleep in their beds. The explosion devastated the compound, collapsing the floors of the building on top of each other, killing 241 U.S. servicemen.
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Reagan delivers State of the Union message, calling on Congress to cooperate to reduce the deficit.
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The Republican Party re-nominates Reagan and Bush for 1984 presidential election.
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Congress and Reagan work out a compromise on the MX missile.
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Reagan is reelected President, defeating Democratic candidate Walter Mondale
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Farm credit crises pose serious a threat to U.S. agriculture. The Reagan administration eases rules on a loan-guarantee program, but rejects provisions for additional funding.
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Reagan signs scientific and cultural exchange accords with the Beijing leadership while on six-day visit to China.
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Reagan attends a wreath-laying ceremony at Bitburg military cemetery in West Germany, the gravesite of 200 German soldiers including 49 members of Adolf Hitler's SS. Responding to criticism of the visit, Reagan visits and lays a wreath at a nearby concentration camp earlier in the day.
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Reagan has a malignant polyp removed from his colon; Vice President Bush serves as acting President for eight hours.
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Reagan signs the Tax Equity & Fiscal Responsibility Act (TEFRA)
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The Reagan administration announces limited economic sanctions against South Africa after the South African government declares martial law.
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Reagan and Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev hold a summit meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. It is the first such meeting between U.S and Soviet heads of state since 1979.
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Reagan signs the Gramm-Rudman deficit reduction bill.
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Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger announces his retirement; Regan elevates Justice William Rehnquist to the position of chief justice and nominates Anthony Scalia as an associate justice.
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Reagan and Gorbachev meet in Reykjavik, Iceland
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Reagan signs a revision of the tax code into law.
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The Democrats win control of Senate, the first time during Reagan's tenure that both houses of Congress are in Democratic hands.
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The White House informs Congress that the United States secretly sold arms to Iran in violation of federal laws prohibiting arms deals with Iran. The administration denies that the sales were part of an attempt to secure the release of American hostages held by Iranian-backed forces.
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The administration admits that between $10 and $30 million had been diverted from Iranian arms sales and funneled to the Nicaraguan contras.
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The Tower Commission is appointed to investigate the Iran-Contra affair. Reagan forgoes any claim of executive privilege and orders his administration to cooperate fully with the investigation. Lawrence Walsh is appointed special prosecutor to investigate criminal wrongdoin
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Congress overrides Reagan's veto of the Water Quality Control Act.
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The Tower Commission releases its report, finding no criminal wrongdoing on the part of the White House but remaining critical of the administration nonetheless
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In televised address, Reagan accepts responsibility for actions in Iran-Contra affair that occurred without his knowledge.
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Gorbachev and Reagan meet in Washington, D.C., and sign the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty
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Congress issues its Iran-Contra report, declaring that Regan must assume “ultimate responsibility” for the affair.
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The administration prohibits federally funded family-planning centers from providing assistance to women seeking abortions.
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Reagan visits the Soviet Union for the first time.
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The Republican Party nominates George H.W. Bush and Dan Quayle for President and vice president.
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Vice President George H.W. Bush is elected President of the United States, defeating Democratic challenger Michael Dukakis.
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Reagan delivers his farewell address
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Reagan leaves office with public opinion casting him as the nation's most popular President since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
