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Born and family
Born-February 6, 1911, Tampico, IL.Jack Reagan, Nelson Wilson Reagan and Neil Reagan. -
School
Enrolling Eureka college in Illinois on an athletic Scholarship, Reagan majored in economizes and sociology. There he played football, ran track, captained the swim team, served as council president and acted in school productions. After graduating in 1932, he found work as a radio sports announcer in law. He graduated from Dixon high school, where he was an athlete. -
Hollywood
In 1937, Reagan signed a seven-year contract with the movie studio Warner Bros. Over the next three decades, he appeared in more than 50 films. Among his best-known roles was that of Noter Dame football star George Gimp in the 1940 biopic Knuth Rockne, All American. Another notable role was in the 1942 film Kings Row, in which Reagan portrays an accident victim who wakes up to discover his legs been amputated. -
Marriages
In 1940, Reagan married actress Jane Lyman, with whom he had a daughter named Maureen and adopted a son, Michael. the couple divorced in 1948. During World War II, Reagan was disqualified from combat duty due to poor eyesight and spent his time in the Army making training films. He left the military ranked as a captain. -
Governorship
Reagan stepped into the national political spotlight in 1964, when he gave a well-revived televised speech for Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, a prominent conservation. Two years later, in his first race for pubic office, Reagan defeated Democratic incubate Edmund "Pat" Brown Sr. by almost one million votes, winning the California governorship. He was reelected to a second term in 1970. -
President Bid
After making unsuccessful Bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 and 1976, Reagan finally received his party's nod in 1980. In that year's general election, he defeated Democrat incumbent President Jimmy Carver, winning the electoral collage (489 to 49) and capturing almost 51 percent of the popular vote. At the age of 69, Reagan was the oldest person elected to the U.S presidency. -
Inauguration
In his inaugural speech on January 20, 1981, Reagan rhetorically announced that " government inst the solution's to our problems; government is the problem.' He called for an era of national reward of hoped that America would again be "a beacon of hope for those who do not have freedom." He and Nancy Reagan also ushered an era of glamour to the White House, with designer fashion and a controversial redecoration of the execution mansion. -
Assassination attempt
On March 30, 1981, as president Reagan was exiting the Washington Hilton Hotel with several of his advisers, shots rang out and quick-thinking Secret Service agents thrust the president into his limousine. Once in the car, aides discovered that he been hit. His assassin, John Hinckley Jr, also shot three other people but non was fatally. At the hospital the doctors discover that the bullet pierced one of his lungs and narrowly missed his heart. -
Domestic agenda
On the domestic front, President Reagan advanced a number of conservative policies. Tax cuts were implemented to stimulate the United States' economy. He also advocated for increases in military spending, reductions in certain social programs and measures to deregulate business. By 1983, the nation's economy had begun to recover and, according to many economists, entered a seven-year period of prosperity. -
1984 reelection
In November 1984, Ronald Reagan was reelected in a landslide, defeating Democratic challenger Walter Mondale. Reagan carried 49 of the 50 U.S. states in the election, and received 525 of 538 electoral votes—the largest number ever won by an American presidential candidate. Yet his second term was tarnished by the Iran-Contra affair, a convoluted "arms-for-hostages" deal with Iran to funnel money toward anti-communist insurgencies in Central America. -
Gorbachev
During his second term, Reagan also forged a diplomatic relationship with the reform-minded Mikhail Gorbachev, chairman of the Soviet Union. In 1987, the Americans and Soviets signed a historic agreement to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles. That same year, Reagan spoke at Germany's Berlin Wall, a symbol of communism, and famously challenged Gorbachev to tear it down. More than two years later, Gorbachev allowed the people of Berlin to dismantle the wall. -
Last year
After leaving the White House in January 1989, Reagan and wife Nancy returned to their home in Los Angeles, California. In 1991, the Ronald W. Reagan Presidential Library and Center for Public Affairs opened in Simi Valley, California. -
Death
On June 5, 2004 93 years old in Los angles.
