Ronald Reagan

Amidst the panic at the hospital after Reagan's assassination attempt, a Secret Service agent was asked information for Reagan's admission forms. The intern asked for Reagan's last name. The agent, who was quite surprised at the question, responded "Reagan". The intern then asked for Reagan's first name. The agent, again surprised, responded "Ronald". The intern didn't look up, instead he unassumingly asked for Reagan's address. The agent paused for a few moments in great surprise before saying "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue". That got the intern's attention.

He was the first president to beat the "zero factor." Before him, every president elected in a year ending in zero (beginning with 1840) had died in office.

RFeagan was of Irish descent. His grandfather Micheal Regan emigrated to the US from Ballyporeen, Ireland, in the 1860s. Ballyporeen, a tiny rural farming town in County Tipperary, is located in the south-central part of the country and its inhabitants are frequently referred to as "Midlanders". The Regans were one of three primary families, or "clans", that populated St. Mary's Parish in the village of Ballyporeen. The Ronald Reagan Visitors Centre was built down the street from St. Mary's Church following his visit to his ancestral home in the mid-1980s. Ironically, the spelling of the family name Regan was changed to Reagan after they arrived in the US.

Younger brother of Neil Reagan (1908-1996).

Reagan was the first "true blue" conservative to win the Republican nomination and be elected President since Calvin Coolidge in 1924.

He never actually broadcast Cubs games, he re-created them from telegraph reports while working for Des Moines radio station WHO in the 1930s. He demonstrated the technique of making it sound like he was actually at the games to Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray when he made a guest appearance during part of a Cubs telecast in the 1980s.

Graduate of Eureka College (1932).

Was a sports announcer in Des Moines, Iowa, before becoming an actor in 1937.

While as an actor he is thought of mostly as a Western/Action-Adventure star, his two best-remembered lines were from straight dramatic roles and delivered while he was flat on his back in bed, his character either dying or horribly crippled: "Win just one more for the Gipper!" in Knute Rockne All American (1940) and "Where's the rest of me?" in Kings Row (1942).

Rumored studio publicity claimed that he was scheduled to play Rick Blaine in Casablanca (1942); however, this was never the case.

As Captain in the U.S. Army, Reagan signed Major Clark Gable's discharge papers in June 1944.

President of the Screen Actors Guild from 1947 to 1952 and 1959-1960.

Only US President to head a labor union (as president of the Screen Actors Guild 1947-1952/1959-1960).

Reagan and Jane Wyman had a daughter Christine who was born June 26, 1947, and lived 9 hours.

Emceed the first PATSY Awards show (1951) where Francis the Talking Mule was the very first winner. PATSY is an acronym for: Picture Animal Top Star of the Year.

William Holden was the best man at his wedding to Nancy Davis in 1952.

He played Chicago Cubs hurler Grover Cleveland Alexander in the film, The Winning Team (1952). He also served temporarily, as a broadcaster for WGN Radio, which broadcasts Cubs baseball games.

For two weeks in 1954, Reagan opened as a stand-up comic at the Ramona Room of the Hotel Last Frontier in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Originally was a very liberal member of the Democratic Party, but eventually converted to the Republican Party in 1962, when he was fifty-one. He gave a highly acclaimed speech in support of Barry Goldwater during the 1964 Presidential election.

Although Reagan did not formally become a Republican until 1962, he never endorsed a Democrat after Helen Gahagan 1950 and voted for Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952. He also actively campaigned for Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election.

Governor of California. Term of service: 2 January 1967 - 6 January 1975.

His first bid for the Presidency was actually in 1968, when he finished 3rd in the balloting at the GOP national convention behind Richard Nixon and Nelson Rockefeller. As the Constitution, in practical terms, forbids the president and vice president from being from the same state (a rule that binds the electoral college), Reagan was not considered for the vice presidency when Spiro Agnew resigned in 1973. Besides, though Reagan supported his fellow Californian Nixon for president, the two were never close. In 1976, he challenged incumbent Gerald Ford (the man whom Nixon appointed Vice President to replace Agnew) for the Republican nomination, won several primaries, but narrowly lost the nomination at the convention. Though Ford confided in people he was considering a run for the presidency in 1980 to forestall Reagan's ascendancy, he never did and Reagan won the nomination and the presidency.

On Tuesday, March 14, 1972, during his second term as governor of California, he expunged the criminal record of country-western singer Merle Haggard, granting him a full pardon.

Was the first guest of honor on the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts, in 1973.

Became the first president to have a state funeral in Washington, D.C. since Lyndon Johnson in 1973.

Was portrayed on "Saturday Night Live" (1975) by at least eight different actors: Chevy Chase, Randy Quaid, Charles Rocket, Harry Shearer, Robin Williams, Joe Piscopo, Phil Hartman, and Kevin Nealon.

Influenced by the Martin Scorsese film Taxi Driver (1976), John Hinckley--the son of a prominent Republican family from Colorado--tried to assassinate Reagan in 1981 in order to impress actress Jodie Foster. Foster had won her first Oscar nomination for the film, in which Robert De Niro's character, "Travis Bickle", tried to assassinate a liberal Democratic presidential candidate to impress Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), the woman he is obsessed with. Hinckley was acquitted by a jury on reasons of insanity and (as of 2010) remains incarcerated in a psychiatric facility.

In 1978, after having served as governor of California but before running for President, Reagan came out against The Briggs Initiative, a ballot initiative introduced by a right-wing Republican state senator named John Briggs, which would have made it illegal for homosexuals to be employed as teachers in the California school system. Reagan strongly and vocally opposed the measure, saying that it infringed upon basic human rights and bordered on being unconstitutional. He is largely credited for turning public opinion against the measure and it was defeated in the election.

The oldest man to serve as US President, being 69 when he was elected in 1980 and 77 when he left office in 1989.

40th president of the United States (20 January 1981 - 20 January 1989).

He hosted Warren Beatty at the White House for a screening of the latter's film Reds (1981). Despite their vast political differences, Reagan and Beatty were old friends as Hollywood actors.

Received more electoral votes than any other president in history, winning by 525 (out of 538) in his 1984 re-election campaign when he racked up 49 of 50 states in beating Jimmy Carter's vice president Walter Mondale.

Reagan and his wife Nancy were close friends of Rock Hudson, whose death in 1985 spurred the President to provide funds for AIDS research.

When Reagan's long-time friend and first Hollywood agent, studio mogul Lew Wasserman, died on 3 June 2002, AP reported that their friendship was the subject of a controversial book called "Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA and the Mob" (1988). The book reviewed the federal investgation into the Reagan- Wasserman relationship and charges that alleged payoffs were made in the 1950s by Wasserman's mammoth MCA agency to Reagan and some of his fellow officers of the Screen Actors Guild. Ultimately, Reagan was cleared in the inquiry.

During the 1980 Presidential campaign, incumbent President Jimmy Carter publicly criticized Reagan for launching his campaign with a speech on states' rights in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the site of the 1964 murder of three civil rights workers immortalized in the film Mississippi Burning (1988). Carter, a former governor of the Deep South state of Georgia who had run as a racial moderate in 1970, noted that the phrase "states' rights" was a code word for segregation, as Southerners opposed to federally mandated integration of the races under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 claimed that such mandates "violated" state laws and local customs and were unconstitutional abrogations of the rights of their states to police themselves. Reagan, who had used his opposition to state equal housing laws to defeat Gov. Edmund G. Brown in the 1965 California governor's race, disavowed any racist intent and the issue was ignored by most voters and pundits.

Was presented with George Gipp's letterman's sweater by the University of Notre Dame football team on January 18, 1989, two days before leaving the White House, and his two-term Vice President, 'George Herbert Walker Bush', became President.

knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, received an honorary British knighthood, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath. This entitled him to the use of the post-nominal letters GCB, but did not entitle him to be known as "Sir Ronald Reagan". [15 June 1989]

Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1989.

He was offered, a role, in animation, of a guest appearance and an off screen voice, on "The Simpsons" (1989), but refused their offer.

His famous nickname "The Great Communicator", was not earned but was requested. Reagan asked for it during his farewell address in 1989.

After his presidency he and Nancy Davis moved to 666 St. Cloud Road in Bel Air, California which Ronald lived in until his death. Nancy had the address changed from 666 to 668 due to the fact 666 is known as the devil's number. The house is down the street from 805 St. Cloud Road, the house used in the TV show "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" (1990).

Erroneously attributed the "Ten Cannots" to Abraham Lincoln during the 1992 Republican National Convention ("You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong, etc.") Lincoln has been widely and inaccurately credited with the list, but it was actually written by Rev. William J.H. Boetcker in 1916, over 60 years after Lincoln's assassination. Maryland Lieutenant Governor (and future RNC chairman) Michael Steele made the same mistake during his speech to the 2004 Republican Convention.

His last public appearance was at Richard Nixon's funeral in April 1994.

Continued to play golf with several friends including Bob Hope and Kevin Costner until 1996.

In the film, American Beauty (1999), the Fitts family (Chris Cooper, Allison Janney and Wes Bentley) can be seen watching one of Reagan's wartime films, This Is the Army (1943).

Daughter--with first wife Jane Wyman--Maureen Reagan died on Wednesday, August 8, 2001, of malignant melanoma (skin cancer) at her Sacramento, California, home.

On Thursday, October 11th, 2001, he became the oldest ex-president in U. S. history, surpassing the previous record-holder, of John Adams.

Underwent hip replacement surgery in January 2001.

Awarded the United States Congressional Gold Medal for ending the "Cold War" against Russia, along with his wife Nancy Davis, for fighting substance abuse among American youths. [May 16th 2002]

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 446-452. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007.

A month after his death, items from his burial and week-long public viewing were selling fast on the online auction site eBay. The company has sold 780 pieces of Reagan funeral memorabilia since June 11, 2004, for a total of $66,000. The items range from programs (sold for up to $1,525 each) from the interment at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, CA, to gratitude cards given to mourners who visited his casket.

Pictured on a 60¢ memorial postage stamp issued by the Republic of the Marshall Islands 4 July, 2004, the first memorial to be issued in his honor.

Pictured on a USA 37¢ commemorative postage stamp issued 9 February 2005. When the first-class letter rate was raised to 39¢ in January 2006, the US Postal Service received an unprecedented number of requests to reissue the stamp at the higher value. The 39¢ postage stamp was issued on 14 June 2006, using the same design as the earlier stamp.

At the time of his death he was the longest-living President of the United States, at age 93 years and 120 days. This record was broken by former President Gerald Ford on Monday, November 12, 2006. Their age difference, in days alone, was only 45 days. Reagan's lifetime lasted 34,088 days, and Ford's lasted 34,133 days.

To date (2009), first (and only) divorced US President (from Jane Wyman in 1948).

Pictured on a nondenominated 'forever' USA commemorative postage stamp issued 10 February 2011, four days after the 100th anniversary of his birth. The original issue price was 44¢.

Inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2011.