Historical Figure
Ronald Reagan
1911–2004
President of the United States from 1981 to 1989
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Biography
Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. A member of the Republican Party, he became an important figure in the American conservative movement. The period encompassing his presidency is known as the Reagan era.
In Their Own Words (5)
Balancing the budget is like protecting your virtue , you have to learn how to say no.
Interview, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on 01/03/1975 as shown on YouTube The Tonight Show video , 1975
Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.
Joke during his 1965 campaign for Governor of California, as quoted by Leo E. Litwak in The New York Times Magazine (14 November 1965), p. 174. , 1965
We can't help everyone but everyone can help someone
Sometimes attributed to Reagan, but the earliest citation attributes the saying to Dr Loretta Scott, 1,600 Quotes & Pieces of Wisdom That Just Might Help You Out When You're Stuck in a Moment (2003), p. 41 , 2003
Thomas Jefferson made a comment about the Presidency and age. He said that one should not worry about one's exact chronological age in reference to his ability to perform one's task. And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying.
Remarks at the Annual Salute to Congress Dinner (4 February 1981) , 1981
One legislator accused me of having a nineteenth-century attitude on law and order. That is a totally false charge. I have an eighteenth-century attitude. That is when the Founding Fathers made it clear that the safety of law-abiding citizens should be one of the government's primary concerns.
Address to the Republican State Central Committee Convention (7 September 1973) , 1973
Timeline
The story of Ronald Reagan, told in moments.
Moves to California. Becomes an actor. Not a great one, but a working one. 53 films. He plays cowboys, soldiers, college football players. Serves as president of the Screen Actors Guild twice. Learns how to lead by running a union. Shifts from Democrat to Republican in the 1950s.
Gives "A Time for Choosing," a nationally televised speech supporting Barry Goldwater. Goldwater loses in a landslide. Reagan's political career begins. Two years later he's governor of California. The actor who couldn't get a leading role finds one in politics.
Shot outside the Washington Hilton by John Hinckley Jr. The bullet lodges an inch from his heart. He walks into the ER under his own power. "Honey, I forgot to duck," he tells Nancy. To the surgeons: "I hope you're all Republicans." He is 70 years old. He survives.
Stands at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin. "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." His own State Department tries to cut the line. He keeps it in. Two years later the wall falls. He negotiates the INF Treaty, eliminating an entire class of nuclear weapons. The Cold War thaws.
Writes a handwritten letter to the American people disclosing his Alzheimer's diagnosis. "I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life." He disappears from public view. Nancy cares for him for a decade.
Dies at 93 in Bel Air, Los Angeles. Pneumonia, complicated by Alzheimer's. His body lies in state at the Capitol. The national debt tripled during his presidency. The Soviet Union collapsed two years after he left office. The arguments about which fact matters more have never stopped.
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