as a talented actor and outstanding president.

Ronald

Raegan

• One of the most popular presidents of the 20th century, and one of the most controversial.

This man was a talented actor and a passionate ideologist,

who predicted the need of low taxes, less of governance and

anticommunism. Underestimated by his opponents, he was the

president who preferred to see the USA as a "shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people

everywhere."

• Reagan was born on February 6, 1911 in Tampico, Illinois. When he was nine, his

family moved to Dixon. He worked at various jobs growing up.

He had a very happy childhood.

• Reagan's father was a salesman and a storyteller, the grandson of

Irish Catholic immigrants from County Tipperary,while his mother had Scots and English ancestors. Reagan had one sibling, his older brother, Neil (1908–1996), who became an advertising executive.Reagan's family briefly lived in several towns and cities in Illinois, including Monmouth, Galesburg, and Chicago, in 1919, they returned to Tampico and lived above the H.C. Pitney Variety Store until finally settling in Dixon.He was taught to read by his mother when he was five. He attended local public schools. He then enrolled at Eureka College in Illinois where he played football and made average grades.

• He was a member of the football team, captain of the swim team and was elected student body

president. As student president, Reagan led a student revolt

against the college president after he tried to cut back the

faculty. He graduated in 1932.

Reagan in schoolRonald Reagan, the youth in 1920 Dickson

Ronald Reagan is a rescuer.1927

• After graduating from Eureka in 1932, Reagan drove himself to Iowa,

where he auditioned for a job at many small-town radio stations. The

University of Iowa hired him to broadcast home football games for the Hawkeyes. Soon after, a staff announcer's job opened at radio station WOC in Davenport, and Reagan was hired. Aided by his

persuasive voice he moved to WHO radio in Des Moines as an announcer for Chicago Cubs baseball games.

Reagan on radio

Reagan on radio 1934-37

• While traveling with the Cubs in California,

Reagan took a screen test in 1937 that led to a seven-year contract with Warner

Brothers studios. His first screen credit was the starring role in the 1937 movie

Love Is on the Air, and by the end of 1939 he had already appeared in 19 films, [10] including Dark Victory with Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart. Before the film

Santa Fe Trail with Errol Flynn in 1940, he played the role of George "The Gipper"

Gipp in the film Knute Rockne, All American; from it, he acquired the lifelong nickname "the Gipper". In 1941 exhibitors voted him the fifth most popular star from

the younger generation in Hollywood.

• On January 26, 1940, Reagan married actress

Jane Wyman. They had two children: Maureen (1941) and Michael (1945, adopted). Reagan

and Wyman divorced in June 1948.• Nearly four years later, on March 4, 1952,

Reagan married the woman he would spend the rest of his life with, actress Nancy Davis. Their love for one another was obvious. Even during Reagan's years as president, he would

frequently write her love notes. In October 1952 their daughter Patricia was born and in

May 1958 Nancy gave birth to their son Ronald.

• By 1954, Reagan's film career had slowed down and he was hired by

Gen-eral Electric to host a television program and to make celebrity appearances at GE plants. He spent eight years doing this job, making speeches and learning about people around the country. After actively supporting Nixon's campaign for president in 1960, Reagan switched political parties and offi-cially became a Republican in 1962. In 1966,

Reagan successfully ran for governor of California and served two consecutive terms. Though he was already governor of one of the largest states in the union, Reagan continued to look at the bigger

picture. At both the 1968 and 1974 Republican Na-tional Conventions, Reagan was considered a potential presidential candi-date. For the

1980 election, Reagan won the Republican nomination and successfully ran against incumbent President Jimmy Carter for

president. Reagan also won the 1984 presidential election against Democrat Walter Mondale.

• Only two months after taking office as President of the United States, Reagan was

shot on March 30, 1981 by John W. Hinckley, Jr. outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C.

Hinckley was copying a scene from the movie “Taxi Driver”. He strangely believed that this was going to win him actress Jodie Foster's

love. The bullet barely missed Reagan's heart. Reagan remains well remembered for his good

humor both before and after the surgery to remove the bullet.

• Reagan spent his years as President attempting to cut taxes,

lessen people's reliance on government, and increase national defense. He did all these things. Plus, Reagan met several

times with Russian leader Mikhail Gorba-chev and made the first major move forward in the Cold War when the two agreed to jointly eliminate some of their nuclear weapons. One of the ma-jor issues of Reagan's second administration was the Iran-Contra Scandal. This involved several individuals throughout

the administration. In ex-change for selling arms to Iran, money would be given to the revolutionary Contras in

Nicaragua. The hope was also that by selling arms to Iran, ter-rorist organizations would be willing to give up hostages.

However, Reagan had spoken out that America would never negotiate with terrorists. The revelations of the Iran-Contra scandal caused one of the major scandals of the 1980's.

• In 1983, the U.S. invaded Grenada to rescue threatened

Americans. They were rescued and the leftists were overthrown. After serving two terms as President, Reagan retired. However, he was soon officially

diagnosed with Alzheimer's and instead of keeping his diagnosis secret; he decided to tell the American people

in an open letter to the public on November 5, 1994. Over the next decade, Reagan's health continued to

deteriorate, as did his memory. As the years went on, the disease slowly destroyed Reagan's mental capacity. He was only able to recognize a few people, including his wife, Nancy. He remained active, however; he took walks through parks near his home and on beaches,

played golf regularly, and until 1999 he of-ten went to his office in nearby Century City.

• On February 6, 2001, Reagan reached the age of 90,

becoming the third former president to do so (the other two being John Adams and Herbert Hoover, with Gerald Ford later reaching 90). Reagan's public appearances

became much less frequent with the progression of the disease, and as a result, his family decided that he would

live in quiet semi-isolation with his wife Nancy. Nancy Reagan told CNN's Larry King in 2001 that very few visitors

were allowed to see her husband because she felt that "Ronnie would want people to remember him as he was". Reagan died of pneumonia, complicated by Alzheimer's

disease at his home in Bel Air, California, on the afternoon of June 5, 2004 at the age of 93.

Thank you for your attention.