RONALD REAGAN
1911 - 2004

From 1981 to 1989 former actor Ronald Wilson Reagan presented the United States as their 40th president. Some say John Wayne should've given a chance as well.

Ronald married actress Nancy Davis in 1952.

Busy actor Ronald also worked as a radio announcer, sport commentator, spokesman for General Electric, and later as governor of California (from 1967 to 1975.)

ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS ON RONALD REAGAN
An assassination attempt was made on March 30, 1981, by John W. Hinckley Jr., who fired six shots from his Rohm RG-12 .22 revolver in 1.8 seconds from fifteen feet away. Reagan survived thanks to his bodyguards and a speedy transport to the hospital. No one was killed in this incident. Hinckley ended up in a mental hospital.

On May 5, 1986, and just minutes before Reagan's arrival at the Tokyo Summit, Japan, five rockets were fired at the meeting site from an apartment two miles away. The Middle Core Faction terrorist group claimed responsibility.

Check out Assassinations in History.

Similar to good ole Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan didn't have much patience for the Communism of the Soviet Union. It took Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost policies to soften Ronald's opinion.

And it looked like this:

GLASNOST IN ACTION
Copyright AP/WWP

Ronald Reagan died of Alzheimer's disease.

Check the US Election Map 1796 - 1968.

Check Governments in History Chart.