Biography of President Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6, 1911 and died on June 5, 2004. He was the 40th President of the United States having served from 1981 to 1989 and the 33rd Governor of California serving from 1967 until 1975.

Reagan was born in Illinois and moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s where he was an actor and later president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and then a spokesman for General Electric (GE). He started working in politics while with GE where he was originally a member of the Democratic Party until he switched to the Republican Party in 1962, at the age of 51. After delivering a speech in suppoert of Goldwater's presidential candidacy in 1964, members of the Republican Party persuaded him to run for California's governorship. He won two years later and again in 1970.

In 1968 and 1976, Reagan ran for the Republican presidential nomination failing both times. In 1980, he finally won the nomination and the presidency.

During his presidency, Reagan implemented new political and economic strategy. For economics, "Reaganomics" came about which included deregulation and substantial tax cuts to high-income earners in 1981. During his first term, he survived an assassination attempt, ordered military actions in Grenada, and stood against organized labor. In 1984, he was reelected by a landlide. His second term was dominated by foreign relations with the bombing of Libya, the ending of the Cold War, revelation of the Iran-Contra affair, and a massive military buildup in an arms race against the USSR. He supported anti-Communist movements worldwide and then finally negotiated with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev for a decrease in both countries nuclear arsenals.

Once Reagan left office, he disclosed that he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. He died ten years later at the age of 93.

Also check out Ronald Reagan quotes