Ronald Reagan was one of the most popular US presidents of the 20th century. He was born in 1911 in Illinois and had a background as both an actor and politician. As president from 1981-1989, Reagan advocated for lower taxes and less government spending while increasing defense spending. He had a strong anti-communist stance and worked to improve relations with the Soviet Union. Reagan was shot in an assassination attempt in 1981 but recovered and served two full terms as president.

2. • 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."

3. 
• 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.

4. 
• 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.

5. 
• 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.

6. 
• 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.

7. 
• 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.

8. 
• 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.

9. 
• 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.

10. 
• 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.

11. 
• 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.

12. 
• 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.

13. 
• 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.

14. 
Thank you for
your attention.