RONALD REAGAN BORN IN ILLINOIS
Tampico, Illinois (JFK+50) The 40th President of the United States, Ronald Wilson Reagan, was born here in Tampico on February 6, 1911. Having defeated Jimmy Carter in the Election of 1980, Ronald Reagan was sworn in as President on January 20, 1981.
Surviving an assassination attempt early in his first term, Reagan was re-elected in 1984 and despite being the "oldest President", he completed two terms of office. Much like President John F. Kennedy before him, President Reagan helped restore national pride and one of his greatest speeches came at the Berlin Wall where he said..
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."
Mr. Reagan graduated from Eureka University and began a career in sports radio broadcasting and then entered the motion picture industry when he was signed to a 7 year contract with Warner Brothers in 1937. He would appear in fifty films in his career and serve as president of the Screen Actors Guild.
Divorced from his 1st wife, Jane Wyman, he married actress Nancy Davis in 1952. She became his closest confidante. President Reagan died at the age of 93 on June 5, 2004.
President Ronald Reagan
Berlin, West Germany
