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James M. Beggs

James M. Beggs

James Montgomery Beggs (born January 9, 1926) served as the 6th Administrator of NASA. Nominated by President Reagan on June 1, 1981, Beggs took his oath of office and entered the post on July 10, 1981, serving until December 4, 1985. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Beggs was a 1947 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and served with the United States Navy until 1954. In 1955, he received a master's degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. Prior to his appointment as NASA Administrator, Beggs had been Executive Vice President and a director of General Dynamics Corp. in St. Louis, Missouri. Previously he had served with NASA in 1968-1969 as Associate Administrator, Office of Advanced Research and Technology. From 1969 to 1973, he was Under Secretary of Transportation. He went to Summa Corp. in Los Angeles, California, as Managing Director, Operations and joined General Dynamics in January 1974. Before joining NASA, he had been with Westinghouse Electric Corporation in Sharon, Pennsylvania and Baltimore, Maryland for thirteen years. Beggs served as NASA Administrator until December 1985, when he took an indefinite leave of absence pending disposition of an indictment for contract fraud from the U.S. Justice Department for activities alleged by the Defense Department to have taken place prior to his tenure at NASA. This indictment was later dismissed, and the U.S. Attorney General apologized to Mr. Beggs for any embarrassment. William Graham, the Deputy Administrator, took over as Acting Administrator until the appointment of James C. Fletcher to a second turn as Administrator. Beggs married Mary Harrison, and they had five children. Since leaving NASA, Beggs has worked as a consultant from his offices in Bethesda, Maryland. He has been involved with the NASA Alumni League and the Potomac Institute.

References


- Portions of this article are based on public domain text from [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Biographies/beggs.html NASA]. Beggs, James M. Beggs, James M.

1926

1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January-April


- January 1 - Ireland's first regular radio service, 2RN (later Radio Éireann), begins broadcasting.
- January 1, Turkey switches to the Gregorian calendar after reforms set by Kamal Ataturk
- January 8 - Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud is crowned King of Hejaz
- January 12 - Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll premiere their radio program Sam 'n' Henry, in which the two white performers portrayed two black characters from Harlem looking for extra money during the Depression. It was a precursor to Gosden and Correll's more popular later program, Amos 'n' Andy.
- January 16 – BBC radio play about worker's revolution causes a panic in London
- January 26 - John Logie Baird demonstrates a mechanical television system.
- January 31 - British and Belgian troops leave Cologne
- February 9 - Flooding on London suburbs
- February 12 - Irish minister for Justice, Kevin O'Higgins, appoints the Committee on Evil Literature
- March 6 - The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon is destroyed by fire
- March 16 - Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts
- April 7 - Failed assassination attempt against Mussolini
- April 12 - By a vote of 45 to 41, the United States Senate unseats Iowa Senator Smith W. Brookhart and seats Daniel F. Steck, after Brookhart had already served for over one year.
- April 16 - Train crash in San Jose, Costa Rica - 178 dead
- April 21 - Princess Elizabeth born in London
- April 25 - Reza Khan is crowned Shah of Iran under the name "Pahlevi."

May-July


- May 1 - Coal miner's strike begins in Britain
- May 3 - General strike begins in support of the coal strike
- May 9 - Martial law in Britain because of the general strike
- May 9 - French navy bombards Damascus because of Druze riots
- May 9 - Admiral Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett claim to have flown over the North Pole (later discovery of his diary seems to indicate that this did not happen).
- May 10 - Talks between government and strikers begins in UK
- May 12 - March 15 - Military coup by Jozef Pilsudski succeeds in Poland
- May 12 - UK general strike called off
- May 12 - Roald Amundsen flies over north pole
- May 12 - UK General Strike 1926: In the United Kingdom, a general strike by trade unions ends (the strike began on May 3).
- May 18 - Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappears while visiting a Venice, California beach.
- May 26 - Rifkabyl rebels surrender in Morocco
- May 28 - 1926 coup d'état commanded by Manuel Gomes da Costa in Portugal that installed the Ditadura Nacional (National Dictatorship) that would be followed be António de Oliveira Salazar's Estado Novo.
- June 4 - Ignacy Moscicki becomes president of Poland
- June 29 - Arthur Meighen returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada.
- July 1 - Kuomingtang begins a campaign in the northern China for unification
- July 9 - New military coup in Portugal, now by general Antonio Carmona
- July 12 - Lightning strike destroys an ammunition depot in Dover, New Jersey
- July 15 - BEST buses make its début in Mumbai.
- July 23 - Fox Film buys the patents of the Movietone sound system for recording sound onto film.

August-October


- August 1 - Failed assassination attempt against Miguel Primo de Rivera in Barcelona
- August 6 - Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel from France to England
- August 6 - In New York, the Warner Brothers' Vitaphone system premieres with the movie Don Juan starring John Barrymore.
- August 18 - British miner's union begins negotiations with the government
- August 18 - A weather map is televised for the first time, sent from NAA Arlington to the Weather Bureau Office in Washington, D.C.
- August 22 - In Greece, Georgios Konfylis ousts Theodoros Pangalos
- August 25 - Pavlos Kountouriotis announces that dictatorship is finished in Greece and becomes a president
- September 11 - Spain leaves the League of Nations
- September 11 - Aloha Tower is officially dedicated at Honolulu Harbor in the Territory of Hawai'i
- September 18 - Great Miami Hurricane: A strong hurricane devastates Miami, Florida, leaving over 100 dead and caused several hundred million dollars in damage; equal to nearly $100 billion dollars today.
- September 20 - Twelve cars full of gangsters open fire at the Hawthorne Inn, headquarters of Al Capone in Chicago. Only one of Capone's men is wounded
- September 25 - William Lyon Mackenzie King returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada.
- October 2 - Jozef Pilsudski becomes prime minister of Poland
- October 12 - British miners agree to end their strike
- October 20 - Hurricane kills 650 in Cuba
- October 23 - Decree in Italy bans women from holding public office
- October 31 - Magician Harry Houdini dies of gangrene and peritonitis that developed after his appendix ruptured.

November-December


- November 10 - In San Francisco, California, a necrophiliac serial killer named Earle Nelson (dubbed "Gorilla Man") kills and then rapes his 9th victim, a boardinghouse landlady named Mrs. William Edmonds.
- November 10 - Michinomiya Hirohito is crowned the 124th Emperor of Japan
- November 15 - The NBC radio network opens with 24 stations (it was formed by Westinghouse, General Electric and RCA).
- November 24 - The village of Rocquebillier in French Riviera is almost destroyed in a massive hail
- November 25 - Death penalty re-established in Italy
- November 27 - Vesuvius erupts
- November 27 - In Williamsburg, Virginia, the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg begins.
- December 2 - British prime minister Stanley Baldwin ends the martial law that had been declared due to general strike
- December 3 - Agatha Christie disappears from her home in Surrey; on December 14 she is found in Harrogate hotel
- December 18 - Turkey converted to Gregorian calendar making 'tomorrow' January 1 1927
- December 25 - In Japanese History, end of the Taishō period and beginning of the Shōwa era and the period of Japanese expansionism

Unknown dates


- League of Nations Slavery Convention abolishes all types of slavery.
- Afghanistan declares monarchy.
- Lebanon becomes a republic.
- Eamon de Valera organizes Fianna Fáil.
- The short-lived Western Australian Secession League is founded.
- International African Institute is founded.
- Raymond Pearl publishes landmark book, Alcohol and Longevity.

Births

January


- January 3 - George Martin, English producer of The Beatles
- January 8 - Evelyn Lear, American soprano
- January 8 - Hanae Mori, Japanese fashion designer
- January 8 - Soupy Sales, American comedian
- January 11 - Lev Demin, cosmonaut (d. 1998)
- January 12 - Ray Price, American singer
- January 14 - Maria Schell, Austrian actress (d. 2005)
- January 14 - Tom Tryon, American actor and novelist (d. 1991)
- January 17 - Moira Shearer, Scottish actress and dancer
- January 19 - Fritz Weaver, American actor
- January 20 - Patricia Neal, American actress
- January 20 - David Tudor, American pianist and composer (d. 1996)
- January 21 - Steve Reeves, American actor (d. 2000)
- January 27 - Fritz Spiegl, Austrian journalist (d. 2003)
- January 29 - Abdus Salam, Pakistani physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)

February


- February 2 - Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, President of France
- February 6 - Haskell Wexler, American cinematographer
- February 7 - Konstantin Feoktistov, cosmonaut
- February 8 - Neal Cassady, American writer (d. 1968)
- February 8 - Audrey Meadows, American actress (d. 1996)
- February 11 - Paul Bocuse, French chef
- February 11 - Alexander Gibson, British conductor and founder of the Scottish Opera
- February 11 - Leslie Nielsen, Canadian actor
- February 12 - Paul Kurtz, American philosopher
- February 16 - John Schlesinger, British film director (d. 2003)
- February 20 - Richard Matheson, American author
- February 20 - Bob Richards, American track and field athlete
- February 22 - Kenneth Williams, English actor (d. 1988)
- February 27 - David H. Hubel, Canadian neuroscientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- February 28 - Svetlana Alliluyeva, Russian author

March


- March 1 - Pete Rozelle, American commissioner of the National Football League (d. 1996)
- March 2 - Murray Rothbard, American economist (d. 1995)
- March 3 - James Merrill, American poet (d. 1995)
- March 6 - Alan Greenspan, American economist and Chairman of the Federal Reserve
- March 6 - Andrzej Wajda, Polish film director
- March 8 - Sultan Salahuddin (d. 2001)
- March 13 - Carlos Roberto Reina, President of Honduras (d. 2003)
- March 15 - Norm Van Brocklin, American football player (d. 1983)
- March 16 - Jerry Lewis, American comedian
- March 16 - Charles Goodell, American politician (d. 1987)
- March 17 - Siegfried Lenz, German writer
- March 18 - Peter Graves, American actor
- March 24 - Dario Fo, Italian author, Nobel Prize laureate
- March 26 - László Papp, Hungarian boxer (d. 2003)
- March 30 - Ingvar Kamprad, Swedish businessman
- March 31 - John Fowles, English writer (d. 2005)

April


- April 1 - Charles Bressler, American tenor
- April 1 - Anne McCaffrey, American author
- April 2 - Jack Brabham, Australian race car driver
- April 3 - Gus Grissom, astronaut (d. 1967)
- April 6 - Sergio Franchi, Italian tenor and actor (d. 1990)
- April 6 - Gil Kane, Latvian-born cartoonist (d. 2000)
- April 6 - Ian Paisley, British politician
- April 7 - Dame Joan Sutherland, Australian soprano
- April 9 - Hugh Hefner, American magazine editor
- April 17 - Gerry McNeil, Canadian hockey player (d. 2004)
- April 21 - Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
- April 22 - James Stirling, Scottish architect (d. 1992)
- April 24 - Thorbjörn Fälldin, Prime Minister of Sweden
- April 26 - Michael Mathias Prechtl, German illustrator (d. 2003)
- April 30 - Cloris Leachman, American actress

May


- May 5 - Ann B. Davis, American actress
- May 8 - Don Rickles, American comedian and actor
- May 15 - Peter Shaffer, English playwright
- May 26 - Miles Davis, American jazz trumpeter (d. 1991)

June


- June 1 - Andy Griffith, American actor
- June 1 - Marilyn Monroe, American actress (d. 1962)
- June 3 - Allen Ginsberg, American poet (d. 1997)
- June 6 - Klaus Tennstedt, German conductor (d. 1998)
- June 11 - Frank Plicka, Czech-born photographer
- June 21 - Conrad Hall, Tahitian-born cinematographer (d. 2003)
- June 25 - Ingeborg Bachmann, Austrian writer (d. 1973)
- June 28 - Mel Brooks, American entertainer
- June 30 - Paul Berg, American chemist, Noble Prize laureate

July


- July 1 - Robert Fogel, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- July 1 - Hans Werner Henze, German composer
- July 4 - Alfredo Di Stefano, Argentine-born footballer
- July 8 - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Swiss-born psychiatrist (d. 2004)
- July 9 - Ben Roy Mottelson, American-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- July 15 - Leopoldo Galtieri, Argentine dictator (d. 2003)
- July 16 - Stanley Clements, American actor (d. 1981)
- July 16 - Irwin Rose, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- July 28 - Walt Brown, American Presidential candidate

August


- August 3 - Tony Bennett, American singer
- August 3 - Anthony Sampson, British journalist and biographer (d. 2004)
- August 11 - Aaron Klug, Lithuanian-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- August 14 - René Goscinny, French comic book writer (d. 1977)
- August 19 - Arthur Rock, American venture capitalist

September


- September 7 - Don Messick, American voice actor (d. 1997)
- September 15 - Jean-Pierre Serre, French mathematician
- September 16- John Knowles, American author (d. 2001)
- September 21 - Donald A. Glaser, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- September 21 - Noor Jehan, Pakistani and Indian actress (she could have been born in 1929)
- September 23 - John Coltrane, American jazz saxophonist (d. 1967)
- September 26 - Masatoshi Koshiba, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

October


- October 15 - Michel Foucault, French philosopher (d. 1984)
- October 15 - Karl Richter, German conductor (d. 1981)
- October 18 - Chuck Berry, American musician
- October 25 - Galina Vishnevskaya, Russian soprano
- October 29 - Jon Vickers, Canadian tenor

November


- November 2 - Tsung-Dao Lee, Chinese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- November 3 - Valdas Adamkus, President of Lithuania
- November 20 - Andrzej W. Schally, Polish-born endocrinologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- November 23 - Sri Satya Sai Baba, Indian guru
- November 23 - R.L. Burnside, American musician
- November 25 - Poul Anderson, American author (d. 2001)

December


- December 9 - Henry Way Kendall, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
- December 13 - George Rhoden, Jamaican athlete
- December 16 - James McCracken, American tenor (d. 1988)
- December 17 - Allan V. Cox, American geologist (d. 1987)
- December 20 - Sir Geoffrey Howe, British politician
- December 21 - Joe Paterno, American football coach
- December 23 - Robert Bly, American poet

Deaths


- January 21 - Camillo Golgi, Italian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1843)
- February 21 - Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)
- March 5 - Clément Ader, French engineer and inventor, airplane pioneer (b. 1841)
- April 30 - Bessie Coleman, American pilot (b. 1892)
- May 16 - Mehmed VI, last Ottoman Sultan (b. 1861)
- May 26 - Simon Petlyura, Ukrainian independence fighter (b. 1879)
- June 10 - Antoni Gaudí, Catalan architect (b. 1852)
- June 14 - Mary Cassatt, American artist (b. 1844)
- July 12 - Gertrude Bell, English archaeologist, writer, spy, and administrator known as the "Uncrowned Queen of Iraq" (b. 1868)
- July 26 - Robert Todd Lincoln, American statesman and businessman (b. 1843)
- August 22 - Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard University (b. 1834)
- August 23 - Rodolfo Valentino, Italian actor (b. 1895)
- September 15 - Rudolf Christoph Eucken, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1846)
- September 21 - Leon Charles Thevenin, French telegraph engineer (b. 1857)
- October 20 - Eugene V. Debs, American labor and political leader (b. 1855)
- October 31 - Harry Houdini, Hungarian-born magician (b. 1874)
- October 31 - Charles Vance Millar, Canadian businessman (b. 1853)
- December 4 - Ivana Kobilca, Slovenian painter (b. 1861)
- December 5 - Claude Monet, French painter (b. 1840)
- December 25 - Emperor Taisho, 123rd Emperor of Japan (b. 1879)
- December 29 - Rainer Maria Rilke, Austrian poet (b. 1875)

Nobel Prizes


- Physics - Jean Baptiste Perrin
- Chemistry - Theodor Svedberg
- Physiology or Medicine - Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger
- Literature - Grazia Deledda
- Peace - Aristide Briand, Gustav Stresemann
- ko:1926년 ms:1926 ja:1926年 simple:1926 th:พ.ศ. 2469

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975). Before entering politics, Reagan was also a broadcaster, film actor, and head of the Screen Actors Guild. After his death, Reagan was voted the Greatest American on the Discovery Channel. Reagan's presidency is regarded as a turning point for the United States Republican Party and the American conservative movement and he has been dubbed The Greatest Communicator by many who knew him well. His presidency was marked by new economic policies, dubbed Reaganomics and a confrontational foreign policy towards the Soviet Union and Socialist movements around the world. Reagan defeated incumbent President Jimmy Carter to win election in a 1980 electoral college landslide, the start of the so-called "Reagan Revolution" that marked a major shift in American electoral politics and brought a 12-seat change in the United States Senate, giving the Republican Party a majority for the first time in 28 years. Upon his election, Reagan became the oldest president to enter office, at the age of 69. He was the first Republican to defeat an incumbent Democratic president since 1888, and the first from any party to defeat an incumbent elected president since 1932. Reagan was reelected in a landslide in the 1984 presidential election, defeating Carter's Vice President Walter Mondale by winning 49 of 50 states and receiving nearly 60 percent of the popular vote. He died at his home in Bel-Air, California in 2004 at the age of 93 , after a decade suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Early life and career

Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois, the second of two sons to Catholic, Irish-American democrat John "Jack" Reagan and Nelle Wilson, who was of Scottish and English descent. His paternal great-grandfather, Michael Reagan, immigrated to the United States from Ballyporeen, County Tipperary, Ireland in the 1860s. Prior to his immigration, the family name was spelled Regan. His maternal great-grandfather, John Wilson, immigrated to the United States from Paisley, Scotland in the early 1800s. In 1920, after years of moving from town to town, the family settled in Dixon, Illinois. In 1921, at the age of 10, Reagan was baptized in his mother's Disciples of Christ church in Dixon (although his brother, Neil, became a Roman Catholic, like their father, Jack), and in 1924 Ronald Reagan began attending Dixon's Northside High School. Reagan always considered Dixon to be his hometown. 1924)]] In 1927, at age 16, Reagan took a summer job as a lifeguard in Lowell Park, two miles away from Dixon on the nearby Rock River. He continued to work as a lifeguard for the next seven years, reportedly saving 77 people from drowning. Reagan would later joke that none of them ever thanked him. In future years, he would point to that achievement proudly showing visitors a picture of Rock River in the Oval Office. In 1928, Reagan entered Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois, majoring in economics and sociology, and graduating in 1932. In 1929 Reagan joined the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity which he later recalled during numerous interviews and conversations as one of the greatest experiences he had during his college years. Though earning mediocre grades, he made many lasting friendships. Reagan developed an early gift for storytelling and acting. He was a radio announcer as an affiliate of the Chicago Cubs baseball games, getting only the bare outlines of the game from a ticker and relying on his imagination and storytelling gifts to flesh out the game. Once in 1934, during the ninth inning of a Cubs-St. Louis Cardinals game, the wire went dead. Reagan smoothly improvised a fictional play-by-play (in which hitters on both teams fouled off pitches) until the wire was restored.

Hollywood

In 1937, when in California to cover spring training for the Chicago Cubs as a Headline radio announcer, Reagan took a screen test that led to a seven-year contract with the Warner Brothers studio. Reagan's clear voice and athletic physique made him popular with some audiences; the majority of his screen roles were as the leading man in B movies. His first screen credit was the starring role in the 1937 movie Love Is On the Air. By the end of 1939, he had appeared in 19 films. In 1940 he played the role of George "The Gipper" Gipp in the film Knute Rockne, All American. From this role he acquired the nickname the Gipper, which he retained the rest of his life. Reagan considered his best acting work to have been in Kings Row (1942). He played the part of a young man whose legs were amputated. He used a line he spoke in this film, "Where's the rest of me?", as the title for his autobiography. Other notable Reagan films include Hellcats of the Navy, This Is the Army, and Bedtime for Bonzo. Reagan was kidded widely about the last named film because his co-star was a chimpanzee. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6374 Hollywood Boulevard. Hollywood Walk of Fame Reagan was commissioned as a reserve cavalry officer in the U.S. Army in 1935. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he was activated and assigned, partially due to his poor eyesight, to the First Motion Picture Unit in the United States Army Air Forces, which made training and education films. He remained in Hollywood for the duration of the war, attaining the rank of captain. Reagan tried repeatedly to go overseas for combat duty, but was turned down because of his astigmatism. Reagan later married actress Jane Wyman in 1940. They had a daughter, Maureen in 1941 and adopted a son, Michael in 1945. Their second daughter, Christine Reagan , was born four months prematurely on June 26, 1947 and lived only one day. They divorced in 1948, later making Reagan the first American President to have been divorced. Reagan remarried in 1952 to actress Nancy Davis. Their daughter Patti was born on October 21 of the same year. On 20 May 1958 they had a second child, Ron. As Reagan's film roles became fewer in the late 1950s, he moved into television as a host and frequent performer for General Electric Theater. Reagan appeared in many live television plays and often co-starred with Nancy. Reagan served as the president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) from 1947 until 1952, and again from 1959 to 1960. In 1952, a Hollywood scandal raged over his granting of a SAG blanket waiver to MCA, which allowed it to both represent and employ talent for its burgeoning TV franchises. He went from host and program supervisor of General Electric Theater to producing and claiming an equity stake in the TV show itself. At one point in the late 1950s, Reagan was earning approximately $125,000 per year. His final regular acting job was as host and performer on Death Valley Days. Reagan's final big-screen appearance came in the 1964 film The Killers, in which, uncharacteristically, he played a mob chieftain. This film was a remake of an earlier version, based on a short story by Ernest Hemingway. Reagan's co-stars were John Cassavetes and Lee Marvin.

Early political career

Reagan began his political life as a Democrat, supporting Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal. He gradually became a staunch social and fiscal conservative, and, in 1976, said "fascism was really the basis of the New Deal." He embarked upon the path that led him to a career in politics during his tenure as president of the Screen Actors Guild. In this position, he testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee on Communist influence in Hollywood. He also kept tabs on actors he considered disloyal and informed on them to the FBI under the code name "Agent T-10," but he would not denounce them publicly. He supported the practice of blacklisting in Hollywood. Believing that the Republican Party was better able to combat communism, Reagan gradually abandoned his left-of-center political views, supporting the presidential candidacies of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956 and Richard Nixon in 1960—all while Reagan was still a Democrat. His employment by the General Electric company further enhanced his political image; he travelled widely as a GE spokesman, and was noted for his anti-Communist speeches. By the 1964 election, Reagan was an outspoken supporter of conservative Republican Barry Goldwater. His nationally televised speech "A Time for Choosing" electrified conservatives; soon after, several top Republican contributors visited Reagan at his home in Pacific Palisades, California, urging him to seek the governorship in 1966. Though these requests were initially "laughed off" by Reagan, he says in his autobiography, he eventually gave in, after countless sleepless nights.

Party Affiliation: From Democrat to Republican

Ronald Reagan was a well-known Democrat before becoming a Republican. Growing up, his father was a staunch Democrat. Reagan remembered that his father had refused to take him to the movie "Birth of a Nation", because of its racial stereotypes. He bragged about his father's not wanting to stay in a certain hotel because they did not accept Jews; his only alternative was to sleep in his car. Ronald Reagan himself had supported FDR and gave speeches for Harry S Truman. Reagan’s change in party affiliation came about at a time when the country seemed to be making a different turn. In the 60's Reagan became a Republican due to the party's hard-line stance against communism. He began to campaign for Barry Goldwater in 1964.

Governorship

In 1966, he was elected the 33rd Governor of California, defeating two-term incumbent Pat Brown; he was reelected in 1970, defeating Jesse Unruh, but chose not to seek a third term. During the People's Park protests, he sent 2,200 National Guard troops onto the Berkeley campus of the University of California. Reagan made it clear that the policies of his administration would not be influenced by student agitation, saying "If it takes a bloodbath, let's get it over with, no more appeasement." When left-wing SLA terrorists kidnapped Patty Hearst in Berkeley and gave a list of demands that included free distribution of food to the poor, Reagan suggested that it would be a good time for an outbreak of botulism. After the media caught wind of the comment, he apologized. In his first term, he froze government hiring, but also approved tax hikes to balance the budget. He worked with Democrat Assembly Speaker, Bob Moretti, to reform welfare in 1971. Reagan also opposed the construction of a large federal dam, the Dos Rios, which would have flooded a valley of Indian ranches. Later, Reagan and his family took a summer backpack trip into the high Sierra to a place where a proposed trans-Sierra highway would be built. Once there, he declared it would not be built. One of Reagan's greatest frustrations in office concerned capital punishment. He had campaigned as a strong supporter; however, his efforts to enforce the state's laws in this area were thwarted when the Supreme Court of California issued its People v. Anderson decision, which invalidated all death sentences passed in California prior to 1972, although the decision was quickly overturned by a constitutional amendment. Although he was a supporter of death penalty; in capital cases which arrived his office, Reagan granted two clemencies and a temporary repreive. As of December 2005; no other clemency has been granted to a condemned man in California. The only execution during Reagan's governership was on April 12, 1967, when Aaron Mitchell's life ended in San Quentin's gas chamber. There would not be another execution in California until 1992. Reagan promoted the dismantling of the public psychiatric hospital system, proposing that community-based housing and treatment replace involuntary hospitalization, which he saw as a violation of civil liberties issue. According to some Reagan critics, the community replacement facilities were never adequately funded, either by Reagan or by his successors.

Presidential campaigns

Reagan's first attempt to gain the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 was unsuccessful. He tried again in 1976 against incumbent Gerald Ford, but was narrowly defeated at the Republican National Convention. The 1976 campaign was a critical moment for Ronald Reagan's political development. Gerald Ford was largely a symbol of the "old guard" of the Republican party. Reagan's success was remarkable considering Ford's status as an incumbent President. At the convention in 1976, Reagan gave a stirring speech in which he discussed the dangers of nuclear war and the moral threat of the Soviet Union. After that speech, to many at the convention, they felt like "they had voted for the wrong man." In 1980, Ronald Reagan finally succeeded in gaining the Republican nomination for president. During the convention, Reagan discussed the possibility of choosing former President Gerald Ford as his running mate, but he ultimately selected George H. W. Bush. As an opponent of Reagan's during the presidential primaries, Bush had declared he would never be Reagan's Vice-President. Bush was many things Reagan was not--a lifelong Republican, a combat veteran and an internationalist with UN, CIA and China experience. Bush's economic and political philosophies were decidedly more moderate than Reagan's. Bush had, in fact, referred to Reagan's supply-side influenced proposal for a 30% across-the-board tax cut as "voodoo economics." After the Republican National Convention, Ronald Reagan gave a campaign speech at an annual county fair outside of Philadelphia, Mississippi, the site of the Mississippi Civil Rights Workers Murders of 1964. During the speech, Reagan stated "I believe in states' rights" and "I believe we have distorted the balance of our government today by giving powers that were never intended to be given in the Constitution to that federal establishment." He went on to promise to "restore to states and local governments the power that properly belongs to them." [http://gadflyer.com/articles/?ArticleID=134] Mississippi Civil Rights Workers Murders The campaign, led by William J. Casey, was conducted in the shadow of the Iran hostage crisis; some analysts believe President Jimmy Carter's inability to solve the hostage crisis played a large role in Reagan's victory against him in the 1980 election. On the other hand, Carter's inability to deal with double-digit inflation and unemployment, lackluster economic growth, instability in the petroleum market leading to long gas lines, and the perceived weakness of the U.S. national defense may have had a greater impact on the electorate. With respect to the economy, Reagan famously said, "A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his." Reagan's showing in the televised debates boosted his campaign. He seemed more at ease, deflecting President Carter's criticisms with remarks like "There you go again." Perhaps his most influential remark was a closing question to the audience, during a time of skyrocketing global oil prices and highly unpopular Federal Reserve interest rate hikes, "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?" Carter's eventual ouster was accompanied by a 12-seat change in the Senate from Democratic to Republican hands, giving the Republicans a majority in the Senate for the first time in 28 years. Upon his election, Reagan became the oldest president to enter office, at the age of 69. 12-seat change In the 1984 presidential election, he was reelected in a landslide over Carter's Vice President Walter Mondale, winning 49 of 50 states and receiving nearly 60 percent of the popular vote. At the Democratic National Convention, Mondale accepted the party nomination with a speech that is believed to have constituted a self-inflicted mortal wound. In it he remarked "Mr. Reagan will raise your taxes, I will raise your taxes. He won't tell you this, I just did."[http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/conventions/chicago/facts/famous.speeches/mondale.84.shtml] Reagan accepted the Republican nomination in Dallas, Texas, on a wave of good feeling bolstered by the recovering economy and the dominating performance by the U.S. athletes at the Los Angeles Olympics that summer. The campaign of 1984 also featured one of Reagan's most famous gaffes -- The infamous quotation "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes", spoken as a sound check prior to a radio address. Spoken during a time of great tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, it left many (particularly outside the United States) questioning Reagan's understanding of some of the realities of his foreign policy and of international affairs in general. Samples of the recording of the quotation were later turned into the dance record "Five Minutes" by Jerry Harrison and Bootsy Collins. Despite a weak performance in the first debate, Reagan recovered in the second and was considerably ahead of Mondale in polls taken throughout much of the race. Reagan's landslide win in the 1984 presidential election is often attributed by political commentators to be a result of his conversion of the "Reagan Democrats," the traditionally Democratic voters who voted for Reagan in that election.

Presidency

Domestic record

Reagan Democrat.]] Reagan portrayed himself as being economically libertarian, in favor of tax cuts, smaller government, and deregulation. He also took a strong "tough-on-crime" stance. The high point of the Reagan presidency's first 100 days was the end of the Iran hostage crisis after the American hostages were freed within minutes of his inauguration. Reagan's first official act upon entering office was to terminate oil price controls, a policy designed to boost America's domestic production and exploration of oil. [http://cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-261.html] Iran hostage crisis In the summer of 1981 Reagan fired a majority of federal air traffic controllers when they went on an illegal strike. Since this union was one of only two unions to support Reagan in the prior election, this action proved to be a political coup. This set limits for public employee unions, and also signaled that it was acceptable for businesses to play hardball with unions. A major focus of Reagan's first term was reviving the economy his administration inherited, which was plagued by a new phenomenon known as stagflation (a stagnant economy combined with high inflation). His administration fought double-digit inflation by supporting Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul Volcker's decision to tighten the money supply by dramatically hiking interest rates (Paul Volcker was appointed by President Carter in 1979). While successfully lowering inflation, this policy caused a short term recession from 1981-1982, which temporarily lowered Reagan's public support. Others commended him for taking a tough strategy. Nobel economist Milton Friedman praises him for "being willing to take a severe recession to end inflation" and said in 2004: "In my opinion, no other post-war president would have been willing to back the Volcker Fed in its tough stance in 1981–82. I can testify from personal knowledge that Reagan knew what he was doing. He understood that there was no way of ending inflation without monetary restraint and a temporary recession. As in every area, he stuck to his principles and looked at the long term" ([http://www.hooverdigest.org/043/friedman.html Freedom's Friend]). Reagan pursued a strategy of combining this tight-money policy with across-the-board tax cuts designed to boost business investment (in Reagan's words: "Chicago school economics, supply-side economics, call it what you will — I noticed that it was even known as Reaganomics at one point until it started working..."). [http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1987/071087a.htm] While ridiculed by opponents as "voodoo," "trickle-down," and "Reaganomics," he managed to push across-the-board tax cuts through congress in 1981. At the same time, the administration also slowed the growth of welfare and other social programs, eliciting protests from Democrats. Following the recession of 1981-82, the economy staged a dramatic recovery beginning in 1983. The Reagan administration claimed the tax cuts helped revive the economy and create jobs, which led to the increase of federal income tax revenues during the 1980's from $517 billion to over $1 trillion per annum. Despite this, increases in the military budget stemming from the administration's new cold war strategy led to the federal deficit reaching record highs. The U.S. House of Representatives, with a Democrat majority, opposed slowing the growth of social welfare spending. To cover the deficit, the administration borrowed heavily both domestically and abroad, and by the end of Reagan's second term the national debt had increased from 32.6% to 53.1% of annual GDP. During the Reagan presidency, the inflation rate dropped from 13.6% in 1980 (President Carter's final year in office) to 4.1% by 1988, the economy added 16,753,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell from 7.5% to 5.3%. While Reagan's opponents charged that his economic policies created an increase in the gap between the rich and the poor, it should be noted that during the Reagan presidency, all economic groups saw their income rise in real terms, including the bottom quintile, which rose 6% (Bureau of the Census, Income Statistics Branch, Current Population Reports, Series P60, 1996). A renewal of the "war on drugs" was also declared during his presidency, spearheaded by Nancy Reagan's high-profile "Just Say No" series of messages. President Reagan was criticized by the gay rights movement and others for the perception that his administration and others did not respond quickly enough to the HIV-AIDS situation. The first official mention of the disease in the White House was on October 15, 1982 when Reagan's press secretary Larry Speakes, in response to a reporter's inquiry about "the gay plague," said "I don't have it, do you?" to general laughter. (Note that the term AIDS was not yet widely used, hence the reporter calling it "the gay plague," and that HIV was not identified until 1984.) Reagan himself first publicly discussed the federal government's role in fighting the disease at a press conference in 1985. Despite the criticism, under Reagan $5.7 billion was spent on AIDS and HIV, with large amounts going to the National Institutes of Health. The resources for research increased by 450% in 1983, 134% in 1984, 99% the next year, and 148% the year after. In September of 1985, Reagan said: "Including what we have in the budget for '86, it will amount to over a half a billion dollars that we have provided for research on AIDS, in addition to what I'm sure other medical groups are doing. And we have $100 million in the budget this year; it'll be $126 million next year. So this is a top priority with us. Yes, there's no question about the seriousness of this and the need to find an answer." By 1986 Reagan had endorsed a large prevention and research effort and declared in his budget message that AIDS "remains the highest public health priority of the Department of Health and Human Services." Reagan's policies in regard to AIDS and gay rights became a subject of controversy after his death. Liberals and libertarians pointed out that he had gone on record as supporting sodomy laws, opposing anti-discrimination laws including sexual preference, and the conservative United States Supreme Court Justices that he appointed would help produce the majority opinion in the 1986 case of Bowers v. Hardwick. Yet, after his death, family members and homosexual Republicans (known as Log Cabin Republicans) pointed out that he opposed the 1978 California anti-gay Briggs Initiative. In 1984 he had the first openly homosexual couple spend the night in the White House. He is also said to have taught his children that homosexuality was a normal state of being for some people and was a longtime friend of Rock Hudson. In a rare public pronouncement on the topic of AIDS, Reagan stated his belief that morality and science conflate to make abstinence the best method to prevent the disease. Reagan made the abolition of communism and the implementation of supply-side economics the primary focuses of his presidency, but he also took a strong stand against abortion. He published the book Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation, which decried what Reagan saw as a disrespect for life, promoted by the practice of abortion. Many conservative activists refer to Reagan as the most pro-life president in history. (However, two of the three Supreme Court justices he selected, Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy, voted to uphold Roe v. Wade, to Reagan's disappointment). Although Reagan's second term was mostly noteworthy for matters related to foreign affairs, his administration supported significant pieces of legislation on domestic matters. In 1982, Reagan signed legislation reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for another 25 years. This extension added protections for blind, disabled, and illiterate voters.[http://www.aclu.org/VotingRights/VotingRights.cfm?ID=17621&c=32] Other significant legislation included the overhaul of the Internal Revenue Code in 1986, as well as the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 which compensated victims of the Japanese American Internment during World War II. Reagan also signed legislation authorizing the death penalty for offenses involving murder in the context of large-scale drug trafficking; wholesale reinstatement of the federal death penalty would not occur until the presidency of Bill Clinton. Milton Friedman, has pointed to the number of pages added to the Federal Register each year as evidence of the anti-regulatory nature of Reagan's presidency (the Register records the rules and regulations that federal agencies issue per year). [http://www.hooverdigest.org/043/friedman.html] The number of pages added to the Register each year declined sharply at the start of the Ronald Reagan presidency breaking a steady and sharp increase since 1960. The increase in the number of pages added per year resumed an upward, though less steep, trend after Reagan left office. In contrast, the number of pages being added each year increased under Ford, Carter, H.W. Bush, Clinton, and others.

Foreign policy and interventions

Federal Register to 1991.]] Reagan forcefully confronted the Soviet Union, marking a sharp departure from the détente observed by his predecessors Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter. Under the assumption that the Soviet Union could not then outspend the US government in a renewed arms race, he strove to make the Cold War economically and rhetorically hot. The administration oversaw a massive military build-up that represented a policy called "peace through strength." The Reagan administration set a new policy toward the Soviet Union with the goal to win the Cold War through a three-pronged strategy outlined in NSDD-32 (National Security Decisions Directive). The directive outlined Reagan's plan to confront the Soviet Union on three fronts: economic - decrease Soviet access to high technology and diminish their resources, including depressing the value of Soviet commodities on the world market; military - increase American defense expenditures to strengthen the U.S. negotiating position and force the Soviets to devote more of their economic resources to defense; and clandestine - support anti-Soviet factions around the world from Afghani insurgents to Poland's Solidarity movement. He proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative, dubbed "Star Wars", a space-based missile shield, widely viewed outside the US as an offensive weapon. In October 1986, Reagan met with Mikhail Gorbachev in Iceland where Gorbachev ardently opposed this defensive/offensive shield. By 1991, the Soviet Union was officially dissolved. Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher said, "Ronald Reagan won the Cold War without firing a shot." Many analysts argue that the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union was due more to the re-emergence of separatist movements under glasnost, an inherent weakness in communist economic theory, and the depressed global price of crude oil, on which the Soviet economy during those years depended heavily. Furthermore, Reagan's much heralded military buildup that increased American military spending by 8% per annum in fact did not appear to have the planned effect of forcing the Soviets to mirror American growth: according to CIA estimates, Soviet military spending levelled off at a growth rate of 1.3% per annum in 1975 and remained at that level for a decade, although it more than tripled to approximately 4.3% in 1985 through 1987 (though spending on offensive strategic weapons continued to grow at 1.3% during that period), before returning to 1.3% in 1988. crude oil.]] Among European leaders, his main ally and undoubtedly his closest friend was Thatcher, who as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom supported Reagan's policies of deterrence against the Soviets. Although the administration negotiated arms-reduction treaties such as the INF Treaty and START Treaty with the U.S.S.R., it also aimed to increase strategic defense. A controversial plan, named the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), was proposed to deploy a space-based defense system to make the U.S. invulnerable to nuclear weapon missile attack, by means of a network of armed satellites orbiting the Earth. Critics dubbed the proposal "Star Wars" and argued that SDI was unrealistic, a violation of ABM treaties, and as a weapon that defends the U.S. if it strikes first, would inflame the Arms Race. Supporters responded that even the threat of SDI forced the Soviets into unsustainable spending to keep up. In fact, the Soviets did not attempt to follow suit with their own program, but instead followed a program of arms reduction treaties. The technology required to implement SDI is still being researched in the U.S., and it is currently in testing with stations in Alaska and islands in the Pacific Ocean. Support for anti-communist groups including armed insurgencies against communist governments was also a part of administration policy, referred to by his supporters as the Reagan Doctrine. Following this policy, the administration funded groups they called "freedom fighters"— described as terrorists by their detractors — such as the mujahideen in Afghanistan, the Contras in Nicaragua, and Jonas Savimbi's rebel forces in Angola. The Reagan administration increased military funding for anti-communist dictatorships throughout Latin America, and has been widely accused of ordering the assassination of several Latin American presidents and prime ministers. The administration also helped fund central European anti-communist groups such as the Polish Solidarity movement and took a hard line against the Communist regime in Cambodia. Covert funding of the Contras in Nicaragua would lead to the Iran Contra Affair, while overt support led to a World Court ruling against the United States in Nicaragua v. United States. The administration took a strong stance against the Lebanese Hezbollah terrorist organization, which was taking American citizens hostage and attacking civilian targets after Israel invaded Lebanon in the 1982 Lebanon War. It similarly took a strong stance against Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. More disputed was Reagan's consideration of the Salvadoran FMLN and Honduran guerrilla fighters as terrorists, as the two countries' respective militaries were known to have used torture and indiscriminate tactics against those suspected of collaboration or sympathy with the guerrillas. Reagan also considered the anti-apartheid ANC armed wing known as Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) as a terrorist organization. U.S. involvement in Lebanon followed a limited-term United Nations mandate for a multinational force. A force of 800 U.S. Marines was sent to Beirut to evacuate PLO forces. The September 16, 1982 massacre of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in Beirut (see Sabra and Shatila Massacre) prompted Reagan to form a new multinational force. Intense administration diplomatic efforts resulted in a peace agreement between Lebanon and Israel. U.S. forces were withdrawn shortly after the October 23, 1983 bombing of a barracks in which 241 Marines were killed. Reagan called this day the saddest day of his presidency and of his life. A communist coup on the small island nation of Grenada in 1983 led the administration to develop an invasion plan to restore the former government. The resulting Operation Urgent Fury achieved this goal. Initially neutral, the administration increasingly became involved in the Iran-Iraq War. At various times, the administration supported both nations, but mainly sided with Iraq, believing that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was less of a threat to the stability of the region than Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini. Henry Kissinger articulated the administration's policy when he stated "Too bad they both can't lose". The American fear was that an Iranian victory would embolden Islamic fundamentalists in the Arab states, perhaps leading to the overthrow of secular governments, and Western corporate holdings, in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Kuwait. After initial Iraqi military victories were reversed and an Iranian victory appeared possible in 1982, the American government initiated Operation Staunch to attempt to cut off the Iranian regime's access to weapons (notwithstanding their later shipment of weapons to Iran in the Iran-Contra Affair). The U.S. also provided intelligence information and financial assistance to the Iraqi military regime. The administration also allowed the shipment of "dual use" materials, that could be used for chemical and biological weapons, which Iraq claimed were required for agriculture, medical research, and other civilian purposes, but which were diverted to use in Saddam's weapons of mass destruction programs[http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A52241-2002Dec29¬Found=true]. After Saddam Hussein used the "dual use" materials to gass the Kurds in Halabja in 1988, the Reagan administration continued to supply nerve gas and technology. weapons of mass destruction testimony about the Iran-Contra Affair (pub. July 20, 1987.)]] Concurrently with the support of Iraq, the administration also engaged in covert arms sales to Iran in order to fund Contra rebels in Nicaragua. The resulting Iran-Contra Affair became a scandal. Reagan professed ignorance of the plot's existence and quickly called for an Independent Counsel to investigate. Ten officials in the Reagan administration were later convicted and others forced to resign as a result of the investigation. His secretary of defense Weinberger was indicted for perjury and later received a presidential pardon from George H W Bush, days before the trial was to begin. On April 11, 1985, it was announced that Reagan would visit the Kolmeshohe Cemetery near Bitburg, at the suggestion of Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany, to pay respects to the soldiers interred there. The White House staff was under the impression that those interred included both American and German soldiers. The visit was intended to be symbolic of the goodwill between the two countries, but unbeknownst to Reagan and deputy chief of staff Michael Deaver, who visited the cemetery in advance of the event, 49 of the graves contained the remains of men who had served in the Waffen-SS. The cemetery also contained remains of about 2,000 other German soldiers who had died in both World Wars, but no Americans. Reagan also visited the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where he cited Anne Frank and ended his speech with the words, "Never again."

"The Great Communicator"

Anne Frank, 1987 Ronald Reagan challenged reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, exclaiming: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"]] Reagan was dubbed "The Great Communicator" for his ability to express ideas and emotions in an almost personal manner, even when making a formal address. He honed these skills as an actor, live television and radio host, and politician, and as president hired skilled speechwriters who could capture his folksy charm. Reagan's rhetorical style varied. He used strong, even ideological language to condemn the Soviet Union and communism, particularly during his first term. Whatever may be said of Reagan, he was an advocate of liberty and above all, free speech. Unlike Richard Nixon before him, Reagan never attempted to suppress criticism, even when it was directed at him. This is one reason why his legacy has better survived the test of time than Nixon's. Those who honor Reagan's memory would also cherish the right of free speech and the right of public dissent. But he could also evoke lofty ideals and a vision of the United States as a defender of liberty. His October 27, 1964 speech entitled "A Time for Choosing" reintroduced a phrase, "rendezvous with destiny," first made famous by Franklin D. Roosevelt, to popular culture.[http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/resource/speeches/1983/32183e.htm] Other speeches recalled America as the "shining city on a hill", "big-hearted, idealistic, daring, decent, and fair," whose citizens had the "right to dream heroic dreams." [http://www.reaganfoundation.org/reagan/speeches/second.asp][http://www.reaganfoundation.org/reagan/speeches/first.asp] On January 28, 1986, after the Challenger accident, he postponed his State of the Union address and addressed the nation on the disaster. In a speech written by Peggy Noonan, he said, "We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God.'" [http://www.reaganfoundation.org/reagan/speeches/challenger.asp] (quotations in this speech are from the famous poem "High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee, Jr..) It was perhaps Reagan's humor, especially his one-liners, that disarmed his opponents and endeared him to audiences the most. Discussion of his advanced age led him to quip in his second debate against Walter Mondale during the 1984 campaign, "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience." On his career he joked, "Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book." Both opponents and supporters noted his "sunny optimism", which was welcomed by many in comparison to his Presidential predecessor, the often smiling, but somewhat dour and serious, Carter.

Assassination Attempt

While leaving the Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC on March 30, 1981, Reagan, his Press Secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy, and MPDC officer Thomas Delehanty were shot by John Hinckley, Jr. during an assassination attempt. Reagan turned what could have been a low point in his first 100 days into another high point by joking, "I hope you're all Republicans," to his surgeons (While they were not, he received the reply, "We're all Republicans today" from Dr. Joseph Giordano) and "Honey, I forgot to duck" to his wife. [http://edition.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/05/reagan.obit/] Reagan also said that he forgave Hinckley and hoped he would ask for God's forgiveness as well. According to the March 31, 1981 edition of the Houston Post, and reported by AP, UPI, NBC News and Newsweek, Hinckley is the son of one of George H.W. Bush's better supporters in his 1980 presidential campaign against Ronald Reagan; John Hinckley Sr.'s Vanderbilt Energy was threatened with a $2-million fine the morning of the assassination attempt. John Jr.'s older brother Scott Hinckley and Neil Bush had a dinner appointment for the next day.

Criticisms

A frequent objection by his critics, however, was that his personal charm also permitted him to say nearly anything and yet prevail, a quality that earned him the nickname "the Teflon President" (i.e., nothing sticks to him). His denial of awareness of the Iran-Contra scandal was belied by quotations in now-archived notes by his defense secretary, Casper Weinberger, that he (Reagan) could survive violating the law or Constitution, but not the negative public image that "big, strong Ronald Reagan passed up a chance to get the hostages free." In December 1985, Reagan signed a secret presidential "finding" describing the deal as "arms-for-hostages." Reagan-era papers which might provide further details were originally scheduled to be released starting in 2001, but President George W. Bush enacted a rule change to allow many of these to be withheld indefinitely. Reagan's fiscal and tax policies were purported to have increased social inequality and economic instability, his efforts to cut welfare and income taxes becoming comm

June 1

June 1 is the 152nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (153rd in leap years), with 213 days remaining.

Events


- 193 - Roman Emperor Marcus Didius is assassinated in his palace.
- 1283 - Treaty of Rheinfelden: Duke Rudolph II of Austria has to waive his right to the Duchies of Austria and Styria.
- 1485 - Matthias of Hungary took Vienna in his conquest of Austria (from Frederick III) and made the city his capital.
- 1495 - Friar John Cor records the first known batch of scotch whisky.
- 1533 - Henry VIII of England's new wife, Anne Boleyn, is crowned as queen.
- 1660 - Mary Dyer is hanged in Boston, Massachusetts, for defying a law banning Quakers from the colony. She is considered to be the last religious martyr in what would become the United States.
- 1779 - American Revolutionary War: Benedict Arnold is court-martialed for malfeasance in his treatment of government property.
- 1792 - Kentucky becomes the 15th state of the United States.
- 1796 - Tennessee becomes the 16th state of the United States.
- 1812 - War of 1812: U.S. President James Madison asks the Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom.
- 1813 - The United States Navy gains its motto as the mortally wounded commander of the frigate Chesapeake, Capt. James Lawrence, said, 'Don't give up the ship'.
- 1815 - Napoleon swears fidelity to the Constitution of France.
- 1831 - James Clark Ross discovers the position of the North Magnetic Pole on the Boothia Peninsula.
- 1855 - American adventurer William Walker conquers Nicaragua and reinstates slavery.
- 1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Fair Oaks ends, with both sides claiming victory.
- 1869 - Thomas Edison of Boston, Massachusetts, receives a patent for his electric voting machine.
- 1879 - Napoleon Eugene, Prince of France, is killed in the Anglo-Zulu War.
- 1890 - The United States Census Bureau begins using Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine to count census returns.
- 1898 - The Trans-Mississippi Exposition world's fair opens in Omaha, Nebraska, United States.
- 1907 - Cricket: Colin Blythe takes 17 wickets for 48 runs against Northamptonshire at Northampton in one day. It is the best analysis ever recorded either for a county cricket match or a single day's bowling, and not bettered in first-class cricket until 1956.
- 1909 - The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition world's fair opens in Seattle, Washington, United States.
- 1910 - Robert Falcon Scott's South Pole expedition leaves England.
- 1918 - World War I: Battle for Belleau Wood begins.
- 1921 - Tulsa Race Riot: A race riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma, kills at least 85 people.
- 1922 - Official founding of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
- 1925 - Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees plays the first game in his record streak of 2,130 consecutive games, an endurance record in major league baseball that stands till Cal Ripken, Jr. broke it in 1995.
- 1935 - First driving tests introduced in Britain.
- 1938 - Baseball: Protective helmets are worn by batters for the very first time.
- 1941 - World War II: Battle of Crete ends as Crete capitulates to Germany.
- 1943 - A civilian flight from Lisbon to London is shot down by the Germans during World War II, killing all aboard, including actor Leslie Howard.
- 1954 - The Peanuts comic strip character Linus van Pelt is shown with a security blanket for the first time. [http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/peanuts/meet_the_gang/meet_linus.html]
- 1958 - Charles De Gaulle is brought out of retirement to lead France by decree for six months.
- 1967 - The Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is released; Don Dunstan becomes Premier of South Australia
- 1971 - Vietnam War: Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace, claiming to represent the majority of U.S. veterans who served in Southeast Asia, speak against war protests.
- 1974 - Flixborough disaster: An explosion at a chemical plant in Flixborough, UK, kills 28 people.
- 1978 - The first international applications under the