Born above a bakery in a small Illinois town, Reagan moved from radio sports announcing to a Hollywood film career before entering politics as Governor of California and later President from 1981 to 1989. His presidency reshaped American conservatism through tax cuts, a hardline stance against the Soviet Union, and a communicator's gift that earned him the nickname 'the Great Communicator.'
Reagan's early life gave little hint of the national stage awaiting him. He grew up poor, the son of an alcoholic shoe salesman, and worked as a lifeguard on the Rock River before talking his way into a radio job re-creating baseball games from telegraph ticker tape — inventing plays and crowd noise when the wire went dead.
Hollywood came next, then the presidency of the Screen Actors Guild, then a rightward political turn that culminated in his 1980 landslide election. As president he pushed sweeping tax cuts, built up the military, and famously demanded Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev 'tear down this wall' in Berlin in 1987.
He survived an assassination attempt in 1981, quipping to surgeons, 'I hope you're all Republicans.' Reagan Day, celebrated by conservatives on his birthday, reflects his enduring status as an icon of the American right, even as historians continue to debate the legacy of Reaganomics and his administration's Cold War brinkmanship.
Key people: Ronald Reagan