How Much Do You Know About Ronald Reagan?

Reagan negotiated with the Soviet Union throughout the 1980s to end the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Reagan won two landslide presidential elections, taking 44 states in 1980 against Jimmy Carter, and 49 states in 1984 against Walter Mondale. The only state to reject Reagan both times was Minnesota.

At the height of the recession in October 1982, about halfway through Reagan’s first term as President, the U.S. unemployment rate surpassed 10%, the highest in 40 years.

Reagan worked as a radio announcer for the Chicago Cubs in the 1930s, and in 1988, the President joined commentator Harry Caray in the booth at Wrigley Field to call part of a game in person.

Reagan married actress Jane Wyman in 1940, and the couple divorced in 1949. Reagan married Nancy Davis Reagan in 1952.

For six summers in his youth, Reagan worked as a lifeguard at Lowell Park in Dixon, Illinois. According to newspaper reports, Reagan claimed to have saved 77 lives while at work.

Reagan filmed the speech “A Time for Choosing” in support of Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign. It aired on October 27, 1964, and it helped make Reagan a star in the Republican Party.

In 1940’s “Knute Rockne All American,” Reagan played football player George Gipp. The character was known as “the Gipper,” which became a lifelong nickname for the President.

Reagan ran in the 1968 Republican primary against the heavy favorite, Richard Nixon, who went on to win the general election.

Reagan played a Secret Service agent named Brass Bancroft in a series of films between 1939 and 1940. During filming, a prop gun was fired too close to Reagan, damaging the hearing in his right ear.

Before pulling out of the race to become Reagan’s Vice President, George H.W. Bush won primaries in Pennsylvania, Iowa, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

On the day of Reagan’s inauguration on January 20, 1981, 52 hostages were released from the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

When Reagan was born, his father said he looked like “a fat little Dutchman.” The nickname was shortened to “Dutch,” and was reinforced by the Dutch boy haircut Reagan’s mother gave him as a child.

Reagan was born and raised in Illinois, but moved to California at age 25 to pursue acting. After leaving show business, he served two terms as governor of California, beginning in 1967.

On June 12, 1987, President Reagan spoke at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, where he ended his speech with the now-famous line, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Reagan was referring to the Berlin Wall, which divided East and West Germany.