Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan's nickname, from an old football movie role, was the Gipper. He played George Gipp in Knute Rockne, All American. He was born in Illinois, but California is where he became a star, a governor, and a national candidate — that is his home state in politics. Before the White House he was a movie actor and governor of California. As president he was a Republican. He had once been a Democrat. He served two terms, 1981 to 1989. George H. W. Bush was his vice president. Jars of jelly beans sat in his Oval Office. He loved them and shared them with visitors.

In 1981 he signed a major law that cut income taxes. He believed people work and invest more when they keep more of what they earn. A deep tax-reform law followed in 1986. After a hard recession early in the term, inflation fell and the economy grew. That boom is a big part of the 1980s story. His idea of “peace through strength” meant build up the U.S. military so the Soviet Union would think twice. He spent more on defense, then sat down with Mikhail Gorbachev from a position of strength. Reagan called the Soviet Union an “evil empire,” then signed arms-control deals with Gorbachev. Strength first, then talks.

In Berlin in 1987, at the Brandenburg Gate, Reagan told the Soviet leader, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” The Berlin Wall came down in 1989, just after Reagan's presidency — months after he left office. In 1981 he survived an assassination attempt by John Hinckley Jr., who shot him outside a Washington hotel. Reagan joked to the doctors, then recovered and finished two terms. He named the first woman to the Supreme Court: Sandra Day O'Connor, in 1981. After the Challenger space shuttle broke apart in 1986, he gave a speech that comforted a grieving country. In 1983 U.S. forces landed on Grenada after a violent coup, rescued American students, and ousted a Marxist regime. In 1986 he ordered air strikes on Libya after a terrorist bombing. Iran-Contra was a scandal over secret arms sales and money for Nicaraguan rebels after Congress had said no — a real black mark, not the whole story. In 1994 he wrote a letter to the country announcing that he had Alzheimer's disease.