re: reagan has died Following are highlights of Ronald Reagan's...

re: reagan has died Following are highlights of Ronald Reagan's two-term presidency. The former US president died today at the age of 93, following a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.

1980

November 4: Reagan, the Republican Party presidential candidate, defeats Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter.

1981

January 20: Reagan is sworn in as the 40th president of the United States. At age 69, he is the nation's oldest chief executive. On the day of Reagan's inauguration, 52 US hostages are flown out of Iran after being held in the US embassy in Tehran for 444 days.
March 30: Reagan is shot and seriously wounded in an assassination attempt outside a Washington hotel. The would-be assassin, John Hinckley, is confined in a psychiatric hospital.
August 3: About 12,000 air traffic controllers go on strike. Reagan quickly fires the strikers and orders replacement workers hired, dealing a crippling blow to the US labour movement.
August 4: Congress passes a 25 per cent tax cut.
December 1: Reagan approves the first military assistance to Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
December 15: Congress passes a record military budget of $US199.8 billion.

1982

June 8: In a speech to the British Parliament, Reagan outlines the so-called "Reagan doctrine". He vows to support fighters against Communism in all parts of the world.
December 8: The House of Representatives passes the first Boland Amendment, outlawing the spending of US defence funds with the object of overthrowing the government of Nicaragua.

1983

March 8: Reagan calls the Soviet Union "the evil empire" in a speech to evangelicals in Orlando, Florida.
March 23: Reagan publicly announces his Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI), otherwise known as "Star Wars".
September 1: A South Korean airliner is shot down by the Soviets claiming it violated Soviet air space. All 269 aboard the KAL flight are killed.
October 23: More than 200 US soldiers are killed in a suicide attack on a US base in Lebanon.
October 25: The United States invades Grenada.

1984

August 11: In testing the microphone for his weekly radio address, Reagan says: "My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."
November 6: Reagan wins a landslide victory over Democratic challenger Walter Mondale.

1985

May 5: Reagan visits a German military cemetery in Bitburg, despite SS members being buried there.
August 8: National security adviser Robert McFarlane recommends selling weapons to Iran, in order to achieve the liberation of US hostages in Lebanon. The scheme is carried out and meets its first success on September 15, when the US preacher Benjamin Weir is released. The scheme is kept secret from Congress.
October 7-10: The Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro is seized by a Palestinian commando. The kidnappers kill wheelchair-bound US citizen Leon Klinghoffer, then surrender to Egyptian authorities. Egypt attempts to fly the kidnappers to safety but the plane is forced to land in Sicily by the US Air Force.
November 19: The first summit between Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is held in Geneva.

1986

January 28: The US space shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after lift-off, killing all seven astronauts on board. Reagan addresses the nation in the wake of the disaster.
April 5: The discotheque La Belle in West Berlin, a hangout for US troops, is bombed. Two people are killed and more than 200 are injured. The CIA suspects Libya is behind the plot.
April 14: US war planes bomb military bases in Libya, including the barracks of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi. Two of Kadhafi's sons are injured. A girl whom he claims was his adopted daughter is killed.
October 11-12: The US-Soviet summit in Reykjavik fails, as Reagan refuses to abandon his SDI.

1987

February 26: The Tower Commission issues its report on the Iran-Contra affair, saying that Reagan had been "unaware" of the machinations of his staff. According to the report, Reagan did not know that the profits from arms sales to Iran would be used to finance the Nicaraguan Contra rebels in violation of Congress.
June 12: In a speech at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, Reagan calls on Gorbachev to "tear down that wall".

1988

May 9: Reagan's former chief of staff, Donald Regan, publishes a book in which he claims that First Lady Nancy Reagan pulled the strings in the White House and consulted an astrologer on her husband's schedule.
July 3: A US Navy warship patrolling in the Gulf accidentally shoots down an Iranian commercial airliner. All 290 on board are killed.

1989

January 20: Reagan hands over the office to his vice president and successor, George Bush Snr, after becoming the first president to complete two four-year terms since Dwight Eisenhower in 1961.


Reagan stood for only two things - he believed in smaller government and no social services and he hated communism. He is revered for reinvigorating the US economy, but he handed over to Bush sr who promptly was kicked out because the economy was stuffed.

That people loved him I can't deny. He was charismatic and he gave America a sense of being right - an intangible but powerful influence (just look at Hitler in Germany)