WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — Long before Ronald Reagan became the 40th President of the United States, the country knew him as an actor, appearing in a number of Hollywood films, married to his first wife, actress Jane Wyman.
Long before that, Reagan was a boy from Illinois.
According to his biography on the White House’s website, which is provided by the White House Historical Association, Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on Feb. 6, 1911 in Tampico, Ill. After he graduated from high school, he attended Eureka College where he studied economics and sociology.
Reagan played football and acted, working as a radio sports announcer after college graduation. He scored a Hollywood contract in 1937, and decades of work in movies followed.
Reagan married his second wife, Nancy Davis, in 1952. Other work in entertainment followed before he entered the political world. He won his first term as California’s governor in 1966 and was reelected in 1970.
Reagan secured the Republican nomination for president in 1980. He beat Democratic incumbent President Jimmy Carter in the race. Reagan took office on Jan. 20, 1981, surviving an assassination attempt 69 days later.
Among other things, the years Reagan spent in office were considered a time when prosperity returned to the United States and “the goal of peace through strength seemed to be within grasp,” the White House website states.
On Feb. 6, 1998, Reagan’s 87th birthday, President Bill Clinton signed into law the bill introduced and passed in Congress that changed the name of Washington National Airport to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Reagan, who died in 2004, had four children, two with Wyman and two with Davis (Nancy Reagan).
