LOT Polish Airlines Flight 007 crashed during an emergency landing near Warsaw, Poland, killing a 14-man American boxing team and 73 others. Dan-Air Flight 1008 crashed in Tenerife, killing all 146 occupants, the worst air disaster involving a British-registered aircraft in terms of loss of life. Italian Flight 870 crashed into the sea near Ustica island, Italy, killing all 81 people on board. In Saudi Arabia, 63 Islamist insurgents were beheaded for their part in the siege of the Great Mosque in Mecca in November 1979. At least 200 people were killed when the Corralejas Bullring collapsed at Sincelejo, Colombia. A fire at the MGM Grand Hotel Casino on the Las Vegas Strip killed 85 people. 50 people were killed at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia, when a Vostok-2M rocket exploded on its launch pad during a fueling operation. A mine lift cage at the Vaal Reefs gold mine in South Africa fell one mile, killing 23 workers. The Norwegian oil platform Alexander L. Kielland collapsed in the North Sea, killing 123 of its crew. In Florida, the Liberian freighter Summit Venture hit the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay with 35 people killed. A fiery bus crash near the small village of Webb, Saskatchewan, Canada, claimed 22 lives. A series of deadly tornadoes struck Grand Island, Nebraska, causing over $300 million in damages, killing 5 people, and injuring over 250. The 1980 summer heat wave in the USA claimed 1,700 lives. Hurricane Allen pounded Haiti, where it killed more than 200 people. The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington killed 57 and caused $3 billion in damages. The 7.1 Mw El Asnam earthquake shuck northern Algeria with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X, killing 2,633–5,000 and injuring 8,369–9,000. The 6.9 Mw Irpinia earthquake shuck southern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X, with 2,483 people killed and 8,934 injured. A New Mexico State Penitentiary riot led to 33 inmates killed and more than 100 inmates injured. The Spanish Embassy in Guatemala was invaded and set on fire, killing 36 people, known as “Spain’s own Tehran.” A terrorist bombing at the Bologna Centrale railway station in Italy killed 85 people and wounded more than 200. 13 people were killed and 211 injured in a right-wing terror attack in a Munich Oktoberfest bombing. What is the worst thing that happened to you in 1980?
Major events in 1980
In 1980, The United States severed diplomatic relations with Iran and imposed economic sanctions, following the taking of American hostages that dominated things in the USA. Six United States diplomats, posing as Canadians, managed to escape from Tehran, Iran. President Jimmy Carter proclaimed a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. He also announced that the United States would boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Then Carter signed a Proclamation requiring 18-25-year-old males to register for a peacetime military draft, in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Staggers Rail Act was enacted, deregulating American railroads. North Korean President Kim II Sung’s son Kim Jong II was declared as his successor. Greece rejoined the NATO military structure. Pope John Paul II visited Brazil, but 7 people were crushed to death in a crowd waiting to see him at an afternoon Mass at the stadium in Fortaleza. Lech Wałęsa led the first of many strikes at the Gdansk Shipyard in the Polish People’s Republic. He was victorious as the first non-state-controlled trade union in the communist bloc. Israel and Egypt established diplomatic relations, because of the 1979 Camp David Peace Accords. The Voyager 1 probe made its closest approach to Saturn. Pierre Trudeau returned to office as Prime Minister of Canada. Voters in Quebec rejected, by a vote of 60-40%, a proposal to seek independence from Canada. However, Zimbabwe and Vanuatu gained independence. London Gold market hit its highest price ever of $843 per troy ounce. During a summit on the island of Bali, OPEC decided to raise the price of petroleum by 10%. The World Health Organization certified the global eradication of smallpox. Journalist Dan Rottenberg in Chicago Magazine wrote a 1980 article “About that Urban Renaissance,” containing the first recorded use of the word “yuppie.” Paul Geidel, convicted of second-degree murder in 1911, was released from prison in Beacon, New York, after 68 years and 245 days, the longest-ever time served by any inmate. Namco’s Pac-Man, the highest-earning arcade game of all time, was released in Japan. Tim Berners-Lee began work on ENQUIRE, the system that will eventually lead to the creation of the World Wide Web in autumn 1990. Digital Equipment Corporation, Intel, and Xerox introduced the DIX standard for Ethernet, which is the first implementation outside of Xerox and the first to support 10 Mbit/s speeds. What do you remember about 1980?
The death of John Lennon (1940-1980) on December 8, 1980
I remember watching Monday Night Football in a game between the New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins, with the game tied and the Patriots about to attempt a field goal to win the game. This was December 8, 1980, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, and the seventh birthday of my daughter Joy. I think that she was in bed already. Then Howard Cosell said that he had just been informed that the music legend of the Beatles, John Lennon, had been shot and killed in New York City. There was a pall over the game. John Lennon, was shot in the archway of his Dakota residence in New York City. Early in the evening, Mark David Chapman met Lennon, who signed his copy of the album Double Fantasy and subsequently left for a recording session at the Record Plant. Lennon liked to give autographs or pictures, especially to those who had been waiting for long periods of time to meet him. Annie Leibovitz’s portrait of Lennon and Ono was taken earlier on the same day of the killing. Later that night, Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, returned to the Dakota. As Lennon and Ono approached the entrance of the building, Chapman fired five hollow-point bullets from a .38 special revolver, four of which hit Lennon in the back. Lennon was rushed to Roosevelt Hospital in a police car, where he was pronounced dead on arrival at 11:15 PM at age 40, according to his death certificate. Chapman planned the killing over several months and waited for Lennon at the Dakota on the morning of 8 December. Chapman remained at the murder scene and was arrested by the police. Chapman had also considered Lennon’s friend David Bowie as a target. The day following the murder, Lennon was cremated at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. In lieu of a funeral, Ono requested ten minutes of silence around the world. Chapman pleaded guilty to murdering Lennon and was given a sentence of twenty years to life imprisonment. He has been denied parole thirteen times since he became eligible in 2000. Mark David Chapman, a 25-year-old former security guard from Honolulu, Hawaii, was a fan of the Beatles with no prior criminal convictions. Chapman wanted to model his life after Holden Caulfield from J. D. Salinger’s novel, The Cather in the Rye, with his rage against adult hypocrisy and phonies. Lennon had stated that he did not believe in the Beatles, God, or Jesus. In the song “Imagine,” Lennon stated “imagine no possessions,” despite having a lavish lifestyle. The killer, Chapman, was enraged by Lennon’s lifestyle, alongside his 1966 comment that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus.” Thus, Chapman considered John Lennon a hypocritical phony. New York rock station WNEW immediately suspended all programming and opened its lines to calls from listeners. Radio stations throughout the country switched to special programming devoted to Lennon and/or Beatles music. Crowds gathered at Roosevelt Hospital and in front of the Dakota. At least three Beatles fans died by suicide. A worldwide outpouring of grief ensued following Lennon’s death. The breadth and intensity of this reaction to the killing of Lennon was like the world figures, John or Robert Kennedy, or the spiritual civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr. I was not as moved as others, since I was not a big Beatles fan. What do you remember about John Lennon?
Who Shot JR?
“Who shot J.R.?” was an advertising catchphrase created in 1980 by CBS to promote the television series “Dallas.” This was a reference to the fictional mystery surrounding a murder attempt against arch-villain J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) in the show’s third-season finale. The mystery and its catchphrase became a global phenomenon, with international odds-makers setting odds on the culprit. The mystery was not resolved until the fourth episode of the fourth season titled “Who Done It?” which aired eight months later, one of the most watched television broadcasts in history. This catchphrase has had a strong legacy in pop culture, since this format helped popularize the cliffhanger ending for many television series that followed. In the final scene of the 1979–80 season, J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) heard a noise outside his office, walked out to the corridor to look, and was shot twice by an unseen assailant. The episode was broadcast on March 21, 1980. Viewers had to wait all summer to learn whether J.R. would survive, and which of his many enemies was responsible. J.R. Ewing was a villain on the series who regularly double-crossed business associates, who plotted against his own family, and who called his wife Sue Ellen (Linda Gray) a slut. He had her committed to a sanatorium so he could take custody of their infant son John Ross. Almost all the other characters on the show were potential suspects. Margaret and I used to watch this show. The answer came eight months later, on November 21, 1980. The person who pulled the trigger was Kristin Shepard (Mary Crosby), J.R.’s scheming sister-in-law and mistress who shot him in a fit of anger. J.R. did not press charges, as Kristin claimed she was pregnant with his child because of their affair. Hagman was the star of this show, so he had demanded a raise. CBS decided to replace him. However, he returned to work with a new contract that paid him $100,000 per episode and royalties from the J.R. Ewing merchandise. A strike by the Writers Guild of America began in July that delayed the production of most new network shows by eight weeks. During the delay, CBS showed reruns of early Dallas episodes featuring J.R. Ewing, helping the show’s many new fans better understand his character. There were T-shirts printed with “Who Shot J.R.?” The media hype over the series was unprecedented. During the 1980 presidential election, the Republicans distributed campaign buttons that claimed “A Democrat shot J.R.” Betting parlors worldwide established odds and took bets as to which character had pulled the trigger. Every actor was filmed shooting J.R. to keep the identity of the actual shooter a secret. International bookmakers created a set of odds for the possible culprits. Oddsmakers in Las Vegas jokingly placed Tom Landry, the then-coach of the Dallas Cowboys football team, at 500-to-1 odds. Similarly, former Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach was placed at 1000-to-1 odds. This “Who Done It?” episode was, at the time, the highest-rated television episode in U.S. history with a Nielsen rating of 53.3 and a 76% share, as an estimated 83 million people watched the episode, more than the number of voters in that year’s presidential election. The previous record for a TV episode had been the 1967 finale for “The Fugitive.” It was beaten in 1983 by the final TV episode of “M*A*S*H.” This “Dallas” episode was an international event, with more than 350 million people tuning in to find out who shot J.R. This episode was credited with helping CNN, which began airing in June 1980, to get off the ground. For the next five years “Dallas” was either the number 1 or number 2 most watched TV show in America. In Larry Hagman’s final episode of the 2012 sequel, “Dallas,” which aired on March 4, 2013, J.R. was shot again, this time fatally, because doctors told Larry Hagman that he had only days to live. What do you remember about JR Ewing?
Joy’s First Communion
My daughter Joy was in second grade in 1979-1980. Thus, in May, 1980 she received her first Holy Communion. She wore a beautiful white dress with a white veil. This was the first time that she would receive the Body of Jesus Christ at a Eucharistic Mass Service at St. Lawrence O’Toole with all her second-grade classmates. First Communion is the first time a Roman Catholic child receives the Eucharist, since this communion occupies a central role in Catholic theology and practice. This typically occurs around the ages of seven, but Joy was only six. Since 1910, the age of this First Communion has been reduced to 7 years old, instead of the older age of 10-14 years old, prior to that. Catholics believe that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist through transubstantiation. In other words, the appearances of the bread wafer remains the same, but the substance of the bread has been changed into the Body of Christ at the Eucharistic service. Most other Christian denominations that celebrate communion see it as a symbolic meal and as a means of remembering Christ’s last supper, instead of the real presence of Jesus Christ. First Communion is an important traditional ceremony for Catholic families. First confession or the first sacrament of penance usually precedes this first reception of the Eucharist. For those who enter into the Catholic Church as adults, Confirmation occurs immediately before first Communion. Traditions of celebration surrounding First Communion usually include family gatherings and parties to celebrate the event. The first communicant usually wears special clothing, to symbolize purity. Often, a girl wears a fancy dress and a veil attached to a chaplet of flowers or some other hair ornament. Many families have formal professional photographs taken in addition to various candid snapshots to commemorate this event. We had a small celebration in our back yard since it was a wonderful sunny day. We have pictures of Joy in her white dress and veil with Margaret and I all dressed up. We also have a picture of my mother and Joy standing in front of the big tree in our back yard. It was a wonderful day for us, especially Joy. Do you remember your First Communion?
The attempted rescue of the American hostages in Iran
On April 24, 1980, Operation Eagle Claw was a failed operation by the US Armed Forces, ordered by President Jimmy Carter, to rescue 53 embassy staff that had been held captive at the US Embassy in Tehran, Iran. This operation encountered many obstacles and failures, and was subsequently aborted. Eight helicopters were sent to the first staging area called Desert One, but only five arrived in operational condition. During the operational planning, it was decided that the mission would be aborted if fewer than six helicopters remained operational upon arrival at the Desert One site, despite only four being absolutely necessary. The field commanders advised President Carter to abort the mission, which he did. As the U.S. forces prepared to withdraw from Desert One, one of the remaining helicopters crashed into a transport aircraft that contained both servicemen and jet fuel. The resulting fire destroyed both aircraft and killed eight American servicemen. In the context of the Iranian Revolution, Iran’s new leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, stated that the mission had been stopped by an act of God, who had foiled the U.S. mission to protect Iran and his new Islamist government. In turn, Carter blamed his loss in the 1980 U.S. presidential election mainly on his incompetent failure to secure the release of these hostages. He was right. The original hostage taking of 53 American diplomats and citizens in the United States Embassy in Tehran took place in November, 1979, five months earlier. Operation Eagle Claw plans for a possible rescue mission actually began on November 6, 1979, two days after the hostages were taken. The ground forces consisted of 93 Delta soldiers to assault the embassy and a 13-man special forces assault team to attack the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where three further hostages were being held. A third group of 12 Rangers were to act as the roadblock team at the Desert One landing area. Eight United States Navy helicopters were positioned aboard USS Nimitz, 60 miles off the coast of Iran. The helicopters would fly 600 miles to Desert One, refuel, load up the Delta Force and be part of the Ranger teams, then fly 260 miles further to Desert Two. As it would be close to morning, the helicopters and ground forces would hide during the day at Desert Two. The rescue operation would take place the second night. CIA officers, who were already inside Iran, would bring trucks to Desert Two. Together, the CIA officers and ground forces would then drive from Desert Two into Tehran. This team would assault the embassy and Foreign Affairs building, eliminate the guards, and rescue the hostages, with air support from Air Force AC-130 gunships flying from Desert One. The hostages and rescue team would then rendezvous with the helicopters from Desert Two at the nearby Amjadieh Stadium, where the hostages and rescue teams would board the helicopters. In parallel to the rescue, an Army Ranger company would capture the abandoned Manzariyeh Air Base, about 60 miles southwest of Tehran, to allow two C-141 Starlifters to arrive from Saudi Arabia. The helicopters would bring all parties from the stadium to the Manzariyeh airbase, and the C-141s would fly them to an airbase in Egypt. The eight helicopters would be destroyed before departure. However, it did not work out. The White House announced the failed rescue operation at 01:00 AM on April 25, 1980. The American bodies, which were acknowledged to have been numbered at eight, were returned to the United States on May 6, 1980. The various services’ failure to cohesively work together prompted the establishment of a new multi-service organization several years later. Shortly after the first mission failed, planning for a second rescue mission was authorized under the name Project Honey Badger, but was never actualized. What do you remember about this rescue mission?
The martyr death of Bishop Oscar Romero (1917-1980) on March 24, 1980
To be honest, at the time of his death, on March 24, 1980, I was not that aware of Archbishop Romero. In fact, it was about twenty years later when I met someone who had been with him that day, that I realized the importance of his death. Bishop Romero had delivered a sermon in which he called on Salvadoran soldiers, as Christians, to obey God’s higher order and to stop carrying out the government’s repression and violations of basic human rights. Romero spent the next day in a recollection organized by Opus Dei. That evening, Romero celebrated Mass at a small chapel at the Hospital de la Divina Providencia. Romero finished his sermon, stepped away from the lectern, and took a few steps to stand at the center of the altar. As Romero finished speaking, a red car came to a stop on the street in front of the chapel. A gunman emerged from the vehicle, stepped to the door of the chapel, and fired one, or possibly two, shots. Romero was struck in the heart, and the vehicle sped off. Archbishop Romero died at the Chapel. He was shot and killed while saying Mass. The archbishop was buried in the Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador. The Funeral Mass on March 30, 1980, in San Salvador, was attended by more than 250,000 mourners from all over the world, perhaps the largest demonstration in Salvadoran history, or Latin America. During the funeral ceremony, smoke bombs exploded on the streets near the cathedral and subsequently there were rifle shots that came from surrounding buildings. Many people were killed by gunfire and in the stampede of people running away from the explosions and gunfire. Official sources reported 31 overall casualties, while journalists claimed that it might be high as 50 people who died. Oscar Romero was the Archbishop of San Salvador, who had spoken out against social injustice and violence amid the escalating conflict between the military government and the left-wing insurgents that led to the Salvadoran Civil War. Romero was declared a martyr by Pope Francis and canonized a saint on October 14, 2018. Romero had studied at the Gregorian University in Rome, where he was ordained a priest in 1942. In 1970, he was appointed an auxiliary bishop, and then in 1977, he was named the Archbishop of San Salvador. The progressive priests feared that his conservative reputation would negatively affect liberation theology’s commitment to the poor. Seen as a social conservative at the time of his appointment as archbishop, Romero was deeply affected by the murder of his friend and fellow priest Rutilio Grande. Thereafter he became an outspoken critic of the military government of El Salvador. Up to the end of his life, his spiritual life drew much from the spirituality of Opus Dei. In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed March 24 as the “International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims” in recognition of Romero’s role in defense of human rights. Bishop Romero actively denounced violations of the human rights of the most vulnerable people. He defended the principles of protecting lives, promoting human dignity, and opposing all forms of violence. Latin American church groups often proclaim Romero as an unofficial patron saint of the Americas and El Salvador. Romero preached that the most profound social revolution is the serious, supernatural, interior reform of an individual Christian. He did not believe that there was a church for the rich and the poor, but only one church. No one has ever been prosecuted for the assassination, or confessed to it to police. Have you ever heard of Archbishop Oscar Romero?
The Miracle on Ice
The “Miracle on Ice” was an ice hockey game at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, between the host USA and the Soviet Union on February 22, 1980. Although the Soviet Union was a four-time defending gold medalist and heavily favored, the United States upset them and won 4–3. In a twist of fate, the game was not aired in real time but on a tape delay. ABC wanted to broadcast it live on primetime, 8:00 PM EST. However, the IIHF declined the request. Thus, ABC decided not to broadcast the game live for the American audience and tape delayed it for broadcast during its primetime block of Olympics coverage. Before the game aired, ABC’s Olympics host Jim McKay openly stated that the game had already occurred, but that they had promised not to spoil its results. To this day, some who watched the game on television in the United States still believe that it was live. I somehow knew that the Americans had won and still watched it anyway. This small 8,500 arena was packed. Al Michaels got the job as play-by-play announcer for ice hockey at Lake Placid because he was the only member of ABC’s broadcasting team who had previously called the sport. Michaels was named “Sportscaster of the Year” in 1980 for his coverage of this event. Michaels then spent 26 more years covering sports for ABC before moving to NBC to call Sunday Night Football alongside John Madden and then Cris Collinsworth, after Madden retired. The Soviet team consisted of professional players with significant experience in international play. By contrast, the United States team, led by head coach Herb Brooks, was composed of amateur players, with only four players with minimal minor-league experience. USA head coach Herb Brooks had held tryouts in Colorado Springs in the summer of 1979. Of the 20 players who eventually made the final Olympic roster, Buzz Schneider was the only one returning from the 1976 Olympic team, 13 of these 20 eventually played in the NHL. The American players were the youngest team in the tournament and in U.S. national team history. Both the Soviet and USA teams were unbeaten before they met in the semi-finals. Finishing the first period tied at 2–2, and the Soviets leading 3–2 following the second, the USA team scored two more goals to take their first lead midway in the third and final period, then held on and won 4–3. Two days later, the USA team won the gold medal by beating Finland in their final game. After the gold medal-securing victory over Finland, the players received a congratulatory phone call from President Jimmy Carter. The Soviet Union took the silver medal by beating Sweden. However, this American victory became one of the most iconic moments of the Olympic Games and in American sports. Equally well-known was the television call of the final seconds of the game by Al Michaels for ABC, in which he declared, “Do you believe in miracles? YES!” In 1999, Sports Illustrated named the “Miracle on Ice” the top sports moment of the 20th century. In 2008, the International Ice Hockey Federation named the “Miracle on Ice” as the top international ice hockey story of the past 100 years. “The Miracle on Ice” launched the careers of several players and made broadcaster Al Michaels famous. Team captain Mike Eruzione did not play any high-level ice hockey after the 1980 Olympics, as he felt that he had accomplished all of his hockey goals with this gold medal win. Herb Brooks, the team coach, coached several NHL teams following the Olympics, with mixed results. A whole series of movies have been made about this game, “Miracle on Ice (1981),” “Do you Believe in Miracles (2001),” “Miracle (2004),” and “Of Miracles and Men (2015).” Do you like ice hockey?
The 1980s Reagan era Reaganomics
In his first term as President, Reagan implemented his “Reaganomics,” which involved economic deregulation and cuts in both taxes and government spending during a period of stagflation. He said that government was not the solution to our problem, but that government was the problem. Reagan advocated a laissez-faire philosophy. He promoted reforms that included monetarism and supply-side economics. He lifted federal oil and gasoline price controls in 1981. He also signed the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 to dramatically lower federal income tax rates and require exemptions and brackets to be indexed for inflation starting in 1985. Amid growing concerns about the mounting federal debt, Reagan signed the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982, one of the eleven times Reagan raised taxes. This bill doubled the federal cigarette tax, rescinded a portion of the corporate tax cuts from the 1981 tax bill, and a third of the 1981 cut overall. Reagan defended his preservation of cuts on individual income tax rates. By 1983, the amount of federal tax had fallen for all or most taxpayers, but it most strongly affected the wealthy. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 reduced the number of tax brackets and top tax rate, and almost doubled personal exemptions. To Reagan, the tax cuts would not have increased the deficit as long as there was enough economic growth and spending cuts. This theoretical relationship had been illustrated with the controversial Arthur Laffer (1940-) curve. Critics labeled this “trickle-down economics,” the belief that tax policies that benefit the wealthy will spread to the poor. Milton Friedman (1912-2006) argued that these policies invigorated America’s economy and contributed to the economic boom of the 1990s. In 1983, the recession ended. Reagan nominated Paul Volcker (1927-2019) to a second term in fear of damaging confidence in the economic recovery. However, he appointed Alan Greenspan (1926- ) to succeed Volcker in 1987. Greenspan raised interest rates in another attempt to curb inflation, setting off the Black Monday stock market crash, although the markets eventually recovered. By 1989, the unemployment rate was at 5.3%. The inflation rate dropped from 12% during the 1980 election to under 5% in 1989. Likewise, the interest rate dropped from 15% to under 10%. Yet, not all shared equally in the economic recovery, and both economic inequality and the number of homeless individuals increased during the 1980s. Critics have contended that most of the jobs created during this decade paid the minimum wage. In 1981, Reagan approved a plan for cuts to Social Security. He later backed off these plans due to public backlash. He then created the Greenspan Commission to keep Social Security financially secure, and in 1983 he signed amendments to raise both the program’s payroll taxes and retirement age for benefits. He had signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 to cut funding for federal assistance such as food stamps, unemployment benefits, subsidized housing, and the Aid to Families with Dependent Children. He discontinued the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act. On the other side, defense spending doubled between 1981 and 1985. Reagan sought to loosen federal regulation of economic activities, and he appointed key officials who shared this agenda. The Reagan administration eliminated almost half of the federal regulations that had existed in 1981. These deficits were exacerbated by the early 1980s recession, which cut into federal revenue. The national debt tripled between the fiscal years of 1980 and 1989, and the national debt as a percentage of the gross domestic product rose from 33 percent in 1981 to 53 percent by 1989. During his time in office, Reagan never fulfilled his 1980 campaign promise of submitting a balanced budget. Have you ever heard of Reaganomics?
President Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)
Ronald Reagan was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989, usually known as the Reagan era. Ronald Reagan was raised in small towns in northern Illinois, and graduated from Dixon High School and then Eureka College in 1932. He worked as a sports broadcaster on several regional radio stations in Des Moines, Iowa. In 1936, while traveling with the Chicago Cubs to their spring training in California, Reagan took a movie screen test that led to a seven-year contract with Warner Bros. Reagan made thirty films, before beginning military service in April 1942. Throughout his military service, Reagan produced over 400 training films. In his most famous film, he portrayed Notre Dame running back George Gipp (1895-1920) in Knute Rockne, All American in 1940. I remember seeing this movie a few years later, when the dying Gipp told Rockne to win one for the Gipper, that became a famous line for Reagan. Thus, as a well-known film actor, he served twice as the president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1947 to 1952 and from 1959 to 1960. In 1940, Reagan married Jane Wyman, one of his co-stars. They had two biological daughters: Maureen in 1941, and Christine in 1947, and adopted one son, Michael, in 1945. Wyman filed to divorce Reagan in 1948. In 1949, Reagan met Nancy Davis and they married in 1952. They had two children, Patti in 1952, and Ron in 1958. During the 1950s, Reagan worked in television and introduced “General Electric Theater” every Sunday night, my fondest memory of Reagan as a kid. For me, GE and Ronald Reagan were synonymous. Reagan began as a Democrat, viewing Franklin D. Roosevelt as a true hero. However, he began shifting to the right when he supported the presidential campaigns of Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 and Richard Nixon in 1960. During the 1964 Republican Convention he gave his famous “A Time for Choosing” speech. In January 1966, Reagan announced his candidacy for the California governorship, repeating his stances on individual freedom and the role of government. His opponent was the incumbent governor Pat Brown, who attempted to label Reagan as an extremist. Reagan portrayed himself as a political outsider, since he was not a lawyer, like most politicians. He said that Brown was responsible for the Watts riots and lenient on crime. Reagan won the governorship with 57% of the vote. After challenging and losing to incumbent president Gerald Ford in the 1976 Republican presidential primaries, Reagan won the Republican nomination and then a landslide victory over incumbent Democratic president Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election, carrying 44 states. Evangelical Protestants became an increasingly important voting bloc on social issues, like abortion and gay rights, who supported Reagan. Reagan also won the backing of Reagan Democrats, because he focused much of his campaign on attacks against Carter’s foreign policy. Reagan stated his belief in states’ rights to reach out to Wallace-inclined voters. Reagan asked if they were better off than they were four years ago. However, he won the popular vote by a narrower margin, receiving nearly 51% to Carter’s 41% and Anderson’s 7%. In the United States Congress, Republicans won a majority of seats in the Senate for the first time since 1952, while Democrats retained the House of Representatives. In the 1984 presidential election, he defeated former Carter Vice President Walter Mondale in another big landslide victory, 525-13, as he carried 49 states, just like Nixon had done in 1972, while the popular vote was 59%-41%. Alzheimer’s disease hindered Reagan’s post-presidency that led to his death in 2004 at the age of 93. What do you know about President Ronald Reagan?
Gene Finnegan Remembers Living Eighty Wonderful Years 