Erroneously attributed the "Ten Cannots" to Abraham Lincoln during the 1992 Republican National Convention ("You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong, etc.") Though Lincoln has been widely and inaccurately credited with the list, it was actually written by Reverend William J.H. Boetcker in 1916, over fifty years after Lincoln's assassination. Maryland Lieutenant Governor (and future RNC chairman)Michael Steele made the same mistake during his speech to the 2004 Republican Convention.
For two weeks in 1954, Reagan opened as a stand-up comic at the Ramona Room of the Hotel Last Frontier in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Governor of California. Term of service: 2 January 1967 - 6 January 1975.
Graduate of Eureka College (1932).
Had a photographic memory.
He never actually broadcast Cubs games, he re-created them from telegraph reports while working for Des Moines radio station WHO in the 1930s. He demonstrated the technique of making it sound like he was actually at the games to Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray when he made a guest appearance during part of a Cubs telecast in the 1980s.
He played Chicago Cubs hurler Grover Cleveland Alexander in the film, The Winning Team (1952). He also served temporarily, as a broadcaster for WGN Radio, which broadcasts Cubs baseball games.
He was offered, a role, in animation, of a guest appearance and an off screen voice, on "The Simpsons" (1989), but refused their offer.
He was the first former American president to die in the 21st Century.
He was the first president to beat the "zero factor." Before him, every president elected in a year ending in zero (beginning with 1840) had died in office.
He was the only United States President (as of 2005) to have been a member of a union (the Screen Actors Guild).
His closest friend in Hollywood was Robert Taylor.
His famous nickname "The Great Communicator", was not earned but was requested. Reagan asked for it during his farewell address in 1989.
His first bid for the Presidency was actually in 1968, when he finished 3rd in the balloting at the GOP national convention behind Richard Nixon and Nelson Rockefeller. As the Constitution, in practical terms, forbids the president and vice president from being from the same state (a rule that binds the electoral college), Reagan was not considered for the vice presidency when Spiro Agnew resigned in 1973. Besides, though Reagan supported his fellow Californian Nixon for president, the two were never close. In 1976, he challenged incumbent Gerald Ford (the man whom Nixon appointed Vice President to replace Agnew) for the Republican nomination, won several primaries, but narrowly lost the nomination at the convention. Though Ford confided in people he was considering a run for the presidency in 1980 to forestall Reagan's ascendancy, he never did and Reagan won the nomination and the presidency.
His last public appearance was at Richard Nixon's funeral in April 1994.
His state funeral service took place on the 25th anniversary of the death of his close friend and ally John Wayne.
Honored world champion surfer David Nuuhiwa with a gold medal for Merit.
In 1978, after having served as governor of California but before running for President, Reagan came out against The Briggs Initiative, a ballot initiative introduced by a right-wing Republican state senator named John Briggs, which would have made it illegal for homosexuals to be employed as teachers in the California school system. Reagan strongly and vocally opposed the measure, saying that it infringed upon basic human rights and bordered on being unconstitutional. He is largely credited for turning public opinion against the measure and it was defeated in the election.