President Ronald Wilson Reagan

top.reagan1.jpg

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — Former President Ronald Reagan died Saturday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 93.

Reagan led a conservative revolution that set the economic and cultural tone of the 1980s, hastened the end of the Cold War and revitalized the Republican Party. He suffered from Alzheimer’s disease since at least late 1994.

Reagan’s body is to lie in state at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, and at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., before his burial at the library.

Reagan disclosed in November 1994 in a passionate letter to the American people that he has Alzheimer’s disease. Reagan faded from public view a short time later and has been rarely seen outside his home.

The former Hollywood film actor stopped going to his Century City office in 1999 but still made trips to parks and enjoyed strolls on the Venice Beach boardwalk with his Secret Service contingent.

At 69, Reagan was the oldest man elected president when he was chosen on November 4, 1980, over incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter.

On March 30, 1981, Reagan was leaving a Washington hotel after addressing labor leaders when John Hinckley fired six gunshots at him. A bullet lodged an inch from Reagan’s heart, but he recovered fully.

Reagan has also undergone a 1985 colon cancer operation and 1987 prostate and skin-cancer surgery.

He fell and broke his hip in 2001, less than a month before his 90th birthday.

Former President Ronald Reagan died Saturday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 93.

Leave a Reply