NEWS: Reagan - A Photo Biography, page 1

Going along with our ATSNN coverage we're now bringing you a photographic log of the Presidents life...

Born on February 6, 1911, to Jack and Nelle Reagan, Ronald Wilson Reagan spent his childhood days contending with his father's alcoholism and his family's strained finances...

Born on February 6, 1911, to Jack and Nelle Reagan, Ronald Wilson Reagan spent his childhood days contending with his father's alcoholism and his family's strained finances. Amid problems at home in Dixon, Illinois, young Reagan found optimism in exploring the outdoors, ice skating and religion.

This family photograph shows Jack and Nelle with Ronald, youngest, and brother Neil.

In 1932, Reagan graduated with a degree in economics and sociology from Eureka College in Illinois. He spent the next five years in the radio business, perfecting his speaking style as a local announcer. He often delivered colorful play-by-play accounts of baseball games that were based solely on telegraphs.

From 1934 to 1937, Reagan worked at WHO radio station in Iowa.

In 1941, Reagan joined the war effort. His poor eyesight had kept him from combat, so he was assigned to make military training films for pilots.

At the time, Reagan considered himself a New Deal Democrat, but inefficient military red tape left him disenchanted with a growing bureaucracy.

Reagan met his second wife, Nancy Davis, while president of the Screen Actors Guild, a position he used to help defend colleagues that he believed had been wrongfully blacklisted. The couple had two children, Patricia Ann and Ronald Prescott.

In 1964, Reagan backed Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater with a 30-minute political advertisement condemning big government and calling for tax reform -- themes that would become Reagan's conservative mantra for the next 24 years.

The speech helped him launch a 1966 bid for the governorship of California, which he won.

After winning the gubernatorial race against five candidates, Reagan and his family set off for Sacramento and embraced life in the public eye. During his two terms, Reagan cut spending on health, education and welfare -- and kept an eye on the White House.

A 1967 family photo includes Reagan, Ron Jr., Nancy and Patti.

After defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter for the presidency in 1980, Reagan said at his inauguration, "Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."

For the next eight years, Reagan would confront two issues: One was the economy, and the other, which he deemed "the focus of evil in the modern world," was communism.

Here, Reagan is sworn in on Inauguration Day in Washington in 1981.

Shortly after taking office, Reagan was shot by John Hinkley Jr. outside a Washington hotel on March 30, 1981. The bullet was lodged just inches from his heart, but Reagan's speedy recovery served to boost his optimism and his legend.

On September 25, 1981, Sandra Day O'Connor, an Arizona Appeals Court judge, was sworn in as America's first woman Supreme Court justice. Reagan was no favorite of the feminists, with his strict anti- abortion stand, but O'Connor was a moderate conservative.

Here, Reagan and O'Connor meet at the White House in July 1981.

In 1983, 241 troops were killed in a truck bombing at the U.S. Marine compound in Beirut, Lebanon. Extremists still held Americans hostage in Lebanon when Reagan left office in 1988.

Here, the Reagans honor victims of the explosion.

Four More in '84

At 73, Reagan became the oldest American to be elected president, winning the 1984 election against former Vice President Walter Mondale.

Here, Reagan gives his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Dallas

The Berlin Wall did not come down on his watch, but it did come down. In June 1987, in a speech outside the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, Reagan said, "Mr. Gorbechev, tear down this wall."

"We did not, repeat, did not trade weapons or anything else for hostages, nor will we," Reagan said to the American public in a live broadcast from the Oval Office on November 13, 1986.

The president also denied knowing anything about money from arms sales to Iran being used to fund the Contra guerrillas in Nicaragua. Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North and others in Reagan's administration operated the secret arms pipeline, which was disclosed in 1986.

A Deal with the Soviets

Fireside chats with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva in 1985 began thawing Cold War relations between the two superpowers. After four meetings, the two were calling each other by their first names.

In 1987, Reagan and Gorbachev signed the INF Treaty to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles.

End of an Era

After eight years in office, the Reagans said goodbye to their successors and friends George and Barbara Bush as they left the White House in 1989.

The Great Communicator, as Reagan was called, changed the way the White House did business, creating the well-staged presidency.

83rd Birthday

In 1994, Reagan celebrated what he called the 44th anniversary of his 39th birthday. Later that year, he informed the nation in a handwritten note that he had Alzheimer's disease. He hoped the gesture would raise public awareness about the irreversible brain disease.

A passage from his note read, "When the Lord calls me home, whenever that day may be, I will leave with the greatest love for this country of ours and eternal optimism for its future."

1911~2004

Five years after leaving office, the nation's 40th president told the world in November 1994 that he had been diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer's, an incurable illness that destroys brain cells. He said he had begun "the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life."

That sun has set.

R.I.P. Ronald W Reagan. 40th President of the United States.

[Edited on 5-6-2004 by Nerdling]