Reagan, Ronald

Born: February 6, 1911, Tampico, Illinois; Died: June 5, 2004, Bel Air, Los Angeles; Republican.  40th President of the United States, 1981-1989.  Governor of State of California, 1867-1975.  President, Screen Actors Guild, 1947-1952 and 1959-1960.  Democrat until 1962, at which time he switched to the Republican Party.  He quickly became a leading conservative spokesman for the Barry Goldwater Campaign in 1964.  Served in the U.S. Army Reserve, 1937-1945.  1940s, worked with FBI to root out communist sympathizers in Hollywood.  Testified before the House of Un-American Activities Committee.  Reagan’s efforts of accelerating U.S. military spending, and his speech at the Berlin Wall on June 12, 1987, are credited with leading to the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union (1991).