It was on this date, 2 June, 2004 that America’s 40th President, Ronald Reagan died. Reagan had served two terms as Governor of California and launched two failed Presidential bids before defeating incumbent President Jimmy Carter in 1980. Notable moments in his administration include the 1983 invasion of the island nation of Grenada, the 1986 use of air strikes against ground targets in Libya, and his dramatic speech to the nation, commemorating the seven astronauts who perished in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in which he said,
The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave…We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God.
Trained as an actor in Hollywood, his film credits include Storm Warning, Knute Rockne All American, and Bedtime for Bonzo in which he played a Psychology Professor and co-starred with a chimpanzee.
