Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States. Before that, he was the 33rd Governor of California and also a radio, film, and television actor. Reagan was born and raised in Illinois. He was a Democrat at first, until the 1950s when he shifted to the Republican side. Reagan served as President from 1981-1989, with George H.W. Bush as his running mate. Incumbent President Jimmy Carter was his opponent in 1980, and former Vice President Walter Mondale was his opponent in the 1984 election. In order to make sure that no one from another country, or anyone too young, can run for President, there are three Constitutional qualifications for the office of President. First, the President must be a natural-born U.S. citizen. Next, he must be at least 35 years old. Lastly, he must have resided in the United States for at least 14 years. We also have informal qualifications, one being political experience, such as a governor or senator. Reagan attended Dixon High School, then Eureka College in Illinois. After college, he moved to Iowa and enlisted in the Army Enlisted Reserve as a private, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Officers Reserve Corps. He was in active duty for three years, but never went overseas. He was governor of California for two terms (1966-1974). Reagan won his first Presidency in 1980, and as he was giving his inaugural address, 52 U.S. hostages being held by Iran for 444 days, were set free. After only sixty-nine days into his administration, he was victim of an assassination attempt and was close to death during surgery, but survived, making him the first serving U.S. President to survive being shot in an assassination attempt. Reagan also helped the economy with his “Reaganomics,” or “trickle-down-economics”, by implementing policies based on supply-side economics, advocating a classical liberal and laissez-faire philosophy, trying to stimulate the economy with large, across-the-board tax cuts. Two other major events that happened during his first Presidency were 1. during the Lebanese Civil War that killed 241 American servicemen, Reagan ordered U.S. forces to invade Grenada, code named Operation Urgent Fury; and 2. he escalated the Cold War and administered what would be known as the “Reagan Doctrine.” During Reagan’s second Presidential campaign, he became the first American President to open an Olympic Games