Timeline of the Ronald Reagan presidency

This article is part of a series about Ronald Reagan
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The presidency of Ronald Reagan began on January 20, 1981, when Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as the 40th president of the United States, and ended on January 20, 1989.

1981[]

1982[]

• January 4 – President Reagan sends a letter accepting National Security Advisor Richard Allen's resignation.^[1] Deputy Press Secretary Speakes describes President Reagan as having "deep regret" over Allen's departure.^[2]
• January 5 – President Reagan announces his nomination of Hugh W. Foster for Alternate Executive Director of the Inter-American Development Bank, and Harold J. Buoy for membership of the National Productivity Advisory Committee.^[3] President Reagan meets with Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Helmut Schmidt in the Oval Office at the White House. The two country leaders attend a luncheon together, and after Chancellor Schmidit departs, President Reagan delivers remarks on the White House's South Portico.^[4]
• January 7 – President Reagan releases a statement on the Registration Program continuation under the Military Selective Service Act.^[5]
• January 26 – President Reagan delivers the 1982 State of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress.
• May 31 – President Reagan announces open negotiations between the US and Soviet Union in Geneva on June 29.^[6]
• June 8 – President Reagan gives his "Ash heap of history" speech to the U.K. House of Commons.^[7]
• June 11 – President Reagan visits West Berlin for three hours, calling on the Soviet Union to move toward a freer society.^[8] Demonstrators number the thousands, holding signs calling the president a fascist, imploring him to return home, and calling for his assassination, the protest continuing even after the president left.^[9]
• June 29 – President Reagan signs a 25-year expansion of the 1965 Voting Rights Act during an East Room ceremony.^[10]
• September 3 – President Reagan signs the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982.
• October 13 – President Reagan signs the Job Training Partnership Act of 1982.
• October 15 – President Reagan signs the Garn–St. Germain Depository Institutions Act.

1983[]

• January 7 – President Reagan signs the Nuclear Waste Policy Act.
• January 25 – President Reagan delivers the 1983 State of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress.
• March 8 – President Reagan gives his "Evil empire" speech to the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida.
• March 10 – President Reagan establishes the U.S. exclusive economic zone.^[11][12]
• March 23 – President Reagan publicly announces the Strategic Defense Initiative, popularly known as "Star Wars".
• April 20 – President Reagan signs the Social Security Amendments of 1983.
• October 25 – The Invasion of Grenada begins, lasting until December 15.

1984[]

• January 25 – President Reagan delivers the 1984 State of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress.
• July 17 – President Reagan signs the National Minimum Drinking Age Act.
• July 18 – President Reagan signs the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984.
• September 28 – President Reagan signs the Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act.
• October 30 – President Reagan signs the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984.
• October 30 – President Reagan signs the Trade and Tariff Act of 1984.
• November 6 – President Reagan wins re-election against former Vice President Walter Mondale from Minnesota, the Democratic presidential nominee.

1985[]

• January 20 – Ronald Reagan is sworn into his second term as President of the United States by Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren E. Burger at the White House.
• January 21 – The President, Vice President, and other senior government officials participate in ceremonies related to the second inauguration of Ronald Reagan.
• February 6 – President Reagan delivers the 1985 State of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress.
• March 1 – During a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Reagan referred to the rebels of the Nicaraguan Government as a "moral equal of our Founding Fathers."^[13]
• April 19 – The White House announces President Reagan will be visiting the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp site. Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council Elie Wiesel calls on President Reagan, during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room, to not visit a cemetery where Nazis were buried and cited the president's place as with their victims.^[14]
• May 5 – President Reagan attends a ceremony in regards to 2,000 German soldiers in West Germany with Chancellor Helmut Kohl.^[15]
• June 4 – President Reagan meets with Senator from Utah Jake Garn and six of his colleagues from the fourth flight of Space Shuttle Discovery.^[16]
• July 13 – President Reagan undergoes a colon cancer surgery at Bethesda Naval Hospital. Vice President Bush serves as acting president for approximately eight hours, under section 3 of the 25th Amendment.
• November 19–20 – President Reagan attends the Geneva Summit.
• December 12 – President Reagan signs the Gramm–Rudman–Hollings Balanced Budget Act.

1986[]

• January 28 – President Reagan addresses the nation concerning the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
• February 4 – President Reagan delivers the 1986 State of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress, which he postponed due to the Challenger disaster.
• April 7 – President Reagan signs the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985.
• April 15 – 1986 United States bombing of Libya.
• May 19 – President Reagan signs the Firearm Owners Protection Act.
• June 6 – President Reagan creates the Federal Employees Retirement System.
• June 20 – President Reagan nominates William Rehnquist as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
• June 24 – President Reagan nominates Antonin Scalia to the Supreme Court.
• September 17 – The Senate confirms Antonin Scalia as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in a vote of 98–0.
• September 17 – The Senate confirms William Rehnquist as an Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in a vote of 65–33.
• September 26 – President Reagan vetoes the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act.
• October 1 – President Reagan signs the Goldwater–Nichols Act.
• October 2 – Congress overrides President Reagan's veto of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act; it becomes law this day.
• October 11–12 – President Reagan attends the Reykjavík Summit.
• October 22 – President Reagan signs the Surface Freight Forwarder Deregulation Act of 1986.
• October 26 – President Reagan signs the Tax Reform Act of 1986.
• November 3 – The Iran–Contra affair is first publicly revealed by a Lebanese magazine, due to a leak from Iranian official Mehdi Hashemi.
• November 6 – President Reagan signs the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.
• November 25 – U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese admits that profits from weapons sales to Iran were made available to assist the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. National Security Advisor John Poindexter resigns, and President Reagan fires National Security Council staff member Oliver North for his involvement in the affair.

1987[]

1988 – January 1989[]

References[]

External links[]

• Miller Center Reagan Presidential Timeline