Former U.S. president Ronald Reagan dead

Former U.S. president Ronald Reagan, who transformed conservative American politics in the 1980s, died Saturday after a 10-year battle with Alzheimer's disease. He was 93.

Reagan was president from 1981 to 1989. Domestically, he will be remembered for cutting taxes, slashing government programs and running up large deficits, mainly because of increased spending on the U.S. military.

Many credit his intensifying of the arms race for hastening the collapse of the Soviet Union and ending the Cold War.

Reagan, a staunch anti-communist, had taken a strong stand against the Soviet Union, which he dubbed the "evil empire."

• CBC ARCHIVES: Ronald Reagan

In his second term in office, however, Reagan seemed to soften his stand, developing a more conciliatory relationship with the Soviets.

President George Bush, speaking from France Saturday where he is to attend a D-Day memorial, said Reagan "leaves behind a nation he restored and a world he helped save."

• OBITUARY: Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was born Feb. 6, 1911 in Tampico, Ill., the youngest of two sons of Nellie and John Reagan.

He worked as a radio announcer before making his film debut in 1937 in Love Is On the Air

One of his most famous roles came three years later when he played the Gipper in Knute Rockne: All-American.

In all, he appeared in 53 films.

He became active in politics in the 1950s and was elected as the Republican governor of California in 1966, winning a second term in 1970.

Reagan unsuccessfully challenged President Gerald Ford in the Republican presidential primaries in 1976, but on Nov. 4, 1980, he was elected president over incumbent Jimmy Carter.

An eventful term

His first term as the 40th president of the United States was an eventful one.

On March 30, 1981, he was wounded when a drifter named John Hinckley fired six shots at him as he left a Washington hotel after giving a speech.

One of the bullets hit him, striking within a few centimetres of his heart.

In August 1981, he outraged organized labour by firing more than 11,000 air traffic controllers after they went on strike against the Federal Aviation Administration.

Reagan also ordered the invasion of the island of Grenada in October 1983 after a leftist coup there.

Reagan was re-elected in 1984.

During his second term, he increased military spending, starting the strategic defence initiative, which quickly became known as Star Wars.

Scandal touched the administration in November 1986 when the Iran-Contra affair became public.

The White House admitted selling arms to Iran. About $30 million of the profits were sent to Nicaraguan rebels, know as Contras, to finance their fight against that country's government.

Reagan had a good working relationship with the then prime minister Brian Mulroney.

That bond was never more apparent than at the so-called Shamrock Summit in Quebec City in 1985, when the two leaders, both of Irish heritage, sang When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.

"He was a very strong, powerful leader who did a lot of good for the world," Mulroney said Saturday. "Ronald Reagan has become an icon."

Prime Minister Paul Martin also issued a statement following Reagan's death. He said Reagan's leadership "served to define an era of sweeping geo-political change."

In November 1994, five years after leaving office, Reagan revealed that he had been diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer's, a disease that slowly destroys brain cells.

Reagan held a number of political records. At 69, he was the oldest person elected U.S. president and became the longest-lived person to have served in that post.

Ronald Reagan is survived by his wife of over four decades, Nancy, and children Patricia, Ronald Jr. and Michael. Maureen Reagan, his daughter with actress Jane Wyman, died of cancer in 2001.