40 Years Ago, Today
President Reagan is rushed to George Washington University Hospital
On March 30, 1981, President Reagan was shot outside a Washington, D.C. hotel by a meltdown named John Hinckley Jr.
The President had just finished addressing a labor meeting at the Washington Hilton Hotel and was walking to his limousine when Hinckley fired six shots at the president. Reagan and three others were hit. Press Secretary James Brady was shot in the head and critically wounded, Secret Service Agent Timothy McCarthy was shot in his side, and District of Columbia policeman Thomas Delahanty was shot in the neck. Hinckley was subsequently overpowered while Reagan was taken to George Washington University Hospital.
ninja sends.
40 years ago today, Ronald Reagan was shot outside a Washington hotel
The president survived the assassination attempt after being shot in the lung
By Ronn Blitzer
President Ronald Reagan had just finished delivering an address before the AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction union on March 30, 1981, when John Hinckley Jr. opened fire, shooting the 40th president and three others.
That happened 40 years ago today.
Reagan, who was quickly rushed into his limousine and taken to a hospital, was famously in good humor at George Washington University Hospital when he was about to undergo treatment.
“Honey, I forgot to duck,” Reagan told first lady Nancy Reagan before surgery. He also joked to his doctors, “Please tell me you’re Republicans.”
The president had suffered a collapsed lung as a result of the attack, but was in stable condition following surgery and resumed some of his official duties the day after the procedure.
Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy was shot in the side and D.C. Police Officer Thomas Delahanty was shot in the neck. Both men recovered.
Reagan press secretary James Brady was shot in the eye and suffered brain damage. He ultimately died in 2014, and law enforcement officials ruled his death a homicide due to its connection to the 1981 shooting.
It was very close- the president was shot in the left lung, with the .22 caliber bullet just missing his heart. Read the entire article here: Fox News
Thanks, ninja.
Category: Guest Link, ninja, We Remember
THANK YOU, AW1Ed, for posting this.
How many of us remember how President Reagan responded to a Heckler?
(31 second video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V_ksIrs7Y0
Rest In Peace, President Ronald Reagan and Nancy.
Ronald Reagan Owns A Heckler 3 November 1980 San Diego, CA:
When PCSing, it was smart to take a picture of your TV working, with a that-day newspaper in the picture. If anyone claimed your tube was broken, you could file the photo with your claim to prove the movers damaged it. When packing out of Ft. Meade in ’81, my picture shows this news on the TV. Pretty hard to dispute. Still have that photo.
David…
What are the chances of THAT happening?
Thank You for sharing…still hard to believe this happened 40 years ago…
Are there TAH readers out there who were born AFTER 30 March 1981?
Some of are old enough to also remember President Kennedy assasination (1963), Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr assasinations (1968),the attempted assasination of George C. Wallace (1972), President Richard Nixon resigning (1974) and the attempted assasination of President Gerald Ford (1975).
I remember all but JFK. I was just short of 1 year old on that day.
There are readers born after 30 March 1981, ninja.
I was born in ’88. I’m a young buck compared to most everyone else here. I started lurking 5 or 6 years ago when I stumbled across one of Jonn’s SV cases and I’ve kind of never left.
Not gunna lie, I enjoy the history lessons around here almost as much as the SV cases. While I’d like to think I’m better versed in history than most of my peers, I still get caught out pretty often on here. Never hurts to learn more.
If only the rest of my generation gave a shit about history, they might not be racing to support the current crop of progressive stupidity plauging us all…
1983. Still a young un.
Was in 5th grade when Reagan attempt happened. All education stopped and we watched the news most of the day and the next.
Was in 6th grade when Mr. Schweiz, one of the three 6th grade co-teachers, walked into the room and called for silence and attention. As a smart-ass, I said “maybe someone shot the President” to the guy sitting at the next desk. No idea why I said it… but it was 22 Nov. 1963.
I remember them all and have very specific memories of each one, but the one that sticks out for me is the Nixon resignation.
I was sitting on the floor of our living room watching the event with my father. My Ireland born, tough as nails father. A man who grew up during the Irish War of Independence. Dug ditches when he first came to America. Who didn’t work for two years during the Depression. Who, at the age of 34, volunteered the day after Pearl Harbor and survived North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Montecassino.
Maybe it was all the events culminating in Nixon resigning. All the chaos of the 60s. But I just happened to look back towards him and he just sat there on the couch, quietly sobbing. The country he loved was falling apart.
I was born in ‘84. The earliest major event I can remember seeing on TV was the Berlin Wall coming down.
A minor note, but the spacing on the article makes it look like it says:
Maybe add a line break or something?
Italics are your friend, LC, but very well.
Picky effin’ picky, LC.
Never saw you correcting Lars’ uncountable and egregious language blunders…
It’s the internet, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that you’re not serious. Mine was intended as a light-hearted comment because the lack of punctuation meant it read as some alternate reality where Ronn Blitzer shot Reagan.
There’s ‘fake news’, and there’s ‘alternate reality news’. The line may be close in some instances, but time-traveling reporters-turned-assassins makes it a whole different ballgame.
And now, 40 years later..
Who knew this would happen?
“John Hinckley Can Publicly Display His Artwork, Judge Rules” (The man who shot President Ronald Reagan said he wanted to “make money from my music and art.”)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/29/us/john-hinckley-art.html
I was driving over River Rouge on I-75 (the aroma of the area let’s anyone know they were home) on my way to get Opening Day tickets at Tiger Stadium when I heard the news on the radio – I thought it was going to be a JFK moment – remembering where you were when ‘it’ happened…
I voted for the “Gipper”, twice. Must admit, at the time I had mixed emotions over that. Felt just a tad of guilt in not voting for the Home State Boy, but realized that Jimmuh was gonna get even less done in his second term since his own party was not behind him. The warning signs of the burgeorging Deep State were obvious then when their chosen One, the lyin of the Senate, murderous rapist Teddy was not anointed to his rightful turn. Besides, Jimmuh really fornicated Fido when he gave away our canal. The STUPIDEST, IMO, thing that any President had ever done to date. And too, wasn’t sure how a Hollywood type, that happened to get elected as a Guv, would do on a National Level.
President Reagan, and his wife Nancy, were a class act and what the people of America needed at that time. I believe the Deep State thought that their man, George HW Bush, would be the man behind the curtain for them and Ron would be the figurehead that did their bidding. Big surprise all around. I also think the Bush the 1st (ht 2 Sapper3307) didn’t get the support he wanted when he couldn’t come thru for his handlers and push Ron in the direction they wanted him pushed.. That “Read my lips, no new taxes” thing bit him on the ass too.
Remember when we had leaders (not elected officials) that put the concerns and well being of this Country’s working taxpayers? Pepper Ridge Farms remembers.
We won’t even talk about what the so called “Brady Bill” did to the 2nd A.
KoB NAILED IT, NAILED IT, NAILED IT…
“…their chosen One, the lyin of the Senate, murderous rapist Teddy…”
On Jimmuh…
Have to admit I DID share this with my Buddies in the mid 1970s when they voted for Jimmuh:
“You’ll be sorry…”
How many of us remember the interest rates, the gas lines or no gas at all..
Lord help us if History repeats itself…(uh, oh, what did I just wrote….JINX!!!)
gabn/hbtd/rtr
Due to a delay entered active duty the day Jimmeh was sworn in. 1980 I delayed my reenlistment until after the election, figured I’d be dipped in shit rather than serve under him again. Reagan is the one of the few I voted FOR, mostly I have voted against the Dems and their platform. Can tell you where I was and what I was doing for every one except RFK.
We were in the Price is Right audience and Bob Barker announced President Reagan was shot…in between taping they kept us up to date…
I remember that day…Brandywine High School JV Baseball Opening Day…has been cancelled due to the assassination attempt on President Reagan. I can tell you 15 year-old me was upset…that baseball was cancelled. I’m glad The Gipper pulled through and became our Greatest President of My Lifetime. I probably went home and pouted while listening to Rush Moving pictures album on my Koss headphones.
Reagan gives a speech in West Berlin, and doesn’t flinch when a balloon pops.
I remember that. Both me and the rest of the family laughed our heads off.
“Missed me!”
Gosh I am old. Yes, the Gipper was the greatest President of my lifetime. It is sad that our country has yet to produce another leader of his caliber. He was the complete package and the last truly classy and dignified president we had.
I remember that day clearly. Was at Wainwright on duty, just after a safety briefing with our Pilot in Command. Walked into our Ops building and everyone was gathered around the TV.
There are things that people do that define the character of a person. The Reagan’s having dinner at the home of the president’s pen pal is one. Showed me what a class act he and Nancy were.
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/28822/ronald-reagan-and-his-six-year-old-pen-pal
I remember seeing him (on television) walking into the emergency room from the limo after he had been shot. Evidently he told the nurse “I’m having trouble breathing”.
I also remember Peter Jennings, the late Saint of Broadcast Journalism, interrupting an interviewee to report that Reagan may be undergoing open-heart surgery. The interviewee, a thoracic or cardiac surgeon (don’t remember exactly), visibly started sweating as Jennings started grilling him about the perils of open-heart surgery. I felt a lot of sympathy for that doctor. The report, as stated by Jennings, came from a reporter on a different floor at the hospital who overhead someone in a white coat saying something about open-heart surgery.
Fake news didn’t start with Trump. The coverage of the shooting of Reagan and its aftermath did not reflect favourably on those vaunted purveyors of “truth”.
I was in High School, maybe a Junior, because I wasn’t driving yet, because I was just about to get off the bus and on the driver’s comms radio I heard “PRESIDENT KENNEDY’S BEEN SHOT…and a pause, “I mean PRESIDENT REAGAN has been SHOT…must have been an “old timer” (Most were the local Firemen and such with that class license driving) and then we got off the bus and walked to my parent’s condo. I lived in Bethesda then, no too far from a rusted old Jag with the smell of sweat and alcohol vapors wafting off of it.
My brother was there as an independent photographer that day, he was a couple of years older than I and had just graduated from the Senate Page school…