1920
The Reagans move to Dixon, Ill., a town of 10,000 where Jack Reagan had become a partner in a shoe store. Ronald Reagan lives there until college. "Everyone has a place to go back to," the president once said. "For me, that place is Dixon."

1924
Reagan, 13, enters Northside High School in Dixon. He is elected student body president in his senior year. He also plays football and basketball and runs track, and in his junior year won a large part in the school play. He works summers as a lifeguard in Lowell Park, on the Rock River three miles north of town, earning $15 a week and claiming to have saved 77 people from drowning.

September 1928
Reagan enters Eureka College in Illinois. He chooses economics and sociology for his major subjects, because they afforded him more free time for things he liked better - dramatics, football and politics. He plays lead in most school plays and is elected student body president.

November 1928
A rousing speech by freshman Reagan ignites a first-ever student strike at Eureka over proposed course reductions and teacher layoffs. On Dec. 7, college President Bert Wilson resigns, and the classes were restored.

June 7, 1932
Reagan graduates from Eureka College with a bachelor's degree. After a final summer at Lowell Park, he decides to seek work as a radio sports announcer, setting out in his family's car to visit Midwest stations. He gets a job at his first stop, WOC in Davenport, Iowa. By April 1933, he works for sister station WHO in Des Moines, a 50,000-watt NBC affiliate, re-creating baseball games and providing live coverage of Big 10 football and other sports events, giving him a national reputation.

Spring 1937
While covering Chicago Cubs spring training at Catalina Island, Reagan tells a friend that he wants to become an actor. She introduces him to an agent who gets him a Warner Bros. screen test, which leads to a $200-per-week contract.

Jan. 26, 1940
Reagan, 28, marries actress Jane Wyman, 24, in Hollywood. The marriage produces a daughter, Maureen Elizabeth Reagan, and the couple adopts a son, Michael Edward Reagan, but divorces on June 28, 1948.

1940
After making some 20 "B-Grade" pictures, Reagan convinces the producer of "Knute Rockne - All American" to cast him as Notre Dame halfback George Gipp, whose career Reagan had followed as a sportscaster. The film's deathbed scene, in which Reagan, as Gipp, tells Rockne to have the team "win just one more for the Gipper," gives Reagan one of his best known lines, one he later uses on the campaign trail.

1941
Reagan appears in "Kings Row," widely thought to be his best cinematic performance, and the source of his second most memorable line, "Where's the rest of me?" - uttered when his character, Drake McHugh, wakes up after having his legs needlessly amputated by a sadistic surgeon. Reagan makes the line the title of his 1965 autobiography.

April 14, 1942
Reagan enters the U.S. Army, but is disqualified from combat duty by poor eyesight, spending most of the war making Air Force training films and discharged as a captain on Dec. 9, 1945.

1947
Reagan becomes president of the Screen Actors Guild and involved in liberal causes. "I was a near-hopeless hemophiliac liberal," he recalls in his book. "I was blindly and busily joining every organization I could find that would guarantee to save the world." As Guild president he maintains anti-communist views, appearing before the House un-American Activities Committee in October 1947 to downplay Communist influence in Hollywood. He later calls the committee "a pretty venal bunch." He serves as Guild president through 1952, and again from 1959-60. Leading negotiations in a strike that lead to a contract providing pay adjustments and medical benefits for Guild members.

March 4, 1952
Reagan marries actress Nancy Davis in Hollywood. She is believed by some to have been among his most valued advisers, and is also thought to have influenced his transformation to conservatism.

1954
Reagan is employed by the General Electric Co. as host of its dramatic series, "General Electric Theater." He toured the nation to make speeches with such titles as "Encroaching Controls" and "Our Eroding Freedoms." The job not only leads in part to the great name recognition that propels his political career, but also is thought to have promoted his turn from a liberal to a conservative defender of business.

Oct. 27, 1964
After making some 20 "B-Grade" pictures, Reagan convinces the producer of "Knute Rockne - All American" to cast him as Notre Dame halfback George Gipp, whose career Reagan had followed as a sportscaster. The film's deathbed scene, in which Reagan, as Gipp, tells Rockne to have the team "win just one more for the Gipper," gives Reagan one of his best known lines, one he later uses on the campaign trail.

Nov. 8, 1966
Reagan is elected governor with 57.8 percent of the vote over Democratic incumbent Edmund Brown. "I am an ordinary citizen with a deep-seated belief that much of what troubles us has been brought about by politicians," Reagan said during the race, in which he campaigned against high taxes and government spending.

June 13, 1967
Reagan signs a bill liberalizing California law to allow abortions in cases of rape and incest, or to protect the mother's mental and physical health. He signs the bill despite heavy lobbying by the Catholic Church and other foes.

July 1967
Reagan, with help from Democratic Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh, succeeds in getting legislative approval for a $1 billion tax increase - four times the size of any previously proposed - needed to cover a large state deficit left by Brown. It also funds new programs, such as community mental health centers, but is denounced by some conservatives. Additional tax hikes are approved in 1971 and 1972.

Feb. 5, 1969
Reagan declares a state of emergency and sends California Highway Patrol officers to the University of California, Berkeley, campus in response to violence during a strike by Third World students. Following a riot in May over the issue of People's Park, Reagan sends in the National Guard, which enforces an unofficial declaration of martial law in the city for 17 days.

November 1970
Reagan defeats former Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh for re-election, making a pledge to reform the state's welfare system, particularly the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program.

Aug. 19, 1976
President Gerald Ford narrowly wins the GOP nomination by 117 delegates over Reagan.

Nov. 13, 1979
After more than a year of preparation, Reagan announces his candidacy for president.

Feb. 23, 1980
After losing the Iowa caucuses to George H.W. Bush on Jan. 21, Reagan takes command of the GOP presidential nomination in a dispute over whether all candidates, or just Reagan and Bush, should appear at a Nashua, N.H., debate. "I am paying for this microphone," Reagan tells an official. He won the primary three days later.

July 17, 1980
Reagan accepts the nomination and names Bush his running mate after a brief flirtation with nominating Ford.

Nov. 4, 1980
Reagan defeats Carter for president, winning 51 percent of the vote to the incumbent's 41 percent, and winning 489 Electoral College votes to Carter's 49.

Jan. 20, 1981
Reagan is inaugurated as president, sounding the same anti-government themes that marked his entire career. "From time to time, we have been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by and of the people," he said. "But if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?"

Feb. 18, 1981
Reagan issues his first budget message, calling for $41 billion in cuts from the federal budget, reducing 83 programs, along with reductions in regulation of business and an income tax cut of 10 percent a year for three years.

March 30, 1981
Reagan is shot and wounded by John Hinckley Jr. in an assassination attempt at a Washington, D.C. hotel. He returns to full-time duties about a month later with a special address to Congress.

July 7, 1981
Reagan names Sandra Day O'Connor of Arizona to be the first woman justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

July 29, 1981
Congress approves Reagan's proposal for a three-year tax cut, a prime tenet of what became known as Reaganomics.

Oct. 23, 1981
The federal debt goes over the $1 trillion mark, belying Reagan's assertions that federal deficits could be brought under control. The debt would ultimately reach $2.7 trillion during his presidency.

Nov. 18, 1981
Reagan, in a televised speech, offers to cancel placing new American nuclear missiles in Europe if the Soviets would dismantle missiles already deployed. His pledge ultimately becomes the basis for the 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Force Treaty.

Dec. 1, 1981
Reagan authorizes $19 million to help Argentina train the first Contra force to battle Nicaragua's Sandinista government from Honduras. The Nicaraguan government later estimates that 29,270 were killed in the conflict.

July 2, 1982
Reagan agrees to send a contingent of U.S. troops as part of an international peacekeeping force between factions in Beirut, Lebanon.

March 8, 1983
Reagan, speakng in Orlando, Fla., refers to the Soviet Union as "an evil empire."

March 23, 1983
Reagan calls for deployment of a sophisticated anti-missile defense system, called the Strategic Defense Initiative, or "Star Wars." Reagan's support of this program is thought by many to have prompted Soviet willingness to negotiate for arms reductions.

April 29, 1983
In a dinner speech, Reagan quips, "They aren't calling it Reaganomics anymore," as the economy begins pulling out of the recession.

Oct. 23, 1983
A truck loaded with explosives is driven into the U.S. Marine compound at Beirut Airport, killing 241 of 346 servicemen sleeping there. Reagan remembers this as "the saddest day of my presidency, perhaps the saddest day of my life." U.S. troops would pull out of Lebanon three and oneÐhalf months later.

Oct. 24, 1983
Reagan approves a U.S. invasion of the Caribbean island of Grenada, responding to a coup attempt against its Marxist government and the perceived threat to more than 1,000 Americans living there.

Oct. 12, 1984
Reagan signs into law legislation that includes language barring use of any funds available to the CIA, Department of Defense or other intelligence agency for supporting, directly or indirectly, the Contra operations in Nicaragua.

Oct. 24, 1984
Reagan defuses the age issue with a quip during his second debate with Democratic nominee Walter Mondale. "I want you to know that ... I will not make age an issue of this campaign," he deadpans. "I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience."

Nov. 4, 1984
By the greatest electoral vote landslide in history, Reagan wins re-election over Mondale. He wins 50 percent of the popular vote and 40 states in the electoral vote balloting.

May 6, 1985
Reagan speaks at the Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp, and participates in a wreath-laying ceremony at the German military cemetery near Bitburg, where 40 members of the Nazi SS are buried amid 2,000 German soldiers. The latter ceremony is opposed by many Jews, but the Bergen-Belsen speech is remembered as one of Reagan's most moving.

July 17-18, 1985
Reagan writes a diary entry he says marks the start of the Iran-Contra affair, discussing feelers from Iranians about possible help to release American hostages in Lebanon. He meets with National Security Adviser Bud McFarlane advising him to pursue the contact.

Aug. 2, 1985
McFarlane presents a proposal to have Israel sell its anti-tank missiles, replaced by the United States, to Iran in return for release of U.S. hostages. Several days later, according to McFarlane, Reagan approves the plan, despite opposition from Secretary of State George Schultz and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger. The plan violates a U.S.-imposed embargo against Iran, as well as Reagan's policy of not giving weapons to terrorists.

Nov. 21, 1985
Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev conclude their first summit, pledging a 50-percent cut in nuclear arms, and to seek agreement on cuts on medium-range missiles in Europe.

Dec. 5, 1985
Reagan signs a finding drafted by a CIA attorney authorizing covert action, specifically the prior missile shipments to Iran, which are described as a straight trade of arms for hostages. It also orders CIA Director William Casey not to brief Congress on the exchange.

Jan. 28, 1986
Reagan comforts the nation following the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, which killed six astronauts and schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.

April 24, 1986
In retaliation for the bombing of a West German disco where an American serviceman was killed, Reagan orders the bombing of the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi, including the barracks headquarters of dictator Moammar Qadaffi.

May 19, 1986
Appearing at the White House News Photographers Association's annual dinner in Washington, the president placed his thumbs to his ears and wiggled his fingers at the photographers, saying, "I've been waiting for years to do this." It was not clear if the president knew the funny face was being carried live by C-Span, a cable television service that provides coverage of Washington events.

Oct. 14, 1986
A plane carrying arms and supplies to the Contras is downed by a Nicaraguan missile and its pilot is captured, beginning the unraveling of the Iran-Contra scandal.

March 4, 1987
In a televised speech, Reagan admits that the Iran initiative, as it unfolded, ended up as a trade of arms.

Dec. 8, 1987
At their Washington summit, Reagan and Gorbachev sign a treaty to eliminate nearly 2,700 missiles in Europe with a range of 300 to 3,400 miles, about 4 percent of their nuclear arsenals. It is the first U.S.-Soviet treaty to provide for destruction of nuclear weapons, and for on-site monitoring by the two nations.

Jan. 20, 1989
Reagan hands over the presidential reins to George Bush after 2,923 days in office.

Nov. 4, 1991
Five former presidents - George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon - gather in Simi Valley to celebrate the opening of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. It was the day Bush said of Reagan, "No leader since Churchill used words so effectively to help freedom unchain our world."

Nov. 5, 1994
In a handwritten letter addressed to the American people, Ronald Reagan says he has Alzheimer's disease. "I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life," he wrote, adding that he hoped his announcement would promote a greater awareness of the illness. "I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead. Thank you my friends. May God always bless you."

Sources: Biographies by Lou Cannon: "Ronnie and Jesse: A Political Odyssey," 1969; "Reagan," 1982; and "President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime," 1991. Also: "The Rise of Ronald Reagan," 1968, by Bill Boyarsky.