Previously featured Irish Americans:
Day 1, Patrick Kane: https://patriots.win/p/12hkTjM7RG/
Day 2, Commodore John Barry: https://patriots.win/p/12hkTnthuz/
Day 3, John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara: https://patriots.win/p/12hkYNmV8K/
Day 4, Lt. Audie Murphy: https://patriots.win/p/12hkYTRNo1/
Day 5, Michael Collins: https://patriots.win/p/12hkd3InNQ/
Day 6, The McDonald Brothers: https://patriots.win/p/12hkd7pHKZ/
Day 7, Fathers of Boxing - Sullivan, Corbett, and Tunney: https://patriots.win/p/12hkdBDvBw/
Day 8, Eirechitects - James Hoban and Louis Sullivan: https://patriots.win/p/12hkhl5cHQ/
Day 9, Ed Sullivan: https://patriots.win/p/12hkhpdkeq/
Day 10, Slammin' Sammy Snead: https://patriots.win/p/12hkmPVAMT/
Day 11, Gen. Stephen Kearny: https://patriots.win/p/12hkmU2kRd/
Day 12, Tom Brady: https://patriots.win/p/12hkmZgWqx/
Day 13, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity: https://patriots.win/p/12hkr8PHmw/
Day 14, John Philip Holland: https://patriots.win/p/12hkrBpIAA/
Day 15, Regis Philbin: https://patriots.win/p/12hkrFFqhV/
Day 16, Henry Ford: https://patriots.win/p/12hkvqDCLw/
St. Patrick's Day, IAHM Collage featuring honorary Irish-Americans Trump and Pepe: https://patriots.win/p/12hkvteJ3X/
Day 18, Andrew Jackson: https://patriots.win/p/12hl0TShxF/
Day 19, Billy the Kid and Wyatt Earp: https://patriots.win/p/12hl0Y2DVi/
Day 20, Walt Disney (the man, not the company): https://patriots.win/p/12hl0dgobM/
Day 21, Sen. Joe McCarthy: https://patriots.win/p/12hl5CPZ0G/
Day 22, Bing Crosby: https://patriots.win/p/12hl5FqOiy/
Day 23, Edgar Allen Poe: https://patriots.win/p/12i3l8RU4u/
Day 24, The Unsinkable Molly Brown: https://patriots.win/p/12i3lD1GDh/
Day 25, Kayleigh McEnany: https://patriots.win/p/12i3lIf2hA/
Day 26, JFK and Jackie: https://patriots.win/p/12i3psWBcG/
Day 27, Ronald Reagan: https://patriots.win/p/12i3pvvNJL/
Day 28, The Venerable Fulton Sheen: https://patriots.win/p/12i3uVn4bB/
Day 29, Molly Pitcher (Margaret Corbin): https://patriots.win/p/12i3uZDdbV/
Day 30, Novelists - Fitzgerald, Baum, and Dick: https://patriots.win/p/12i3udkfS9/
Okay, so they aren't actually all ballplayers. Slip of the keyboard.
Clockwise: Vin Scully, GOAT announcer and baseball poet; Nolan Ryan, "The Ryan Express"; Wade Boggs, BoSox first-ballot HOFer; "The Mayor" Sean Casey, owner of the best Irish baseball name of all time; ("Ya gotta believe." ~)Tug McGraw; and Cornelius "Connie Mack" McGillicuddy, the longest-serving, winningest manager of all time.
Previously featured Irish Americans:
Day 1, Patrick Kane: https://patriots.win/p/12hkTjM7RG/
Day 2, Commodore John Barry: https://patriots.win/p/12hkTnthuz/
Day 3, John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara: https://patriots.win/p/12hkYNmV8K/
Day 4, Lt. Audie Murphy: https://patriots.win/p/12hkYTRNo1/
Day 5, Michael Collins: https://patriots.win/p/12hkd3InNQ/
Day 6, The McDonald Brothers: https://patriots.win/p/12hkd7pHKZ/
Day 7, Fathers of Boxing - Sullivan, Corbett, and Tunney: https://patriots.win/p/12hkdBDvBw/
Day 8, Eirechitects - James Hoban and Louis Sullivan: https://patriots.win/p/12hkhl5cHQ/
Day 9, Ed Sullivan: https://patriots.win/p/12hkhpdkeq/
Day 10, Slammin' Sammy Snead: https://patriots.win/p/12hkmPVAMT/
Day 11, Gen. Stephen Kearny: https://patriots.win/p/12hkmU2kRd/
Day 12, Tom Brady: https://patriots.win/p/12hkmZgWqx/
Day 13, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity: https://patriots.win/p/12hkr8PHmw/
Day 14, John Philip Holland: https://patriots.win/p/12hkrBpIAA/
Day 15, Regis Philbin: https://patriots.win/p/12hkrFFqhV/
Day 16, Henry Ford: https://patriots.win/p/12hkvqDCLw/
St. Patrick's Day, IAHM Collage featuring honorary Irish-Americans Trump and Pepe: https://patriots.win/p/12hkvteJ3X/
Day 18, Andrew Jackson: https://patriots.win/p/12hl0TShxF/
Day 19, Billy the Kid and Wyatt Earp: https://patriots.win/p/12hl0Y2DVi/
Day 20, Walt Disney (the man, not the company): https://patriots.win/p/12hl0dgobM/
Day 21, Sen. Joe McCarthy: https://patriots.win/p/12hl5CPZ0G/
Day 22, Bing Crosby: https://patriots.win/p/12hl5FqOiy/
Day 23, Edgar Allen Poe: https://patriots.win/p/12i3l8RU4u/
Day 24, The Unsinkable Molly Brown: https://patriots.win/p/12i3lD1GDh/
Day 25, Kayleigh McEnany: https://patriots.win/p/12i3lIf2hA/
Day 26, JFK and Jackie: https://patriots.win/p/12i3psWBcG/
Day 27, Ronald Reagan: https://patriots.win/p/12i3pvvNJL/
Day 28, The Venerable Fulton Sheen: https://patriots.win/p/12i3uVn4bB/
Day 29, Molly Pitcher (Margaret Corbin): https://patriots.win/p/12i3uZDdbV/
From top to bottom and left to right: F. Scott Fitzgerald and his magnum opus, The Great Gatsby, the children's classic The Wizard of Oz and its author, L. Frank Baum, and science fiction master Philip K. Dick and his book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the inspiration behind Blade Runner.
From Wikipedia:
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and Short story writer. He was best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term which he popularized. During his lifetime, he published four novels, four collections of short stories, and 164 short stories. Although he temporarily achieved popular success and fortune in the 1920s, Fitzgerald only received wide critical and popular acclaim after his death. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.
Fitzgerald was born into an upper-middle-class family in St. Paul, Minnesota, but was primarily raised in New York. He attended Princeton University, but due to a failed relationship and a preoccupation with writing, he dropped out in 1917 to join the Army. While stationed in Alabama, he fell in love with rich socialite Zelda Sayre. Although she initially rejected him due to his financial situation, Zelda agreed to marry Fitzgerald after he had published the commercially successful This Side of Paradise (1920).
In the 1920s, Fitzgerald frequented Europe, where he was influenced by the modernist writers and artists of the "Lost Generation" expatriate community, particularly Ernest Hemingway. His second novel, The Beautiful and Damned (1922), propelled him into the New York City elite. To maintain his lifestyle during this time, he also wrote several stories for magazines. His third novel, The Great Gatsby (1925), was inspired by his rise to fame and relationship with Zelda. Although it received mixed reviews, The Great Gatsby is now widely praised, with some even labeling it the "Great American Novel". While Zelda was placed at a mental institute for her schizophrenia, Fitzgerald completed his final novel, Tender Is the Night (1934).
Faced with financial difficulties due to the declining popularity of his works, Fitzgerald turned to Hollywood, writing and revising screenplays. After a long struggle with alcoholism, he died in 1940, at the age of 44. A fifth, unfinished novel, The Last Tycoon (1941), was completed by Edmund Wilson and published after Fitzgerald's death.
L. Frank Baum
Lyman Frank Baum (May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author best known for his children's books, particularly The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its sequels. He wrote 14 novels in the Oz series, plus 41 other novels (not including four lost, unpublished novels), 83 short stories, over 200 poems, and at least 42 scripts. He made numerous attempts to bring his works to the stage and screen; the 1939 adaptation of the first Oz book became a landmark of 20th-century cinema.
Born and raised in Upstate New York, Baum moved west after an unsuccessful stint as a theater producer and playwright. He and his wife opened a store in South Dakota and he edited and published a newspaper. They then moved to Chicago, where he worked as a newspaper reporter and published children's literature, coming out with the first Oz book in 1900. While continuing his writing, among his final projects he sought to establish a movie studio focused on children's films in Los Angeles, California.
His works anticipated such later commonplaces as television, augmented reality, laptop computers (The Master Key), wireless telephones (Tik-Tok of Oz), women in high-risk and action-heavy occupations (Mary Louise in the Country), and the ubiquity of clothes advertising (Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work).
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982) was an American writer known for his work in science fiction. He wrote 44 published novels and approximately 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. His fiction explored varied philosophical and social themes, and featured recurrent elements such as alternate realities, simulacra, monopolistic corporations, drug abuse, authoritarian governments, and altered states of consciousness. His work was concerned with questions surrounding the nature of reality, perception, human nature, and identity.
Born in Chicago, Dick moved to the San Francisco Bay Area with his family at a young age. He began publishing science fiction stories in 1952. His stories initially found little commercial success, but his 1962 alternative history novel The Man in the High Castle earned Dick early acclaim, including a Hugo Award for Best Novel. He followed with science fiction novels such as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) and Ubik (1969). His 1974 novel Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Following a series of religious experiences in 1974, Dick's work engaged more explicitly with issues of theology, philosophy, and the nature of reality, as in novels A Scanner Darkly (1977) and VALIS (1981). A collection of his nonfiction writing on these themes was published posthumously as The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick (2011). He died in 1982 in Santa Ana, California, at the age of 53, due to complications from a stroke.
Dick's posthumous influence has been widespread, extending beyond literary circles into Hollywood filmmaking. Popular films based on Dick's works include Blade Runner (1982), Total Recall (adapted twice: in 1990 and in 2012), Minority Report (2002), A Scanner Darkly (2006), and The Adjustment Bureau (2011). Beginning in 2015, Amazon produced the multi-season television adaptation The Man in the High Castle based on Dick's 1962 novel, and in 2017 Channel 4 began producing the ongoing anthology series Electric Dreams based on various Dick stories. In 2005, Time magazine named Ubik (1969) one of the hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923. In 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer ever to be included in The Library of America series.
Previously featured Irish Americans:
Day 1, Patrick Kane: https://patriots.win/p/12hkTjM7RG/
Day 2, Commodore John Barry: https://patriots.win/p/12hkTnthuz/
Day 3, John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara: https://patriots.win/p/12hkYNmV8K/
Day 4, Lt. Audie Murphy: https://patriots.win/p/12hkYTRNo1/
Day 5, Michael Collins: https://patriots.win/p/12hkd3InNQ/
Day 6, The McDonald Brothers: https://patriots.win/p/12hkd7pHKZ/
Day 7, Fathers of Boxing - Sullivan, Corbett, and Tunney: https://patriots.win/p/12hkdBDvBw/
Day 8, Eirechitects - James Hoban and Louis Sullivan: https://patriots.win/p/12hkhl5cHQ/
Day 9, Ed Sullivan: https://patriots.win/p/12hkhpdkeq/
Day 10, Slammin' Sammy Snead: https://patriots.win/p/12hkmPVAMT/
Day 11, Gen. Stephen Kearny: https://patriots.win/p/12hkmU2kRd/
Day 12, Tom Brady: https://patriots.win/p/12hkmZgWqx/
Day 13, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity: https://patriots.win/p/12hkr8PHmw/
Day 14, John Philip Holland: https://patriots.win/p/12hkrBpIAA/
Day 15, Regis Philbin: https://patriots.win/p/12hkrFFqhV/
Day 16, Henry Ford: https://patriots.win/p/12hkvqDCLw/
St. Patrick's Day, IAHM Collage featuring honorary Irish-Americans Trump and Pepe: https://patriots.win/p/12hkvteJ3X/
Day 18, Andrew Jackson: https://patriots.win/p/12hl0TShxF/
Day 19, Billy the Kid and Wyatt Earp: https://patriots.win/p/12hl0Y2DVi/
Day 20, Walt Disney (the man, not the company): https://patriots.win/p/12hl0dgobM/
Day 21, Sen. Joe McCarthy: https://patriots.win/p/12hl5CPZ0G/
Day 22, Bing Crosby: https://patriots.win/p/12hl5FqOiy/
Day 23, Edgar Allen Poe: https://patriots.win/p/12i3l8RU4u/
Day 24, The Unsinkable Molly Brown: https://patriots.win/p/12i3lD1GDh/
Day 25, Kayleigh McEnany: https://patriots.win/p/12i3lIf2hA/
Day 26, JFK and Jackie: https://patriots.win/p/12i3psWBcG/
Day 27, Ronald Reagan: https://patriots.win/p/12i3pvvNJL/
Day 28, The Venerable Fulton Sheen: https://patriots.win/p/12i3uVn4bB/
From Wikipedia:
Margaret Cochran Corbin (November 12, 1751 – January 16, 1800) was a woman who fought in the American Revolutionary War. On November 16, 1776, her husband, John Corbin, was one of some 600 American soldiers defending Fort Washington in northern Manhattan from 4,000 attacking Hessian troops under British command. Margaret, too nervous to let her husband go into battle alone, decided she wanted to go with him. Since she was a nurse, she was allowed to accompany her husband as a nurse for injured soldiers. John Corbin was on the crew of one of two cannons the defenders deployed; when he fell in action, Margaret Corbin took his place and continued to work the cannon until she too was seriously wounded. It is said that Corbin was standing next to her husband when he fell during battle. Immediately, she took his post, and because she had watched her husband, a trained artilleryman, fire the cannon so much, she was able to fire, clean and aim the cannon with great ease and speed. This impressed the other soldiers and was the beginning of her military career. She later became the first woman in U.S. history to receive a pension from Congress for military service when she could no longer work due to injury, and was enlisted into the Corps of Invalids.
Previously featured Irish Americans:
Day 1, Patrick Kane: https://patriots.win/p/12hkTjM7RG/
Day 2, Commodore John Barry: https://patriots.win/p/12hkTnthuz/
Day 3, John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara: https://patriots.win/p/12hkYNmV8K/
Day 4, Lt. Audie Murphy: https://patriots.win/p/12hkYTRNo1/
Day 5, Michael Collins: https://patriots.win/p/12hkd3InNQ/
Day 6, The McDonald Brothers: https://patriots.win/p/12hkd7pHKZ/
Day 7, Fathers of Boxing - Sullivan, Corbett, and Tunney: https://patriots.win/p/12hkdBDvBw/
Day 8, Eirechitects - James Hoban and Louis Sullivan: https://patriots.win/p/12hkhl5cHQ/
Day 9, Ed Sullivan: https://patriots.win/p/12hkhpdkeq/
Day 10, Slammin' Sammy Snead: https://patriots.win/p/12hkmPVAMT/
Day 11, Gen. Stephen Kearny: https://patriots.win/p/12hkmU2kRd/
Day 12, Tom Brady: https://patriots.win/p/12hkmZgWqx/
Day 13, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity: https://patriots.win/p/12hkr8PHmw/
Day 14, John Philip Holland: https://patriots.win/p/12hkrBpIAA/
Day 15, Regis Philbin: https://patriots.win/p/12hkrFFqhV/
Day 16, Henry Ford: https://patriots.win/p/12hkvqDCLw/
St. Patrick's Day, IAHM Collage featuring honorary Irish-Americans Trump and Pepe: https://patriots.win/p/12hkvteJ3X/
Day 18, Andrew Jackson: https://patriots.win/p/12hl0TShxF/
Day 19, Billy the Kid and Wyatt Earp: https://patriots.win/p/12hl0Y2DVi/
Day 20, Walt Disney (the man, not the company): https://patriots.win/p/12hl0dgobM/
Day 21, Sen. Joe McCarthy: https://patriots.win/p/12hl5CPZ0G/
Day 22, Bing Crosby: https://patriots.win/p/12hl5FqOiy/
Day 23, Edgar Allen Poe: https://patriots.win/p/12i3l8RU4u/
Day 24, The Unsinkable Molly Brown: https://patriots.win/p/12i3lD1GDh/
Day 25, Kayleigh McEnany: https://patriots.win/p/12i3lIf2hA/
Day 26, JFK and Jackie: https://patriots.win/p/12i3psWBcG/
Day 27, Ronald Reagan: https://patriots.win/p/12i3pvvNJL/
I'm not a Catholic, but Sheen was a skilled orator and a better preacher than most Protestant televangelists I've heard.
From Wikipedia:
Fulton John Sheen (born Peter John Sheen, May 8, 1895 – December 9, 1979) was an American bishop (later archbishop) of the Catholic Church known for his preaching and especially his work on television and radio. Ordained a priest of the Diocese of Peoria in 1919, Sheen quickly became a renowned theologian, earning the Cardinal Mercier Prize for International Philosophy in 1923. He went on to teach theology and philosophy at the Catholic University of America as well as acting as a parish priest before being appointed Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of New York in 1951. He held this position until 1966 when he was made the Bishop of Rochester. He resigned in 1969 as his 75th birthday approached, and was made the Archbishop of the titular see of Newport, Wales.
For 20 years as Father Sheen, later Monsignor, he hosted the night-time radio program The Catholic Hour on NBC (1930–1950) before moving to television and presenting Life Is Worth Living (1952–1957). Sheen's final presenting role was on the syndicated The Fulton Sheen Program (1961–1968) with a format very similar to that of the earlier Life is Worth Living show. For this work, Sheen twice won an Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality, and was featured on the cover of Time Magazine. Starting in 2009, his shows were being re-broadcast on the EWTN and the Trinity Broadcasting Network's Church Channel cable networks. Due to his contribution to televised preaching, Sheen is often referred to as one of the first televangelists.
The cause for his canonization was officially opened in 2002. In June 2012, Pope Benedict XVI officially recognized a decree from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints stating that he lived a life of "heroic virtues" – a major step towards beatification – and he is now referred to as "Venerable." On July 5, 2019, Pope Francis approved a miracle that occurred through the intercession of Archbishop Sheen, clearing the way for his beatification. Sheen was scheduled to be beatified in Peoria on December 21, 2019, but the beatification was postponed after the current bishop of Rochester expressed concern that Sheen's handling of a 1963 sexual misconduct case against a priest might be cited unfavorably in a forthcoming report from the New York Attorney General. The Diocese of Peoria countered that Sheen's handling of the case had already been "thoroughly examined" and "exonerated" and that Sheen had "never put children in harm's way."
Previously featured Irish Americans:
Day 1, Patrick Kane: https://patriots.win/p/12hkTjM7RG/
Day 2, Commodore John Barry: https://patriots.win/p/12hkTnthuz/
Day 3, John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara: https://patriots.win/p/12hkYNmV8K/
Day 4, Lt. Audie Murphy: https://patriots.win/p/12hkYTRNo1/
Day 5, Michael Collins: https://patriots.win/p/12hkd3InNQ/
Day 6, The McDonald Brothers: https://patriots.win/p/12hkd7pHKZ/
Day 7, Fathers of Boxing - Sullivan, Corbett, and Tunney: https://patriots.win/p/12hkdBDvBw/
Day 8, Eirechitects - James Hoban and Louis Sullivan: https://patriots.win/p/12hkhl5cHQ/
Day 9, Ed Sullivan: https://patriots.win/p/12hkhpdkeq/
Day 10, Slammin' Sammy Snead: https://patriots.win/p/12hkmPVAMT/
Day 11, Gen. Stephen Kearny: https://patriots.win/p/12hkmU2kRd/
Day 12, Tom Brady: https://patriots.win/p/12hkmZgWqx/
Day 13, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity: https://patriots.win/p/12hkr8PHmw/
Day 14, John Philip Holland: https://patriots.win/p/12hkrBpIAA/
Day 15, Regis Philbin: https://patriots.win/p/12hkrFFqhV/
Day 16, Henry Ford: https://patriots.win/p/12hkvqDCLw/
St. Patrick's Day, IAHM Collage featuring honorary Irish-Americans Trump and Pepe: https://patriots.win/p/12hkvteJ3X/
Day 18, Andrew Jackson: https://patriots.win/p/12hl0TShxF/
Day 19, Billy the Kid and Wyatt Earp: https://patriots.win/p/12hl0Y2DVi/
Day 20, Walt Disney (the man, not the company): https://patriots.win/p/12hl0dgobM/
Day 21, Sen. Joe McCarthy: https://patriots.win/p/12hl5CPZ0G/
Day 22, Bing Crosby: https://patriots.win/p/12hl5FqOiy/
Day 23, Edgar Allen Poe: https://patriots.win/p/12i3l8RU4u/
Day 24, The Unsinkable Molly Brown: https://patriots.win/p/12i3lD1GDh/
Day 25, Kayleigh McEnany: https://patriots.win/p/12i3lIf2hA/
Day 26, JFK and Jackie: https://patriots.win/p/12i3psWBcG/
From the Trump White House archives:
Ronald Reagan, originally an American actor and politician, became the 40th President of the United States serving from 1981 to 1989. His term saw a restoration of prosperity at home, with the goal of achieving “peace through strength” abroad. At the end of his two terms in office, Ronald Reagan viewed with satisfaction the achievements of his innovative program known as the Reagan Revolution, which aimed to reinvigorate the American people and reduce their reliance upon Government. He felt he had fulfilled his campaign pledge of 1980 to restore “the great, confident roar of American progress and growth and optimism.”
On February 6, 1911, Ronald Wilson Reagan was born to Nelle and John Reagan in Tampico, Illinois. He attended high school in nearby Dixon and then worked his way through Eureka College. There, he studied economics and sociology, played on the football team, and acted in school plays. Upon graduation, he became a radio sports announcer. A screen test in 1937 won him a contract in Hollywood. During the next two decades he appeared in 53 films.
From his first marriage to actress Jane Wyman, he had two children, Maureen and Michael. Maureen passed away in 2001. In 1952 he married Nancy Davis, who was also an actress, and they had two children, Patricia Ann and Ronald Prescott.
As president of the Screen Actors Guild, Reagan became embroiled in disputes over the issue of Communism in the film industry; his political views shifted from liberal to conservative. He toured the country as a television host, becoming a spokesman for conservatism. In 1966 he was elected Governor of California by a margin of a million votes; he was re-elected in 1970.
Ronald Reagan won the Republican Presidential nomination in 1980 and chose as his running mate former Texas Congressman and United Nations Ambassador George Bush. Voters troubled by inflation and by the year-long confinement of Americans in Iran swept the Republican ticket into office. Reagan won 489 electoral votes to 49 for President Jimmy Carter.
On January 20, 1981, Reagan took office. Only 69 days later he was shot by a would-be assassin, but quickly recovered and returned to duty. His grace and wit during the dangerous incident caused his popularity to soar.
Dealing skillfully with Congress, Reagan obtained legislation to stimulate economic growth, curb inflation, increase employment, and strengthen national defense. He embarked upon a course of cutting taxes and Government expenditures, refusing to deviate from it when the strengthening of defense forces led to a large deficit.
A renewal of national self-confidence by 1984 helped Reagan and Bush win a second term with an unprecedented number of electoral votes. Their victory turned away Democratic challengers Walter F. Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro.
In 1986 Reagan obtained an overhaul of the income tax code, which eliminated many deductions and exempted millions of people with low incomes. At the end of his administration, the Nation was enjoying its longest recorded period of peacetime prosperity without recession or depression.
In foreign policy, Reagan sought to achieve “peace through strength.” During his two terms he increased defense spending 35 percent, but sought to improve relations with the Soviet Union. In dramatic meetings with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, he negotiated a treaty that would eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles. Reagan declared war against international terrorism, sending American bombers against Libya after evidence came out that Libya was involved in an attack on American soldiers in a West Berlin nightclub.
By ordering naval escorts in the Persian Gulf, he maintained the free flow of oil during the Iran-Iraq war. In keeping with the Reagan Doctrine, he gave support to anti-Communist insurgencies in Central America, Asia, and Africa.
Overall, the Reagan years saw a restoration of prosperity, and the goal of peace through strength seemed to be within grasp.
The Presidential biographies on WhiteHouse.gov are from “The Presidents of the United States of America,” by Frank Freidel and Hugh Sidey. Copyright 2006 by the White House Historical Association.
Previously featured Irish Americans:
Day 1, Patrick Kane: https://patriots.win/p/12hkTjM7RG/
Day 2, Commodore John Barry: https://patriots.win/p/12hkTnthuz/
Day 3, John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara: https://patriots.win/p/12hkYNmV8K/
Day 4, Lt. Audie Murphy: https://patriots.win/p/12hkYTRNo1/
Day 5, Michael Collins: https://patriots.win/p/12hkd3InNQ/
Day 6, The McDonald Brothers: https://patriots.win/p/12hkd7pHKZ/
Day 7, Fathers of Boxing - Sullivan, Corbett, and Tunney: https://patriots.win/p/12hkdBDvBw/
Day 8, Eirechitects - James Hoban and Louis Sullivan: https://patriots.win/p/12hkhl5cHQ/
Day 9, Ed Sullivan: https://patriots.win/p/12hkhpdkeq/
Day 10, Slammin' Sammy Snead: https://patriots.win/p/12hkmPVAMT/
Day 11, Gen. Stephen Kearny: https://patriots.win/p/12hkmU2kRd/
Day 12, Tom Brady: https://patriots.win/p/12hkmZgWqx/
Day 13, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity: https://patriots.win/p/12hkr8PHmw/
Day 14, John Philip Holland: https://patriots.win/p/12hkrBpIAA/
Day 15, Regis Philbin: https://patriots.win/p/12hkrFFqhV/
Day 16, Henry Ford: https://patriots.win/p/12hkvqDCLw/
St. Patrick's Day, IAHM Collage featuring honorary Irish-Americans Trump and Pepe: https://patriots.win/p/12hkvteJ3X/
Day 18, Andrew Jackson: https://patriots.win/p/12hl0TShxF/
Day 19, Billy the Kid and Wyatt Earp: https://patriots.win/p/12hl0Y2DVi/
Day 20, Walt Disney (the man, not the company): https://patriots.win/p/12hl0dgobM/
Day 21, Sen. Joe McCarthy: https://patriots.win/p/12hl5CPZ0G/
Day 22, Bing Crosby: https://patriots.win/p/12hl5FqOiy/
Day 23, Edgar Allen Poe: https://patriots.win/p/12i3l8RU4u/
Day 24, The Unsinkable Molly Brown: https://patriots.win/p/12i3lD1GDh/
Day 25, Kayleigh McEnany: https://patriots.win/p/12i3lIf2hA/
I actually don't care for JFK that much. I think his assassination put rose-colored glasses on his legacy. But he was still the last Dem president I would have even slightly considered voting for, especially considering he ran against Nixon, who normalized relations with Red China. Jackie was great, though.
From the Trump White House archives:
John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States (1961-1963), the youngest man elected to the office. On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, becoming also the youngest President to die. On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was killed by an assassin’s bullets as his motorcade wound through Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was the youngest man elected President; he was the youngest to die.
Of Irish descent, he was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917. Graduating from Harvard in 1940, he entered the Navy. In 1943, when his PT boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer, Kennedy, despite grave injuries, led the survivors through perilous waters to safety.
Back from the war, he became a Democratic Congressman from the Boston area, advancing in 1953 to the Senate. He married Jacqueline Bouvier on September 12, 1953. In 1955, while recuperating from a back operation, he wrote Profiles in Courage, which won the Pulitzer Prize in history.
In 1956 Kennedy almost gained the Democratic nomination for Vice President, and four years later was a first-ballot nominee for President. Millions watched his television debates with the Republican candidate, Richard M. Nixon. Winning by a narrow margin in the popular vote, Kennedy became the first Roman Catholic President.
His Inaugural Address offered the memorable injunction: “Ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country.” As President, he set out to redeem his campaign pledge to get America moving again. His economic programs launched the country on its longest sustained expansion since World War II; before his death, he laid plans for a massive assault on persisting pockets of privation and poverty.
Responding to ever more urgent demands, he took vigorous action in the cause of equal rights, calling for new civil rights legislation. His vision of America extended to the quality of the national culture and the central role of the arts in a vital society.
He wished America to resume its old mission as the first nation dedicated to the revolution of human rights. With the Alliance for Progress and the Peace Corps, he brought American idealism to the aid of developing nations. But the hard reality of the Communist challenge remained.
Shortly after his inauguration, Kennedy permitted a band of Cuban exiles, already armed and trained, to invade their homeland. The attempt to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro was a failure. Soon thereafter, the Soviet Union renewed its campaign against West Berlin. Kennedy replied by reinforcing the Berlin garrison and increasing the Nation’s military strength, including new efforts in outer space. Confronted by this reaction, Moscow, after the erection of the Berlin Wall, relaxed its pressure in central Europe.
Instead, the Russians now sought to install nuclear missiles in Cuba. When this was discovered by air reconnaissance in October 1962, Kennedy imposed a quarantine on all offensive weapons bound for Cuba. While the world trembled on the brink of nuclear war, the Russians backed down and agreed to take the missiles away. The American response to the Cuban crisis evidently persuaded Moscow of the futility of nuclear blackmail.
Kennedy now contended that both sides had a vital interest in stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and slowing the arms race–a contention which led to the test ban treaty of 1963. The months after the Cuban crisis showed significant progress toward his goal of “a world of law and free choice, banishing the world of war and coercion.” His administration thus saw the beginning of new hope for both the equal rights of Americans and the peace of the world.
The Presidential biographies on WhiteHouse.gov are from “The Presidents of the United States of America,” by Frank Freidel and Hugh Sidey. Copyright 2006 by the White House Historical Association.
Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis
First Lady Jacqueline Lee “Jackie” (Bouvier) Kennedy Onassis was a symbol of strength for a traumatized nation after the assassination of one the country’s most energetic political figures, President John F. Kennedy, who served from 1961 to 1963. The inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961 brought to the White House and to the heart of the nation a beautiful young wife and the first young children of a President in half a century.
She was born Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, daughter of John Vernon Bouvier III and his wife, Janet Lee. Her early years were divided between New York City and East Hampton, Long Island, where she learned to ride almost as soon as she could walk. She was educated at the best of private schools; she wrote poems and stories, drew illustrations for them, and studied ballet. Her mother, who had obtained a divorce, married Hugh D. Auchincloss in 1942 and brought her two girls to “Merrywood,” his home near Washington, D.C., with summers spent at his estate in Newport, Rhode Island. Jacqueline was dubbed “the Debutante of the Year” for the 1947-1948 season, but her social success did not keep her from continuing her education. As a Vassar student she traveled extensively, and she spent her junior year in France before graduating from George Washington University. These experiences left her with a great empathy for people of foreign countries, especially the French.
In Washington she took a job as “inquiring photographer” for a local newspaper. Her path soon crossed that of Senator Kennedy, who had the reputation of being the most eligible bachelor in the capital. Their romance progressed slowly and privately, but their wedding at Newport in 1953 attracted nationwide publicity.
With marriage “Jackie” had to adapt herself to the new role of wife to one of the country’s most energetic political figures. Her own public appearances were highly successful, but limited in number. After the sadness of a miscarriage and the stillbirth of a daughter, Caroline Bouvier was born in 1957; John Jr. was born between the election of 1960 and Inauguration Day. Patrick Bouvier, born prematurely on August 7, 1963, died two days later.
To the role of First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy brought beauty, intelligence, and cultivated taste. Her interest in the arts, publicized by press and television, inspired an attention to culture never before evident at a national level. She devoted much time and study to making the White House a museum of American history and decorative arts as well as a family residence of elegance and charm. But she defined her major role as “to take care of the President” and added that “if you bungle raising your children, I don’t think whatever else you do well matters very much.”
Mrs. Kennedy’s gallant courage during the tragedy of her husband’s assassination won her the admiration of the world. Thereafter it seemed the public would never allow her the privacy she desired for herself and her children. She moved to New York City; and in 1968 she married the wealthy Greek businessman, Aristotle Onassis, 23 years her senior, who died in March 1975. From 1978 until her death in 1994, Mrs. Onassis worked in New York City as an editor for Doubleday. At her funeral her son described three of her attributes: “love of words, the bonds of home and family, and her spirit of adventure.”
The biographies of the First Ladies on WhiteHouse.gov are from “The First Ladies of the United States of America,” by Allida Black. Copyright 2009 by the White House Historical Association.
Previously featured Irish Americans:
Day 1, Patrick Kane: https://patriots.win/p/12hkTjM7RG/
Day 2, Commodore John Barry: https://patriots.win/p/12hkTnthuz/
Day 3, John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara: https://patriots.win/p/12hkYNmV8K/
Day 4, Lt. Audie Murphy: https://patriots.win/p/12hkYTRNo1/
Day 5, Michael Collins: https://patriots.win/p/12hkd3InNQ/
Day 6, The McDonald Brothers: https://patriots.win/p/12hkd7pHKZ/
Day 7, Fathers of Boxing - Sullivan, Corbett, and Tunney: https://patriots.win/p/12hkdBDvBw/
Day 8, Eirechitects - James Hoban and Louis Sullivan: https://patriots.win/p/12hkhl5cHQ/
Day 9, Ed Sullivan: https://patriots.win/p/12hkhpdkeq/
Day 10, Slammin' Sammy Snead: https://patriots.win/p/12hkmPVAMT/
Day 11, Gen. Stephen Kearny: https://patriots.win/p/12hkmU2kRd/
Day 12, Tom Brady: https://patriots.win/p/12hkmZgWqx/
Day 13, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity: https://patriots.win/p/12hkr8PHmw/
Day 14, John Philip Holland: https://patriots.win/p/12hkrBpIAA/
Day 15, Regis Philbin: https://patriots.win/p/12hkrFFqhV/
Day 16, Henry Ford: https://patriots.win/p/12hkvqDCLw/
St. Patrick's Day, IAHM Collage featuring honorary Irish-Americans Trump and Pepe: https://patriots.win/p/12hkvteJ3X/
Day 18, Andrew Jackson: https://patriots.win/p/12hl0TShxF/
Day 19, Billy the Kid and Wyatt Earp: https://patriots.win/p/12hl0Y2DVi/
Day 20, Walt Disney (the man, not the company): https://patriots.win/p/12hl0dgobM/
Day 21, Sen. Joe McCarthy: https://patriots.win/p/12hl5CPZ0G/
Day 22, Bing Crosby: https://patriots.win/p/12hl5FqOiy/
Day 23, Edgar Allen Poe: https://patriots.win/p/12i3l8RU4u/
Day 24, The Unsinkable Molly Brown: https://patriots.win/p/12i3lD1GDh/
Previously featured Irish Americans:
Day 1, Patrick Kane: https://patriots.win/p/12hkTjM7RG/
Day 2, Commodore John Barry: https://patriots.win/p/12hkTnthuz/
Day 3, John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara: https://patriots.win/p/12hkYNmV8K/
Day 4, Lt. Audie Murphy: https://patriots.win/p/12hkYTRNo1/
Day 5, Michael Collins: https://patriots.win/p/12hkd3InNQ/
Day 6, The McDonald Brothers: https://patriots.win/p/12hkd7pHKZ/
Day 7, Fathers of Boxing - Sullivan, Corbett, and Tunney: https://patriots.win/p/12hkdBDvBw/
Day 8, Eirechitects - James Hoban and Louis Sullivan: https://patriots.win/p/12hkhl5cHQ/
Day 9, Ed Sullivan: https://patriots.win/p/12hkhpdkeq/
Day 10, Slammin' Sammy Snead: https://patriots.win/p/12hkmPVAMT/
Day 11, Gen. Stephen Kearny: https://patriots.win/p/12hkmU2kRd/
Day 12, Tom Brady: https://patriots.win/p/12hkmZgWqx/
Day 13, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity: https://patriots.win/p/12hkr8PHmw/
Day 14, John Philip Holland: https://patriots.win/p/12hkrBpIAA/
Day 15, Regis Philbin: https://patriots.win/p/12hkrFFqhV/
Day 16, Henry Ford: https://patriots.win/p/12hkvqDCLw/
St. Patrick's Day, IAHM Collage featuring honorary Irish-Americans Trump and Pepe: https://patriots.win/p/12hkvteJ3X/
Day 18, Andrew Jackson: https://patriots.win/p/12hl0TShxF/
Day 19, Billy the Kid and Wyatt Earp: https://patriots.win/p/12hl0Y2DVi/
Day 20, Walt Disney (the man, not the company): https://patriots.win/p/12hl0dgobM/
Day 21, Sen. Joe McCarthy: https://patriots.win/p/12hl5CPZ0G/
Day 22, Bing Crosby: https://patriots.win/p/12hl5FqOiy/
Day 23, Edgar Allen Poe: https://patriots.win/p/12i3l8RU4u/
I don't think so. He hasn't been able to do many CMMs since the pandemic because people will send the cops after him in most places where a CMM would usually be held.