President Ronald Reagan was leaving the Washington Hilton hotel after giving a speech to a union group when John W. Hinckley Jr. opened fire from his .22-caliber revolver.
FILE – President Ronald Reagan waves and then looks up before being shoved into the President’s limousine by secret service agents after being shot outside a Washington hotel, March 30, 1981. The assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump has parallels to the last time a president or presidential candidate was wounded — in 1981 when Ronald Reagan was nearly killed by an assailant’s bullet.
What transpired over the next few hours became the stuff of presidential and political legend. The life of the 70-year-old president was saved by the quick actions of his lead Secret Service agent, as well as the skill of medical personnel at George Washington University Hospital. Reagan’s courage over those tense hours further cemented his relationship — and political standing — with the American public and changed the way he approached the job over the next eight years.
As the public learned in the hours after the Reagan assassination attempt, early reports can be wrong. Only much later did the public realize how close Reagan came to dying that day — his life had hung in the balance of a split-second decision and an inch. The fifth shot hit the armored window of the limousine. Hinckley’s final bullet ricocheted off the side of the limousine, flattening into the shape of a dime and striking Reagan five inches below his left armpit. Parr dove in behind the president, and the door slammed shut. Parr ordered the limousine to head to the White House.
Lying on a gurney in the trauma bay, a chest tube draining blood from his side, Reagan sought to calm down his wife, Nancy, with a quip.
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