When Ronald Reagan was elected president in November 1980, he hoped to defy an unusually grim circumstance of that office. In the seven previous even-numbered decades, every U.S. President had died in office - four times from assassin’s bullets. A few months later on March 30, 1981, as President Reagan strolled outside the Washington Hilton Hotel, he nearly met the same fate.

Broadcast audio licensed from ABC News Video Source

Contributors:

• Sam Donaldson, Former Chief White House correspondent, ABC News
• Susan King, Former White House correspondent, ABC News reporter.
• Ross Simpson, Former correspondent, Mutual News
• David Prosperi, Former Assistant Press Secretary to President Ronald Reagan

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