1978: NOAA announces gender-neutral hurricane naming system
Federal News Network presents a daily update of important moments in the history of the U.S. government.
On this day in 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest outside the Washington Hilton hotel in the nation’s capital by John Hinckley Jr., a deranged drifter who had previously been arrested on weapons charges in Tennessee and who was found not guilty by reason of insanity. After Reagan finished addressing a labor meeting at the hotel and was walking with his entourage to his limousine, Hinckley, standing among a group of reporters, fired six shots at the president. He hit Reagan and three of his attendants: White House Press Secretary James Brady was shot in the head and critically wounded, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy was shot in the side, and D.C. policeman Thomas Delahanty was shot in the neck. Reagan sustained a bullet to the left lung and was taken to surgery for two hours. The next day, he resumed some of his executive duties and signed a piece of legislation from his hospital bed. While McCarthy and Delahanty recovered, Brady suffered permanent brain damage. He later became an advocate of gun control, and in 1993 Congress passed the “Brady Bill,” which established a five-day waiting period and background checks for prospective gun buyers.
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