On January 20, 1981, Ronald Reagan gave his inaugural address after being sworn in as President of the United States and made his way to a celebratory lunch. At the same time, almost to the minute, the 52 hostages held in Iran after the seizing of the US embassy in Tehran over a year earlier, were released from captivity. The timing of the release was suspiciously advantageous to Reagan’s campaign and may have carried him in the election over Jimmy Carter. While this is a fascinating tale, it’s not really what this blog post is about, though, so let’s skip ahead a few months. On March 29 of that same year, John Hinckley, Jr. arrived in Washington DC on a Greyhound bus. The next day, he waited in the crowd outside the Hilton Hotel where President Reagan had given a speech. Around 2:30pm, as Reagan was exiting the hotel, Hinckley leapt from the crowd and emptied his revolver. He missed Reagan with all six shots, but managed to wound Reagan nonetheless when the final shot ricochet...
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