March 30th ~ This Day in History video by History.com ~ 1981: President Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by a deranged drifter named John Hinckley Jr. on the 30th March 1981. The president had just finished addressing a labor meeting at the Washington Hilton Hotel and was walking with his entourage to his limousine when Hinckley fired 6 shots at the president where he was standing with a group of reporters. Ronald Reagan and 3 of his attendants were shot. Hinckley was overpowered and pinned against a wall, while President Reagan was shoved into his limousine by a Secret Service agent, unaware that he’d been shot,  and rushed to the hospital. The president was shot with a .22 caliber bullet that just missed his heart, hitting his left lung. 70-year-old man Ronald Reagan walked into George Washington University Hospital with a collapsed lung. As he was treated and prepared for surgery, he was in good spirits and said to his wife, Nancy, ”Honey, I forgot to duck,” and to his surgeons, “Please tell me you’re Republicans.” Reagan’s surgery lasted two hours, and he was listed in stable and good condition afterward. The next day, the president resumed some of his executive duties and signed a piece of legislation from his hospital bed. On the 11th April he returned to the White House. Ronald Reagan’s popularity soared after the assassination attempt. | & more about history on this day in the video…