It was probably just a simple case of Mike Huckabee getting his dates mixed up, but it happened on a big stage.

While the former Arkansas governor and GOP hopeful was the first to bring up the name Ronald Reagan Tuesday night during a debate between Republican presidential hopefuls, he slipped on the date of the 40th president's birthday.

"Today's the birthday of Ronald Reagan," Huckabee said as he made a statement about terror and related it to the Cold War and the nine-year conflict between the then Soviet Union and anti-Soviet insurgents in Afghanistan that started in 1979.

In fact, June 5 is not the birthday of the former Republican leader — the former U.S. president and governor of California was born on Feb. 6, 1911.

However, today is the date of Reagan's death. He passed on June 5, 2004.