Jimmy Carter Fast Facts

Here is a look at the life of Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States.

Personal

Birth date: October 1, 1924

Birth place: Plains, Georgia

Birth name: James Earl Carter Jr.

Father: James Earl Carter Sr., a farmer and businessman

Mother: Lillian (Gordy) Carter

Marriage: Rosalynn (Smith) Carter (July 7, 1946-November 19, 2023, her death)

Children: Amy Lynn, Donnel Jeffrey “Jeff,” James Earl III “Chip” and John William “Jack”

Education: Georgia Southwestern College, 1941-1942; Georgia Institute of Technology, 1942-1943; US Naval Academy, B.S., 1946

Military: US Navy, 1946-1953, Lieutenant

Religion: Christian

Other Facts

Carter was the first US president to be born in a hospital.

Champion of human rights, especially regarding the governments of South Korea, Iran, Argentina, South Africa and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

The Carter Center, established by the former president and his wife in 1982, has observed 125 elections in 40 countries since 1989.

Created the Department of Energy and established a national policy to address the energy shortage.

Is the oldest living former president.

Has been nominated for ten Grammy Awards and has won three.

Timeline

1953 - Works on his own farm in Plains, Georgia, and operates Carter’s Warehouse, a general-purpose seed and farm supply company.

1962 - Wins election to the Georgia state Senate.

1966 - Runs for governor and loses to Lester Maddox.

November 3, 1970 - Runs for governor a second time and wins.

January 12, 1971 - Is inaugurated as Georgia’s 76th governor.

1974 - Serves as the Democratic National Committee campaign chairman for the 1974 congressional elections.

December 12, 1974 - Officially announces his candidacy for president of the United States.

November 2, 1976 - Elected as the 39th president of the United States.

January 20, 1977 - Inaugurated.

March 26, 1979 - In a ceremony in Washington, DC, Egypt and Israel formally sign a peace treaty ending 31 years of war between them. The successful Camp David Accords are one of the highlights of Carter’s presidency.

November 4, 1979 - The US Embassy in Tehran, Iran, is stormed and diplomatic staff are taken hostage. Carter’s inability to successfully negotiate release of the hostages becomes a major political liability. The hostages are released on January 20, 1981, the day of Ronald Reagan’s inauguration.

1982 - Becomes a professor at Emory University in Atlanta.

1982 - Founds the Carter Center in Atlanta, in partnership with Emory University. Carter Center initiatives include monitoring international elections, fighting diseases in developing countries and seeking international peace. One of the key accomplishments of the Carter Center is the near eradication of Guinea worm disease from more than three million cases in 1986 to 14 cases in 2023.

August 9, 1999 - Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor for an American civilian.

May 14, 2002 - In a speech given in Cuba, Carter outlines his vision for improvement between the United States and Cuba regarding their trading relations. The speech is broadcast live and uncensored on Cuban state television.

October 11, 2002 - Wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

February 19, 2005 - The USS Jimmy Carter (SSN 23) is commissioned.

February 11, 2007 - Wins a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for the audio book of “Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis.” He shares the award with Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis.

April 17, 2008 - Meets with Hamas leaders in Cairo, Egypt. US and Israeli government officials object to Carter’s meeting, as both governments classify Hamas as a terrorist organization.

September 15, 2009 - Carter causes controversy with remarks on NBC Nightly News about President Barack Obama. Carter says, “An overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African American.”

August 27, 2010 - Carter negotiates the release of US citizen Aijalon Mahli Gomes. Gomes had been imprisoned in North Korea after entering illegally in January 2010. “At the request of President Carter, and for humanitarian purposes, Mr. Gomes was granted amnesty by the chairman of the National Defense Commission, Kim Jong-Il,” the Carter Center says in a statement.

March 28, 2011 - Carter arrives in Cuba for a three-day visit, to meet with President Raul Castro.

April 26, 2011 - Visits Pyongyang, North Korea, for talks to ease tensions between North and South Korea, accompanied by former Finnish President Marti Ahtisaari, former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland and former President of Ireland Mary Robinson.

May 4, 2011 - In a Washington Post opinion piece, Carter urges the support of the Hamas-Fatah unity government.

June 24, 2012 - In a New York Times opinion piece, Carter says that the United States is no longer a champion of human rights in light of recent legislative action and drone strikes.

July 7, 2015 - His autobiography, “A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety,” is published.

August 3, 2015 - Has a “small mass” removed from his liver during surgery.

August 12, 2015 - Carter announces that “recent liver surgery revealed that [he has] cancer that now is in other parts of [his] body.” Carter says he will receive treatment at Emory University in Atlanta.

August 20, 2015 - Carter holds a press conference to announce that doctors found spots of melanoma on his brain and he will undergo treatment.

December 6, 2015 - Carter announces that according to his most recent MRI brain scan, his cancer is gone.

February 15, 2016 - Wins a Grammy Award in the Best Spoken Word Album category for the audio book version of “A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety.” It is his second Grammy win.

July 13, 2017 - Carter is admitted to a hospital in Winnipeg, Canada, after becoming dehydrated while working outdoors for Habitat for Humanity. He is released the following day.

February 10, 2019 - Wins his third Grammy Award in the Best Spoken Word Album category, this time for the audio book version of “Faith - A Journey For All.”

May 13, 2019 - The Carter Center says that the former president is recovering from surgery to repair a broken hip after falling at his home in Plains, Georgia.

June 3, 2019 - Emory University announces that Carter has become a tenured faculty member after teaching at the Atlanta-based private university for 37 years.

June 28, 2019 - Carter suggests that a full investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election would show that Donald Trump didn’t win the presidency. In response, Trump later says that Carter is a Democrat and repeating a “typical talking point,” calling him a “nice man, terrible president.”

September 17, 2019 - During a town hall at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Carter says if he were 80 years old he would not be able to handle the responsibilities of being president and jokes that he hopes there is an “age limit” on the office. The comments are especially notable as the age of the three top Democratic 2020 presidential hopefuls, who are in their 70s, has been the subject of ongoing debate.

October 6, 2019 - Carter receives 14 stitches after falling and hitting his head in his home. Hours later he travels to Nashville to speak at the Ryman Auditorium.

October 21, 2019 - Carter falls in his home and is admitted to Phoebe Sumter Medical Center for observation and treatment of a minor pelvic fracture.

November 12, 2019 - Undergoes an operation to relieve pressure on his brain caused by bleeding from his recent falls, according to the Carter Center. The center says there are no complications from the procedure. He is released from the hospital on November 27.

December 2, 2019 - In a statement, the Carter Center says that the former president has returned to the hospital over the weekend for a urinary tract infection. Carter is discharged on December 4.

September 9, 2020 - The documentary film, “Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President,” is released in theaters.

February 18, 2023 - In a statement, the Carter Center says that the former president will begin receiving hospice care at his home in Georgia.

September 17, 2024 - “Jimmy Carter 100: A Celebration in Song,” takes place at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. The concert will air on Georgia Public Broadcasting on October 1, Carter’s centennial birthday.

November 8, 2024 - About a month after turning 100 years old, Carter receives his 10th Grammy Award nomination for his latest spoken-word album, “Last Sundays in Plains: A Centennial Celebration.”

Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, speaks in Elk City, Oklahoma, in 1979. Learn more about Carter's legacy with CNN Films' "Jimmy Carter: Rock and Roll President" on January 3 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Carter, 6, poses with his sister Gloria in their hometown of Plains, Georgia, in 1931.

Carter graduated from the US Naval Academy on June 5, 1946, after completing the accelerated wartime program.

Carter shovels peanuts in the 1970s. Carter was the son of a peanut farmer, and he took over the family business in 1953 before his political career took off.

Carter gets a haircut during his first year as governor of Georgia. He was inaugurated on January 12, 1971.

After becoming the Democratic Party's presidential nominee in 1976, Carter raises hands with running mate Walter Mondale at the Democratic National Convention in New York. Standing to Carter's right is his wife, Rosalynn, and their daughter, Amy. Carter ran as a Washington outsider and someone who promised to shake up government.

Carter and US President Gerald Ford debate domestic policy at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia in September 1976. It was the first of three Ford-Carter presidential debates.

Carter embraces his wife after receiving news of his election victory on November 2, 1976. Carter received 297 electoral votes, while Ford received 241.

Chief Justice Warren Burger swears Carter into office on January 20, 1977, while Rosalynn Carter looks on.

Carter, second from left, and his brother Billy, left, visit Georgia's St. Simons Island in 1977.

Carter delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in January 1978. "Government cannot solve our problems," he said. Anti-government sentiment at the time was brought on by economic pessimism along with the end of the Vietnam War and the unraveling of the Watergate saga.

Three days before his birthday in 1978, Carter blows out candles on a birthday cake presented to him at a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee.

Carter jogs on the South Lawn of the White House in December 1978.

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, right, listens to Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on September 6, 1978, at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland. With Carter's help, terms of a peace accord were negotiated at Camp David. A formal treaty was signed in Washington on March 26, 1979, ending 31 years of war between Egypt and Israel. It was one of the highlights of Carter's presidency.

Outgoing President Carter, left, sits with President-elect Ronald Reagan en route to Reagan's inauguration in January 1981.

Before departing for Georgia following Reagan's inauguration, Carter holds his crying daughter as his wife blows a kiss at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

The Carters wear glittering garlands and a turban given to them by Pakistani tribesmen at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in November 1986. They also received a pair of rams.

Carter addresses a United Nations interfaith service at New York's Trinity Church in September 1991. His speech was entitled "The Present Role of the United Nations in a Changing World."

From left, former President George H.W. Bush, President Bill Clinton, Carter and Vice President Al Gore attend the Presidents' Summit for America's Future in Philadelphia in 1997. They helped clean up local neighborhoods as part of the effort to encourage volunteer service.

Clinton presented Carter with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, on August 9, 1999. Carter was recognized for his diplomatic achievements and humanitarian efforts.

Carter works at a construction site sponsored by the Jimmy Carter Work Project in Asan, South Korea, on August 6, 2001. The Carters have been involved with the nonprofit Habitat for Humanity since 1984.

Cuban President Fidel Castro calls for time as Carter prepares to throw the first pitch at a baseball game in Havana, Cuba, in May 2002.

Students at the University of Havana listen to Carter outline his vision for improved relations between the United States and Cuba on May 14, 2002. The speech was broadcast live and uncensored on Cuban state television.

Carter is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, in December 2002. He was recognized for his many years of public service, and in his acceptance speech he urged others to work for peace.

Carter adjusts his headphones at a news conference in Caracas, Venezuela, in January 2003. He proposed a referendum on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's presidency or an amendment to the constitution as a way to end the political crisis in the South American nation.

Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean speaks beside Carter during a campaign stop in Plains, Georgia, in January 2004.

Rosalynn Carter smashes a bottle of champagne against the sail of the USS Jimmy Carter during the submarine's christening ceremony in Connecticut on June 5, 2004.

The Carters wave to the audience at the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004.

Carter checks his notes while observing a polling station in Maputo, Mozambique, in December 2004. Since 1989, the Carter Center has been observing elections around the world to determine their legitimacy. The nonprofit organization was founded by Carter and his wife to advance human rights across the globe.

In February 2007, Carter speaks to children in Ghana on the seriousness of eradicating guinea worm disease.

The Carters arrive for President Barack Obama's inauguration in January 2009.

Carter testifies in May 2009 during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on energy independence and security.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniya speaks in June 2009 during a joint news conference with Carter in Gaza. Carter denounced the deprivations facing Palestinians in Gaza as unique in history, asserting that they are being treated "like animals."

Carter walks out of the Hall of Remembrance at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem in August 2009. The Elders, an independent council of retired world figures, kicked off a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories in a bid to encourage Middle East peace efforts.

Carter delivers a speech in Seoul, South Korea, after receiving an honorary doctorate degree from Korea University in March 2010. During a four-day visit to South Korea, Carter urged direct talks with North Korea, saying a failure to negotiate nuclear disarmament might lead to a "catastrophic" war.

Carter greets South African leader Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg in May 2010.

Carter hugs Aijalon Mahli Gomes at Boston's Logan International Airport in August 2010. Carter negotiated Gomes' release after he was held in North Korea for crossing into the country illegally in January 2010.

Carter and other former Presidents, including Clinton and both George Bushes, attend the Points of Light Institute Tribute to Former President George H.W. Bush in March 2011.

Cuban President Raul Castro greets Carter and his wife at the Revolution Palace in Havana on March 30, 2011. Carter was the first former US President to visit Cuba since the 1959 revolution.

In April 2011, Carter addresses students at the Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies in Pyongyang, North Korea.

As part of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, Carter answers a question during a panel discussion at the University of Illinois in Chicago in April 2012.

Carter was interviewed for "The Presidents' Gatekeepers" project at the Carter Center, Atlanta, Georgia, in September 2011.

From left, President Obama, Carter, first lady Michelle Obama and Clinton wave from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 2013. It was the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, which is best remembered for Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

Carter talks with reporters in Chicago at a signing for his book "A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence and Power" in March 2014. In the book, Carter argues that the abuse and subjugation of women and girls is one of the biggest challenges the world faces.

Carter teaches Sunday School on Easter Sunday 2014 at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia. Carter teaches Sunday School at the church several times a year.

Carter signs his book "A Full Life: Reflections At Ninety" in Pasadena, California, in July 2015.

Carter talks about his cancer diagnosis during a news conference at the Carter Center in Atlanta in August 2015. Carter announced that his cancer was on four small spots on his brain and that he would immediately begin radiation treatment. In December 2015, Carter announced that he was cancer-free.

Carter delivers a lecture on the eradication of guinea worm disease at the House of Lords in London in February 2016.

Carter and his wife arrive for the inauguration of Donald Trump in January 2017.

Carter helps build stairs for a home during a Habitat for Humanity project in Edmonton, Alberta, in July 2017. A couple days later, while working on another house in Canada, Carter became dehydrated and was taken to a hospital as a precaution.

Carter, center, speaks along side former US Presidents George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama as they attend the Hurricane Relief concert in College Station, Texas, in October 2017.

Carter holds up a copy of his new book "Faith: A Journey For All" at a book-signing event in New York in March 2018.

Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, speak with Atlanta Falcons head coach Dan Quinn prior to an NFL game in September 2018.

Former US President George W. Bush greets Carter and other former presidents during the state funeral for his father in December 2018.

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter bow their heads in prayer at a church in Plains, Georgia, in June 2019. It was less than a month after the former president fell and broke his hip.

Carter fell and hit his head in early October 2019 while getting ready for church, requiring 14 stitches above his brow. But he didn't let that stop him from heading to Nashville that afternoon for a week of building houses with Habitat for Humanity.

Carter teaches Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, in November 2019.

Jimmy Carter's legacy, in photos

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