Massachusetts

His remarkable journey from peanut farm to Nobel Prize

Idris Bevan September 30, 2024

As James Earl Carter Jr., who turns 100 on Tuesday, receives awards and honors, you’ll likely hear the description “He was a better former president than president” as the most common assessment of his life and career.

As governor of Georgia, Carter ran as a Washington reformer. He was elected president in 1976 by a nation weary of the long-running Watergate scandal.

However, Carter’s administration was paralyzed by numerous problems, including an energy crisis that led to shortages and long lines at gas stations, rising inflation, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the seizure of American hostages in Iran.

After his clear defeat by Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election, Carter left Washington – but not politics.

He became an elder statesman and in 1982 founded the nonprofit Carter Presidential Center, an organization at Emory University in Atlanta that focuses on ending conflict, promoting democracy and human rights, and preventing disease.

He volunteered as an arbitrator in disputes between the United States and other nations, including North Korea and Libya. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his diplomatic efforts.

Carter also joined Habitat for Humanity in 1984, the start of a long relationship in which he and his wife, former first lady Rosalynn, helped build affordable housing.

Rosalynn Carter, 98, died November 19, 2023.

Jimmy Carter was the 39th President of the United States and served from January 20, 1977 to January 20, 1981. This was his route to the White House and beyond:

Oct. 1, 1924

Carter was born in Plains, Georgia. His father was a peanut storekeeper and his mother was a nurse.

June 5, 1946

Carter graduates from the US Naval Academy and is assigned to the USS Wyoming as an ensign. In the same year he married Rosalynn Smith.

July 3, 1947

The Carters’ first child, John William, is born. He is the first of four children: James Earl III, on April 12, 1950; Donnel Jeffrey, August 18, 1952; and Amy Lynn, on August 19, 1967.

1948

Carter and his family move to New London, Connecticut, where he is accepted into a six-month submarine officer training school. He and his family move to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

June 5, 1949

Promoted to lieutenant (jg).

June 1, 1952

Promoted to lieutenant.

October 9, 1953

Carter receives an honorable discharge from the Navy after his father’s death. He served 7 years, 4 months and 8 days. He returns to Georgia and works on the family farm for eight years before entering public service.

1962

Carter announces he will run for the Georgia Senate. He loses to Homer Moore on the first count, but asks for a recount. A new election is ordered and he wins.

November 3, 1970

Carter wins the Georgia governor’s race, defeating Republican candidate Hal Suit.

January 12, 1971

Carter shocks Georgia audience during his inaugural address by declaring that “the time for racial discrimination is over.”

December 13, 1974

Carter announces his candidacy for president. He positions himself as a Washington outsider and political reformer.

October 1976

The public is stunned when Carter says in an interview with Playboy magazine published a month before the election: “I looked at a lot of women with lust. I have often committed adultery in my heart.”

November 2, 1976

Carter defeated Gerald Ford and won the presidential election with 297 electoral votes to Ford’s 240. He became the 39th President on January 20, 1977.

January 21, 1977

Carter pardons conscientious objectors from the Vietnam War years.

September 7, 1977

Carter and Panamanian Prime Minister Omar Torrijos sign the Panama Canal Treaty, giving Panama control of the canal until 2000.

December 31, 1977

Carter meets with Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi in Tehran and calls Iran “an island of stability” in the Middle East.

September 17, 1978

Carter, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat sign the Camp David Accords, considered the administration’s most significant foreign policy achievement. The pact establishes diplomatic relations between Israel and Egypt and calls for Israel’s gradual withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula.

December 15, 1978

The Carter administration grants China full diplomatic status.

June 18, 1979

Carter signs the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II) with the Soviet Union.

July 15, 1979

In a nationally televised address, Carter delivers his “malaise” speech, saying the public’s faith and trust in the government and its leaders must be restored. This reinforces the public perception of Carter as a weak president.

July 18, 1979

Five members of the Carter Cabinet resign.

September 14, 1979

Carter has the lowest approval rating of any president in the last 30 years in a Washington Post poll.

November 4, 1979

52 American diplomats and citizens are taken hostage in Iran. The crisis will last 444 days.

January 23, 1980

In his State of the Union address, Carter proclaimed the “Carter Doctrine” and said threats in the Persian Gulf would be viewed as threats to U.S. interests.

April 17, 1980

Carter says the U.S. economy is in recession. The inflation rate is 10% and interest rates reach 18%.

April 22, 1980

The U.S. Olympic Committee boycotts the Moscow Olympics in support of Carter’s protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

April 25, 1980

The public learns about the failure of “Desert One,” in which several U.S. military personnel were killed in a failed hostage rescue attempt in Iran.

June 1980

Carter’s approval rating is the lowest of any president since 1945.

November 4, 1980

Ronald Reagan clearly defeated Carter in the fight for the presidency with 489 to 49 electoral votes.

January 20, 1981

The Carters leave Washington after Reagan’s inauguration. The hostages in Iran are released.

July 16, 1982

Plans are being drawn up for the Carter Center, a nonprofit organization that promotes peace and health worldwide. Over the years, the center will oversee 107 elections in 39 countries.

March 1984

The Carters begin a long-term collaboration with Habitat for Humanity.

October 29, 1996

Carter is releasing his 20th book, Living Faith, an account of how his Christian faith has influenced his public and private life.

December 10, 1998

The United Nations awarded Carter one of six human rights awards for “international defense of human rights.”

August 9, 1999

President Bill Clinton awarded the Carters the Presidential Medal of Freedom, citing the Camp David Accords and their humanitarian efforts.

October 11, 2002

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded Carter the Nobel Peace Prize for 2002. The award recognizes Carter’s “decades of tireless efforts to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, advance democracy and human rights, and promote economic and social development.”

June 5, 2004

Rosalyn Carter christens the USS Jimmy Carter, a Seawolf-class submarine.

February 6, 2006

Carter’s son Jack is losing to Republican John Ensign in the fight for the US Senate seat in Nevada.

April 1, 2008

Carter is releasing his 25th book, “A Remarkable Mother,” which celebrates his late mother, known as Miss Lillian.

August 2015

Carter is undergoing radiation therapy for liver cancer. He is later diagnosed with metastatic melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer that has spread to his brain. He is receiving a new type of cancer treatment.

March 2016

Carter announces that his treatment is successful and that he is cancer-free.

October 2019

Carter will turn 95 on October 1st. After falling at home on October 6th, he suffered a black eye and required 14 stitches. In the evening, however, he travels to Tennessee to speak with volunteers from Habitat for Humanity.

July 2021

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary. They were the longest married first couple.

February 18, 2023

After a series of brief hospital stays, Carter, 98, is completing further medical treatment and entering hospice care at home.

November 19, 2023

Rosalynn Carter, 96, dies in Plains, Georgia.

Oct 1, 2024

Carter turns 100.

CONTRIBUTEDSusan Page/USA TODAY

SOURCE USA TODAY Network reporting and research; Reuters; University of Virginia, Miller Center; cartercenter.org