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By D. Jason Berggren

Georgia Southwestern State University

• October 1, 1924 – Jimmy Carter was born at Wise Sanitorium in Plains, Georgia to James Earl Carter, Sr. (1894-1953) and Bessie Lillian Gordy Carter (1898-1983). He was the firstborn of their four children (Gloria, Ruth, and Billy). Carter was the first president to be born in a hospital. He was born at the Wise Sanitarium.

 

• August 18, 1927 – Eleanor Rosalynn Smith was born in Plains, Georgia. Accompanying his mother, a registered nurse, young Jimmy saw his future spouse the next day. About their first encounter, Rosalynn once said, “He looked through the cradle bars and saw me.”

 

• March 4, 1933 – In the midst of the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated as the 32nd president. At the time, the Carters lived on a farm in Archery. They moved there from Plains in 1928.

 

• June 7, 1937 – Plains High School was designated by the state as a “model school” for rural education. Carter started his education at Plains in 1930. He liked school and was an excellent student. His favorite teacher was the school’s superintendent Miss Julia Coleman.

 

• June 2, 1941 – After he completed the eleventh grade, Carter graduated from Plains High School. There was no twelfth grade at the time. His graduating class had 26 students. He then attended Georgia Southwestern College in nearby Americus for one year and then Georgia Tech in Atlanta for one year.

 

• February 13, 1942 – Carter and three other students etched their names in the new driveway of the Wheatley Building at Georgia Southwestern College.  The students were chosen for this honor because they possessed “strong leadership skills.”

 

• June 5, 1946 – Carter graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland. He joined Ulysses Grant and Dwight Eisenhower as the only presidents to graduate from one of the military service academies. Grant and Eisenhower graduated from West Point.

 

• July 7, 1946 – Carter married Rosalynn Smith at the Plains Methodist Church.

 

• July 3, 1947 – John William (Jack) Carter, the first of the Carters’ four children, was born in Portsmouth, Virginia.

 

• November 2, 1948 – Harry Truman, Carter’s favorite president, was elected to a full term in a dramatic upset victory.

 

• April 12, 1950 – James Earl (Chip) Carter III, the second of the Carters’ four children, was born in Honolulu, Hawaii.

 

• August 18, 1952 – Donnel Jeffrey (Jeff) Carter, the third of the Carters’ four children, was born in New London, Connecticut.

 

• July 22, 1953 – His father Earl died at home from pancreatic cancer. After seven years in service, Carter decided to leave the U.S. Navy that fall and return home to Plains.

 

• May 17, 1954 – In Brown v. Board of Education, The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously declared that state-mandated racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.

 

• November 23, 1955 – Y. T. Sheffield, the principal at Plains High School, and the school’s board of trustees recommended the selection of Carter to fill a vacancy on the Sumter County Board of Education. A county grand jury formally elected him.

 

• December 6, 1955 Carter took his seat on the county school board. His father had previously held the seat until his death.

 

• July 5, 1960 Carter started his tenure as the chairman of the Sumter County school board. It was his first board meeting as “our new chairman.”

 

• July 18, 1961 Carter lost his first election – a countywide referendum on the consolidation of Sumter County public schools. As the chair of the school board, he led the pro-consolidation side. The next year, he decided to run for the state senate.

 

• October 1, 1962 – On his birthday, Carter decided to run for the Georgia State Senate.

 

• October 16, 1962 – The primary election for the Georgia State Senate, District 14, was held. Carter challenged the original vote count. He subsequently exposed election irregularities and fraud. He ultimately won the seat.

 

• January 7, 1963 – Carter attended his last meeting as a member of the Sumter County school board. It was a called meeting with the Americus city board. Members met at Americus High School.

 

• January 14, 1963 – Representing seven counties (Sumter, Webster, Stewart, Chattahoochee, Quitman, Randolph, Terrell), Carter was sworn in as a Georgia state senator.

 

• June 5, 1964 – Senator Carter addressed graduates at Georgia Southwestern.

 

• November 3, 1964 – Carter re-elected to the Georgia State Senate for another two-year term.

 

• March 3, 1966 – Carter announced that he intended to run for the U.S. Congress. He expected to challenge the incumbent Republican Howard “Bo” Callaway in the Third Congressional District. He said, “I am confident I can win this race.” He soon dropped his bid in order to run for governor.

 

• June 11, 1966 – Carter announced from his residence in Plains that he was running for governor. He said in his statement that he pledged “to blend the traditional values of the Old South with the dynamic spirit of the new.”

 

• September 14, 1966 – n the Georgia Democratic Primary for Governor, Carter finished in third place behind Lester Maddox and Ellis Arnall. During the same month, the first African American students entered Plains High School.

 

• October 19, 1967 – Amy Carter, the last of the Carters’ four children, was born in Plains, Georgia.

 

• April 3, 1970 – Carter launched his second bid for governor. He made the announcement in Atlanta. The next day was “Jimmy Carter Day” in Plains. It was a campaign kickoff with entertainment and barbecue for the “home folks.”

 

• September 9, 1970 – Carter received the most votes in the Democratic primary for governor. However, with 49 percent, he was shy of the majority threshold. Carl Sanders, a former governor, came in second place with 38 percent. A runoff was therefore required between the top two.
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• September 23, 1970 – Carter won the Democratic primary runoff. He soundly defeated Sanders by almost 20 percentage points.

 

• November 3, 1970 – Carter was elected governor of Georgia. He defeated his Republican opponent Hal Suit 59 – 41 percent. Carter won all but six of Georgia’s 159 counties.

 

• January 12, 1971vCarter was inaugurated as the 76th governor of Georgia. In his inaugural address, he proclaimed, “The time for racial discrimination is over.”

 

• January 29, 1971 – Carter returned to Sumter County as governor to dedicate a National Guard armory and to give a speech at Georgia Southwestern College.

 

• March 19, 1971 – Carter spoke to the Americus and Sumter County Chamber of Commerce.

 

• May 31, 1971 – With the caption, “Dixie Whistles a Different Tune,” Carter appeared on the front cover of Time magazine.

 

• October 17, 1971 – During his term as governor, Carter attended Northside Drive Baptist Church. According to the “Governor’s Weekly Schedule,” he taught the “Men’s Bible class” on this date.

 

• April 8-23, 1972 – Carter visited five countries in Latin America as the state’s “chief diplomat” to promote goodwill and trade between Georgia and the Americas. He visited Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, and Costa Rica.

 

• April 27, 1972 – To highlight the continued oppression of religious groups in the Soviet Union, Carter issued a proclamation declaring April 30 as “Solidarity Day for Soviet Jewry.”

 

• July 10-13, 1972  – Carter attended the Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach as a delegate. He placed into nomination for president Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson of Washington. Carter even received a few votes for vice president.

 

• November 4, 1972 – Known as the “Jordan Memo,” Carter advisor Hamilton Jordan drafted a strategy memorandum describing how the Georgia governor could prepare for a presidential run in 1976.

 

• May 13-30, 1973 – Carter made his second international trip as governor. He visited five countries in Europe and Israel to promote trade, tourism, and general goodwill with Georgia. One trip highlight included a visit to divided Berlin and a brief crossing into communist East Germany for a tour of the capital.

 

• June 7, 1973 – Carter provided the commencement address at Georgia Southwestern. He announced that the state had approved the construction of the Fine Arts Building. Also, that day, the school library was dedicated in the name of his father Earl Carter.

 

• August 9, 1974 – Due to the Watergate scandal, President Richard Nixon resigned. Vice President Gerald Ford assumed the presidency.

 

• December 12, 1974 – At the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Carter declared that he was a candidate for the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination. He was a long shot. He held his first campaign event that evening at the Atlanta Civic Center.

 

• January 19, 1976 – Carter won the Iowa Caucus. It was his first victory on his way to the Democratic Party’s nomination. The momentum was his.

 

• February 24, 1976 – Carter finished first in the New Hampshire Primary with the help of some of his most loyal supporters from Georgia, the so-called “Peanut Brigade.” The victory made him the unexpected Democratic frontrunner.

 

• March 9, 1976 – In the battle for the South, Carter beat George Wallace in the Florida Primary.

 

• April 18, 1976 – On Easter Sunday, the Jimmy Carter Presidential Campaign Headquarters officially opened in the Plains Train Depot. The old rail station quickly became a symbol of the campaign. The building was chosen because it was available for use and had a restroom.

 

• May 4, 1976 – With nearly 90 percent of the vote, Carter won the Georgia presidential primary in a landslide.

 

• June 8, 1976 – Carter finished with the 1976 primary schedule with a big win in Ohio. He was the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president.

 

• June 12, 1976 – Plains High School Class of 1941 held its 35-year reunion at the Best Western Motel in Americus. Out of a graduating class of 26 students, 21 attended the event.

 

• July 15, 1976 – Carter formally accepted the Democratic nomination for president at Madison Square Garden in New York City. For vice president, he chose Walter Mondale of Minnesota.

 

• September 6, 1976 – Carter began his fall campaign in Warm Springs, Georgia. In his remarks, he paid homage to the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt.

 

• September 23, 1976 – Carter faced President Gerald Ford in the first of three presidential debates.

 

• November 2, 1976 – In the bicentennial year, with 297 electoral votes, Carter was elected president. He was declared the projected winner by the major news networks early in the morning the next day.

 

• January 20, 1977 – Carter was inaugurated as the 39th president of the United States. In his inaugural address, he quoted his former teacher at Plains High School Miss Julia Coleman. After the inaugural ceremony, to symbolize the new spirit he was bringing to Washington, President and Mrs. Carter walked down Pennsylvania Avenue. By voice vote, the U.S. Senate quickly confirmed eight of Carter’s cabinet choices, including for the first time two women (Juanita Kreps and Patricia Harris).

 

• January 21, 1977 – By executive order, Carter unconditionally pardoned Vietnam War draft evaders for a select period between August 1964 to March 1973.

 

• February 2, 1977 – Carter signed into law his first bill. It was a bill involving the president’s ability to address natural gas emergencies. From the White House Library, Carter also delivered his first national address that day. It was described at the time as a fireside chat on energy.

 

• February 8, 1977 – From the Old Executive Office Building, Carter provided his first news conference. He held 22 solo press events in his first year.

 

• February 11-13, 1977 – Carter made his first trip home as the President. He came in on Air Force One and landed at Robins Air Force Base. President Carter, the First Lady, and their daughter Amy then traveled by presidential motorcade to Plains.
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• February 14, 1977 – Carter received his first foreign leader at the White House and held his first state dinner. His guest was Mexico’s President Jose Lopez Portillo.

 

• February 20, 1977 – At the First Baptist Church of the City of Washington, D.C., Carter taught his first Sunday school class while in office.

 

• February 25-27, 1977 – Carter and his family spent first weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.

 

• March 5, 1977 – Appearing on the CBS Radio Network with Walter Cronkite, Carter took part in a telephone call-in program.

 

• March 16, 1977 – Carter participated in a town hall meeting in Clinton, Massachusetts.

 

• March 17, 1977 – Carter addressed the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

 

• May 5, 1977 – To begin his first overseas trip, Carter arrived in London, United Kingdom.

 

• May 22, 1977 – In South Bend, Indiana, Carter delivered the commencement address at the University of Notre Dame. It is often considered the first major foreign policy speech of his presidency.

 

• July 11, 1977 – Martin Luther King, Jr. posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Coretta Scott King, on behalf of her late husband, accepted the award from President Carter.

 

• August 4, 1977 – Carter signed legislation to create the Department of Energy.

 

• August 20, 1977 – From the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Voyager 1 and 2 were launched by NASA for deep space travel. In case of extraterrestrial contact, each spacecraft contained a golden phonograph of images and sounds from planet Earth. A message from President Carter was included.

 

• August 31, 1977 – For greater fuel conservation and road safety, Carter issued a statement urging Americans to comply with a 55-mph speed limit.

 

• September 1, 1977 – Carter opened a U.S. interests section at the Swiss Embassy in Havana, Cuba.

 

• September 7, 1977 – Carter and Panama’s General Omar Torrijos signed the Panama Canal Treaties in Washington, D.C.

 

• November 1, 1977 – Carter signed legislation to incrementally raise the minimum wage to $3.35 an hour.

 

• November 5, 1977 – Carter vetoed his first bill, an appropriation bill he considered to be wasteful. In total, he issued 31 presidential vetoes.

 

• December 21-26, 1977 – The First Family spent Christmas in Sumter County. This trip home they took a Marine helicopter, Marine One, from Robins AFB to Plains and landed at Peterson Field.

 

• December 30, 1977 – In Warsaw, Poland, Carter visited the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes. The monument commemorates the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and Jewish resistance during the Second World War.

 

• January 5, 1978 – Carter visited the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, France. He was the first U.S. president to visit the site and pay his respects to the “Americans who died for the liberty of France and Europe and for our own freedom.”

 

• January 19, 1978 – Before a joint session of Congress, Carter delivered his first State of the Union Address.
• March 16, 1978 – The U.S. Senate voted 68 – 32 to approve the first of the Panama Canal treaties that guaranteed the neutrality of the Panama Canal and the U.S. right to defend it.

 

• March 28-31, 1978 – With visits to Venezuela and Brazil, Carter made his first trip as president to Latin America.

 

• Mar. 31-Apr. 3, 1978 – With visits to Nigeria and Liberia, Carter was the first U.S. president to visit sub-Saharan Africa.

 

• April 18, 1978 – The U.S. Senate voted 68 – 32 to approve the second of the Panama Canal treaties that transferred full control of the canal to Panama on December 31, 1999.

 

• September 5, 1978 – Carter, Egypt’s Anwar Sadat, and Israel’s Menachem Begin started a 13-day summit at Camp David.

 

• September 17, 1978 – Sadat and Begin signed the Camp David Accords in Washington, D.C. They later shared the year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Carter mediated the diplomatic breakthrough.

 

• October 24, 1978 – Carter signed into law the Airline Deregulation Act to provide for greater competition in the industry, expansion opportunities, and competitive consumer prices.

 

• November 1, 1978 – By executive order, Carter established the President’s Commission on the Holocaust. It was chaired by Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and noted writer.

 

• November 7, 1978 – Democrats retained the House and Senate in the 1978 congressional midterm elections.

 

• January 1, 1979 – The United States and the People’s Republic of China established full diplomatic relations. It was another major foreign policy achievement for Carter.

 

• January 14, 1979 – In a speech at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, Carter expressed his support for legislation to make the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. a national holiday.

 

• January 16, 1979 – The Shah of Iran left his country under pressure from the Iranian Revolution. The unrest in Iran and the Shah’s downfall triggered the second major oil crisis of the decade.

 

• January 29, 1979 – China’s Deng Xiaoping arrived in Washington, D.C. and welcomed at the White House. It was a dramatic sign of the normalized ties between the two countries.

 

• March 7-13, 1979 – Carter traveled to the Middle East and shuttled back and forth between Israel and Egypt to secure a peace treaty between the two countries. In Egypt, he toured the pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx with Sadat. In Israel, he visited Yad Vashem. After Richard Nixon, he was the second president to visit Israel’s Holocaust Memorial. Carter became the first president to address the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.

 

• March 26, 1979 – In Washington, Sadat and Begin signed a peace treaty that ended 30-year conflict between Egypt and Israel.

 

• April 10, 1979 – Carter signed the Taiwan Relations Act to govern U.S. ties with the island after normalization with mainland China.

 

• June 18, 1979 – Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks Treaty (SALT II) at the US-USSR summit in Vienna, Austria. To symbolize détente, the leaders exchanged a diplomatic kiss.

 

• June 20, 1979 – To encourage the use of alternative energy, Carter had solar panels installed at the White House.

 

• July 15, 1979 – Carter delivered the “crisis of confidence” speech to the country; critics called it the “malaise” speech.

 

• July 17, 1979 – Nicaragua’s dictator Anastasio Somoza was forced from power. The Sandinistas assumed control of the Central American country.

 

• October 6, 1979 – During his visit to the United States, Pope John Paul II was welcomed by the President at the White House. It was a historic first for a pope to visit the White House.

 

• October 17, 1979 – Carter signed legislation to create the Department of Education.

 

• November 4, 1979 – Islamic revolutionaries stormed the American embassy in Tehran, Iran and hold Americans hostage.

 

• November 7, 1979 – From Faneuil Hall in Boston, Massachusetts U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy declared his candidacy for the 1980 Democratic Party presidential nomination. At the time, he was favored to win it.

 

• December 4, 1979 – From the White House, Carter announced he will seek a second term as president.

 

• December 27, 1979 – The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.

 

• January 4, 1980 – Carter delivered a national address on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. He announced a series of punitive actions, including a grain embargo.

 

• January 21, 1980 – In “a vote of confidence from Iowa Democrats,” Carter defeated Kennedy by a wide margin in the Iowa Caucus.

 

• January 23, 1980 – In his last State of the Union Address, in what became known as the “Carter Doctrine,” the President warned the Soviet Union not to interfere with the Persian Gulf.

 

• February 24, 1980 – The United States won the gold medal in hockey at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York by defeating Finland 4-2. On route to the gold, Team USA defeated the Soviet Union 4-3 in the “Miracle on Ice.”

 

• February 26, 1980 – Carter won the New Hampshire Primary 47-37 percent over Kennedy.

 

• March 11, 1980 – With primary wins in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, Carter was successful in the original “Super Tuesday.”

 

• April 20, 1980 – The Mariel boatlift from Cuba was initiated. Fidel Castro asserted that any Cuban who wanted to leave the island was free to leave. Approximately 125,000 “Marielitos” came to the United States by October. It became a “very challenging problem” for the Carter presidency.

 

• April 24, 1980 – Operation Eagle Claw – hostage rescue mission failed in Iran. Eight U.S. soldiers died. John Anderson announced he was running as an independent for president.

 

• May 17, 1980 – Violence broke out Miami, Florida for three days after an all-white jury acquitted police officers in the beating death of an African American named Arthur McDuffie.

 

• May 18, 1980 – Mount St. Helens erupted in Washington State.

 

• June 1, 1980 – In remarks to reporters, Carter said, “The riots in Miami…are certainly a reminder that we need to redouble our efforts to alleviate the problems of people of all races, in all locations in our country, who are suffering from economic deprivation or some kind of social or legal justice deprivation.” His remarks were carried live on the Atlanta-based Cable News Network (CNN), the network’s first day on the air broadcasting 24-hour news.
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• June 3, 1980 – On the last day of the Democratic primaries, Carter won in Ohio, West Virginia, and Montana. However, he lost in five states, most notably California.

 

• June 9, 1980 – Carter awarded Admiral Hyman Rickover the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Carter once served under Rickover in the U.S. Navy who challenged him to do his best.

 

• June 21, 1980 – Carter met with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.

 

• July 1, 198 – Carter signed legislation to establish a site for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall.

 

• July 9, 1980 – Carter attended a memorial service for Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira who died suddenly from a heart attack at age 70 on June 12. He met with Emperor Hirohito at the Imperial Palace. It was the last foreign trip of his presidency.

 

• July 19, 1980 – The Summer Olympics games opened in Moscow. The U.S. boycotted the event.

 

• August 14, 1980 – At the 1980 Democratic National Convention in New York City, Carter and Mondale formally accepted the party’s presidential and vice-presidential nominations. Former rival Senator Kennedy refused to grasp Carter’s hand and raise it high in a sign of party unity.

 

• September 1, 1980 – Carter began his fall campaign in Tuscumbia, Alabama. He told his fellow southerners, “Stick with me, and we’ll win.”

 

• September 22, 1980 – The Iran-Iraq War started. It lasted for nearly eight years.

 

• September 26, 1980 To better regulate the substance, quality, and safety of baby food, Carter signed into law the Infant Formula Act.

 

• October 7, 1980 – Carter signed into law the Mental Health Systems Act, a policy priority of the First Lady.

 

• October 10, 1980 – Carter signed into law legislation creating the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta, Georgia.

 

• October 28, 1980 – In Cleveland, Ohio, President Carter and Governor Reagan faced off in the one presidential election debate between the major party candidates.

 

• November 4, 1980 – On Election Day 1980, the Carters were in Plains and they cast their ballots at the Plains High School.

 

• In a national landslide, winning 44 of 50 states, Reagan defeated Carter 489 – 49 in the Electoral College. Carter became the fourth sitting president in the 20th century to lose an election. The day was the one-year anniversary of the start of the Iranian hostage crisis.

 

• December 2, 1980 – Carter signed into law the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). The legislation set aside millions of acres for land conservation and national parks.

 

• December 11, 1980 – Also known as the Superfund, Carter signed into law the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). This legislation empowered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to clean up toxic waste sites and spills.

 

• December 23-26, 1980 – The Carters returned home for the Christmas holiday. They spent Christmas Day in Plains and in Buena Vista.

 

• January 1, 1981 – In college football, Georgia defeated Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl, 17-10. The win earned the Bulldogs their first national championship. The President and Mrs. Carter attended the game in New Orleans, Louisiana.

 

• January 4, 1981 – At the First Baptist Church he had been attending since the start of his presidency, Carter taught his last Sunday school class while in office. He taught Sunday school nineteen times as president. In White House Diary, Carter wrote, “I taught a lesson from the ninth chapter of Luke, about the service of others being the measure of greatness.”

 

• January 8-11, 1981 – Carter’s last trip home to Sumter County as President of the United States. The purpose of the visit was to prepare for the post-presidency.

 

• January 14, 1981 – President Carter delivered his farewell address. He said, “America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense, it is the other way around. Human rights invented America.”

 

• January 19, 1981 – Carter announced that an agreement had been reached in Algiers, Algeria to end the 444-day hostage crisis.

 

• January 20, 1981 – Ronald Reagan took the oath of office as the 40th president. Minutes later, Iran released the American hostages. Former president Carter headed back to Plains. The next day, he flew to Wiesbaden, West Germany to greet the hostages.

 

• January 25, 1981 – The Carters attended Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains. It became their home church. Carter taught Sunday school there for the next four decades.

 

• October 6, 1981 – President Sadat, arguably Carter’s closest friend on the world stage, was assassinated by Muslim extremists during a military parade in Cairo.

 

• April 6, 1982 – The Carter Center is founded. Its purpose is to alleviate human suffering by resolving conflict, promoting democracy, and advancing health.

 

• April 21, 1982 – Carter was named University Distinguished Professor at Emory University in Atlanta.

 

• October 11, 1982 – With the words, “Facing Up to the Middle East,” Carter appeared on the front cover of Time magazine. It was the first of his post-presidency.

 

• August 31, 1983 – Carter formally endorsed former vice president Walter Mondale for president at his mountain cabin near Ellijay, Ga.

 

• October 30, 1983 – At age 85, “Miss Lillian” Carter passed away. She was buried with her husband at the Lebanon Cemetery in Plains. Carter wrote a book about his mother in 2008, A Remarkable Mother.

 

• September 3, 1984 – In New York City, the inaugural Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project took place. Earlier in March, they partnered with Habitat for Humanity to build affordable housing in Americus. Over the years, the Carters have participated in many housing efforts in the United States and in other countries. Thousands of Habitat volunteers have helped them. The New York Times published an article on this date entitled, “Carpenter Named Carter Comes to New York.”

 

• October 1, 1986 – The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum was dedicated in Atlanta, Georgia. Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan attended the opening ceremony.

 

• December 23, 1987 – President Reagan signed into law legislation creating the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site in Plains, Georgia.

 

• May 7, 1989 – The Carter Center monitored its first election. The election was in Panama. Presidents Carter and Ford participated as international observers.

 

• February 25, 1990 – Carter observed the presidential election in Nicaragua. The Sandinista leader was rejected by the voters and power was peacefully transferred to the opposition.

 

• June 19, 1994 – Carter went to the Clinton White House to discuss his recent visit to North Korea and his nuclear talks with its leader Kim Il Sung.

 

• September 17, 1994 – Ahead of a likely U.S. military intervention, Carter joined Georgia senator Sam Nunn and General Colin Powell on a diplomatic effort to Haiti to meet with the military government.

 

• December 22, 1998 – After the House impeached Bill Clinton, Carter and Ford co-authored article, “A Time to Heal Our Nation,” that appeared in the New York Times. They recommended that the Congress censure the President for his role in the Lewinsky Affair, but not to remove him from office.

 

• August 9, 1999 – Carter received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton.

 

• December 14, 1999 – Carter spoke at a ceremony in Panama to mark the transfer of full control of the Panama Canal from the United States to Panama. Referring to the canal, Carter told Panama’s president, “It is yours.” Panama officially assumed full control on December 31.

 

• October 19, 2000 – Because of its “increasingly rigid” stands on women and scriptural interpretation, Carter announced in a widely distributed letter, “I have finally decided that, after 65 years, I can no longer be associated with the Southern Baptist Convention.”

 

• May 14, 2002 – Carter spoke at the University of Havana in Cuba. His remarks, including remarks on human rights, were broadcast on state television and radio. He was the first president to visit the island since Calvin Coolidge in 1928.

 

• December 10, 2002 – In Oslo, Norway, Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize and delivered the Nobel Lecture.

 

• March 9, 2003 – Expressing his opposition to the looming Iraq War, Carter’s article, “Just War – or a Just War?” was published in the New York Times.

 

• February 7, 2006 – Carter delivered remarks at the funeral service of Coretta Scott King in Lithonia, Georgia.

 

• May 23, 2006 – Surpassing the previous record set by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson of 25 years and 122 days, Carter and Mondale became the longest living presidential-vice presidential team in U.S. history.

 

• November 7, 2006 – Jack Carter, the Carters’ eldest son, was the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Nevada.

 

• January 3, 2007 – In Grand Rapids, Michigan, Carter eulogized his former Republican rival President Ford during funeral service.

 

• July 18, 2007 – In Johannesburg, South Africa, Carter joined Nelson Mandela and other former world leaders to form the Elders to address intractable global issues.

 

• May 4, 2013 – Georgia state senator Jason Carter, who ran for governor the next year, delivered the commencement address at Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus. His famous grandfather introduced him.

 

• September 1-10, 2014 Carter visited China to commemorate 35 years of normalized relations between the United States and China. He visited the cities of Beijing, Xi’an, Qingdao, Shanghai.

 

• October 1, 2014 – Carter celebrated his 90th birthday. He became the sixth president to live into his nineties.
• May 8-10, 2015 – Carter traveled to Guyana as part of a Carter Center project to monitor elections. He cut his trip short due to illness.

 

• August 20, 2015 – At a press conference at the Carter Center, Carter stated that his liver cancer had metastasized to the brain. He said had he had a wonderful life and what life he had left was in God’s hands. Locals placed signs around Plains and Sumter County reading, “Jimmy Carter for Cancer Survivor.” By December, Carter announced that his treatments were working, and he was effectively cancer-free.

 

• September 22, 2017 – Carter’s 1942 cement etching was removed and relocated to the new Presidential Plaza at Georgia Southwestern. Carter participated in the dedication ceremony and also made a new cement etching of his name.

 

• March 27, 2018 – Carter authored his thirtieth book – Faith: A Journey for All.

 

• May 19, 2018 – Carter delivered the commencement address at Liberty University, a conservative evangelical school in Lynchburg, Va. The school was founded in 1971 by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Sr.

 

• March 22, 2019 – Carter, at age 94, became the oldest living president in U.S. history. For the record, he surpassed George H. W. Bush.

 

• September 13, 2019  – The President Jimmy Carter Leadership Program was established at Georgia Southwestern State University to honor the legacy of the school’s most famous alumnus. The program’s inaugural group of students started school that fall and met the former president in Plains.

 

• October 17, 2019 – The Carter Center announced that the Carters became “the longest married presidential couple.” The previous record was the 73-year marriage of George and Barbara Bush.

 

• February 17, 2020 – On Presidents’ Day, Carter participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony to unveil to the public the new historical exhibits at the Plains High School.

 

• January 13, 2021 – The Jimmy Carter National Historical Park Redesignation Act became law. The measure to upgrade the status of the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site was sponsored by U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop.

 

• April 19, 2021 – At age 93, Vice President Mondale died at his home in Minneapolis. Carter called him “a model of public service” and “the best vice president in our country’s history.”

 

• July 7, 2021 – Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary in Plains.

 

• November 2, 2021 – The Atlanta Braves won Major League Baseball’s World Series. The Carters were always big fans and attended home games when they could. Sometimes, the love between them was captured by the kiss cam. A postgame statement from the couple read, “We are thrilled to congratulate our beloved hometown Atlanta Braves for winning their 3rd World Series in our lifetime.”

 

• January 5, 2022 – For the one-year anniversary of the January 6 Capitol attack that aimed to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power, Carter’s article, “I Fear for Our Democracy,” was published in the New York Times.