1894 |
Jimmy Carter's father, James Earl Carter, is born in Arlington, Georgia. His family had emigrated to America from England in 1635, then settled in Georgia in 1780.
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1898 |
Jimmy Carter's mother, Lillian Gordy, is born in Richland, Georgia.
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1920 |
Lillian Gordy is accepted into the nursing program at the Wise Clinic in Plains, Georgia, where she meets Earl Carter.
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1923 |
September 26: Earl and Lillian marry.
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1924 |
 October 1: James Earl Carter Jr. is born in Plains, Georgia, the first American president born in a hospital.
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1927 |
August 18: Rosalynn Smith is born in Plains, Georgia.
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1928 |
The Carters move from a house in Plains to a farm in Archery, a couple of miles away.
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1942 |
 In the middle of World War II, Carter receives an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. He will leave for Annapolis the following June.
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1946 |
June: Carter graduates from Annapolis. He is assigned to the U.S.S. Wyoming out of Norfolk, Virginia.
July 7: Jimmy Carter marries Rosalynn Smith.
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1947 |
July 3: The Carters' first child, John William ("Jack"), is born in Portsmouth, Virginia.
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1948 |
 June: The Carters move to New London, Connecticut, when Carter is accepted into a six-month submarine officer training school.
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1949 |
March: Jimmy is assigned to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Rosalynn and son Jack join him a week later.
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1950 |
April 12: The Carters' second child, James Earl III ("Chip"), is born in Honolulu, Hawaii.
June: The Carters move to San Diego, California
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1951 |
 July 1: Carter arrives in New London, Connecticut, as the senior officer of the pre-commissioning detail on the K-1, the Navy's first new ship since the end of World War II.
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1952 |
June 1: Carter is accepted into Admiral Hyman Rickover's elite nuclear submarine program.
December 12: A nuclear reactor in Chalk River, Canada, suffers a meltdown. Carter is a member of the team dispatched to the site.
August 18: The Carters' third child, Donnel Jeffrey ("Jeff"), is born in New London, Connecticut.
November: Carter is sent to the Naval Reactors Branch of the Atomic Energy Commission in Washington, D.C. Rosalynn moves with the kids to Schenectady, New York, where Jimmy will work on the U.S.S. Seawolf, one of the first two U.S. nuclear submarines.
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1953 |
 Jimmy's father, Earl Carter, dies of pancreatic cancer.
October 9: Carter is honorably discharged from the Navy. The Carters move back to Plains, Georgia, to take over his father's business.
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1954 |
May 17: The Supreme Court rules against segregation in public schools in Brown v. Board of Education. Chief Justice Earl Warren delivers the landmark opinion.
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1961 |
The Carters find themselves near the front lines of the civil rights movement when Martin Luther King Jr. comes to nearby Albany, Georgia, prompting resistance from segregationists.
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1962 |
March 26: In ruling on Baker vs. Carr, the Supreme Court establishes what becomes known as the "one man, one vote" rule. It will have a major impact on Georgia politics, which up to this time had been largely under the control of local political bosses.
 October 1: Carter tells Rosalynn he plans to run for the state senate.
October 16: Carter loses the primary by 139 votes to Homer Moore, and decides to ask for a recount.
November 2: A recount committee rules in Carter's favor and orders a new election, which Carter will win by 831 votes four days later.
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1963 |
 January 14: The General Assembly session opens in Atlanta. Jimmy Carter is sworn in as state senator.
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1966 |
Spring: Carter's mother, 68-year-old Lillian Carter, announces she is joining the Peace Corps.
 June 12: Carter announces he is running for governor.
September 15: Carter loses the Democratic primary for governor. Though severely disappointed, he immediately tells supporters he will run again -- and win -- in 1970.
Several weeks later, he takes a long walk with his sister Ruth, an evangelical Christian. The walk marks the beginning of his "born again" experience.
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1967 |
October 19: The Carters' fourth child, Amy Lynn, is born in Plains, Georgia.
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1968 |
May: Carter and several friends drive to Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, to "witness" for Christ. Carter will make a subsequent trip to Springfield, Massachusetts for the same purpose.
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1970 |
 April 3: Carter formally announces he is running for governor of Georgia, challenging frontrunner and former governor Carl Sanders.
September 9: Carter wins 48.6% of the vote in the Democratic primary, beating Sanders. Two weeks later, he wins a runoff with 60% of the vote.
November 3: Carter wins 60% of the vote to defeat his Republican opponent, businessman Hal Suit. Arch-segregationist Lestor Maddox is elected lieutenant governor.
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1971 |
January 12: Carter's is sworn in as governor of Georgia. In his inaugural address, he shocks the audience and gains national attention by unequivocally declaring that "the time for racial discrimination is over."
February 15: Carter signs a bill into law that gives the governor authority to propose government reorganization.
May 31: Governor Carter appears on the cover of Time magazine, as a representative of the "New South." His politics contrast with those of Southern segregationists like George Wallace.
February 21: At midnight, after a long and bitter political battle, the Georgia Assembly passes Carter's government reorganization plan.
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1972 |
July 8: Carter arrives at the Democratic National Convention in Miami. Though he had been identified with the movement to stop the nomination of George McGovern, behind the scenes Carter lobbies -- unsuccessfully -- to be McGovern's running mate.
October 17: Carter discusses running for president in 1976 with his advisers, including Hamilton Jordan, Peter Bourne, and Gerald Rafshoon.
 November 5: President Richard Nixon wins re-election handily over Democrat George McGovern.
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1973 |
Governor Carter appears on the television show What's My Line? The panel is unable to guess his job.
March 5: Democratic Party chairman Robert Strauss appoints Carter national campaign chairman for the Democratic National Committee. It is the opening Carter needs to forge national connections.
May: The Carters travel to Europe and Israel. Jimmy meets New York governor Nelson Rockefeller and impresses him so much that Rockefeller recommends Carter for the newly-founded Trilateral Commission, an organization that seeks to bring together North American, Western European, and Japanese opinion leaders.
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1974 |
May 4: Senator Ted Kennedy is the featured speaker at the unveiling of a portrait of former secretary of state and Georgia native Dean Rusk at the University of Georgia. Carter upstages Kennedy -- and impresses Rolling Stone journalist Hunter S. Thompson -- with an impassioned speech about the importance of politics as a vehicle for social justice.
September 23: Senator Kennedy announces he will not run for president.
November: A Harris poll lists 35 potential presidential candidates. Jimmy Carter is not one of them.
November 5: In the wake of Nixon's Watergate scandal, Democrats score huge gains in the midterm elections, giving them comfortable majorities in both houses of Congress.
 December 12: Carter announces his candidacy for president.
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1975 |
January 13: Carter spends his last day as governor. Georgia laws prevent a governor from succeeding himself. George Busbee is inaugurated.
August 18: At a Washington press conference, Carter announces that he has qualified for federal matching funds.
October 27: The New York Times runs a front-page story stating, "Carter Holds Strong Lead Going Into Iowa Caucuses," leading to a big increase in media coverage of his campaign.
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1976 |
January 19: Carter wins the Iowa Democratic caucuses with 29.1% of the vote.
 February 2: Newsweek describes Carter's "Peanut Brigade" of campaign volunteers, quoting an Exeter, New Hampshire Democrat: "If that many people thought that much about him to come all the way up here... then he must be a good man."
February 24: Carter wins the New Hampshire primary with 29.4% of the vote over Mo Udall (23.9%), Birch Bayh (16.2%), Fred Harris (11.4%), and Sargent Shriver (8.7%).
March 9: Carter wins the Florida primary, dealing a blow to former Governor of Alabama George Wallace.
March 16: Carter wins the Illinois primary, his first victory in a northern, industrial state.
March 31: Carter loses the Massachusetts primary to Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson.
April 3: Answering a question about public housing, Carter says that people should be allowed to maintain the "ethnic purity" of their neighborhoods. Despite the controversy which ensues and the anger of many in the black community, Carter sticks by his wording over the next few days before apologizing for his remarks on April 8.
April 6: Carter wins the Wisconsin primary.
April 27: Carter wins the Pennsylvania primary.
June 8: Carter loses primaries in California and New Jersey while winning in Ohio.
July 12: Delegates attend the Democratic Convention in New York City. Carter asks Walter Mondale to be his running mate.
July 22: Carter begins a series of three day-long meetings in Plains with policy experts.
September 11: Playboy editor Barry Golson and writer Robert Scheer talk about Carter's interview in the upcoming issue. Carter's remarks, including the admission that had "lusted after women in his heart many times," cause a major controversy in the coming weeks and hurt him in the polls.
 September 23: The first debate between Carter and President Gerald Ford, focusing on domestic issues, takes place in Philadelphia.
October 6: Carter and Ford meet for a second time in San Francisco, to debate foreign policy. Ford's assertion that there is "no Soviet domination" in Eastern Europe spurs incredulous headlines in the coming days and causes many to question his fitness for office.
November 2: Jimmy Carter is elected president of the United States, though the margin is so slight the results aren't known until 3:30 am. Carter beats Ford in the popular vote 50.06% to 48.00%, and in the electoral college 297 to 240.
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