Former President Jimmy Carter Turns 100
In October 2024, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter achieved a milestone. Carter became the first president to celebrate his 100th birthday. Families and friends gathered with him at his home in Plains, Georgia, to honor the occasion. They ate cupcakes and watched antique World War II airplanes fly over his home in his honor.
Carter’s Early Life
Jimmy Carter was born on October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia. Plains was a small farming community. His father was a farmer and businessman, and his mother was a nurse. Carter received his college degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1946. That same year, he married Rosalynn Smith of Plains.
Carter served on submarines in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets. The Navy sent him to New York to learn about nuclear reactor technology and nuclear physics. He was a senior officer on the Navy’s first nuclear submarine. When his father died in 1953, Carter resigned his naval commission and returned to the family peanut farm. Carter and his wife also operated Carter’s Warehouse, a seed and supply company. He became active in the community and served on county election and housing boards.
Political Life
In 1962, Carter ran for and won election to the Georgia state Senate. Then, in 1971, he was elected Georgia’s 76th governor. Carter was active in the Democratic Party and served as the Democratic National Committee Campaign chairman. In 1976, Carter campaigned and won to become the 39th president of the United States.
President Carter achieved many successes during his time in the White House. He negotiated a peace agreement between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Under Carter’s leadership, the United States and the Soviet Union negotiated a limit on the number of nuclear weapons and missile creation systems. At home, Carter initiated programs to end high inflation and unemployment. His administration created the Department of Education, and he helped increase the number of women and African Americans hired for government jobs.
Carter, however, only served one term as president. The U.S. economy continued to struggle, despite Carter’s policies. And foreign policy crises also weakened his chances for reelection. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. The U.S. and Soviet nuclear arms treaty was never ratified, or approved, following the invasion.
Also in 1979, an Islamic republic was declared in Iran, forcing Iran’s monarch—the shah—to flee. Iranian students took 66 American citizens hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in retaliation for American support of the shah. The Iranians released 14 hostages but held the other 52 Americans captive for 444 days. Carter was unable to obtain their freedom. Public support for Carter eroded, and he lost the 1980 presidential election to Ronald Reagan.
Continued Public Service
In 1982, Carter and his wife founded the Carter Center. The Carter Center was created to address national and international issues of public policy. Its missions include resolving conflict, promoting democracy and human rights, and preventing disease. Carter traveled to other countries to monitor democratic elections for fairness. The Carter Center worked with other healthcare agencies to eradicate, or destroy, Guinea worm disease. It is expected that Guinea worm disease will be the second human disease in history, after smallpox, to be eradicated. In 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to achieve peaceful solutions to international conflicts and advancing democracy and human rights.
Up until 2020, Carter and his wife Rosalyn volunteered one week a year for Habitat for Humanity. Habitat for Humanity helps poor people throughout the U.S. and the world repair and build houses for themselves. Carter continued to teach Sunday school at his church in Plains. Rosalyn died in 2023. Carter continues to live in the home that he and Rosalyn built in the early 1960s.