95 Fun Facts About Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter was born on October 1 of which year, in the small town of Plains, Georgia?

Born in 1924 at the Wise Sanitarium, he was the first US president born in a hospital.

What was Jimmy Carter's mother's profession?

Lillian Carter was a registered nurse who worked at the Wise Sanitarium in Plains, where Jimmy was born; in 1966, at age 68, she joined the Peace Corps.

Before attending the U.S. Naval Academy, which of these institutions did Jimmy Carter attend?

He started engineering coursework at Georgia Southwestern College in 1941 and transferred to what was then the Georgia School of Technology a year later, joining ROTC there.

As a qualified undersea officer, Carter earned which Navy badge?

Carter qualified in submarines and earned the dolphin badge, the Navy's submarine warfare insignia; his other decorations included the American Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal.

Which officer, then a captain, led the fledgling nuclear submarine program Carter joined in 1952?

Captain Hyman G. Rickover ran the Navy's nuclear propulsion program that Carter joined in 1952; Carter later said that, next to his parents, Rickover had the greatest influence on his life.

What event prompted Jimmy Carter to resign from the Navy and return to Georgia?

He had hoped to serve aboard USS Seawolf, the planned second US nuclear submarine, but obtained a release from active duty to take over the family business.

For a year after Carter left the Navy, where did he, Rosalynn and their three sons live in Plains?

The Carters moved into a unit of the Plains public housing project; he had inherited comparatively little after debt settlements, and the peanut business barely broke even in its first year.

Jimmy Carter served as the Governor of Georgia from 1971 to what year?

Carter served a single term as governor of Georgia, from January 12, 1971, to January 14, 1975; the state constitution then barred consecutive terms.

Governor Carter's 1972 reorganization plan merged about 300 Georgia state agencies into how many?

Carter's reorganization consolidated roughly 300 state agencies into 22; the plan passed at midnight on the last day of the 1972 session, though whether it saved money is disputed.

Barred by Georgia's constitution from a second term as governor, Jimmy Carter announced his run for president in which year?

December 12, 1974 was the day he declared, nearly two years before the election he would win.

Because of Carter's low name recognition early in the 1976 race, opponents derisively asked what?

'Jimmy Who?' was the jibe at his obscurity; he leaned into it, opening speeches with 'My name is Jimmy Carter, and I'm running for president.'

Who was Jimmy Carter's running mate when he defeated Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election?

Walter Mondale, a Minnesota senator, joined the ticket that defeated Gerald Ford in November 1976; Mondale later lost the 1984 election to Reagan.

Carter became the 1976 front-runner by winning New Hampshire and which other early contest?

Carter's surprise strength in the January 1976 Iowa caucuses, followed by his New Hampshire win, made him the front-runner; Watergate made his outsider status an asset.

During his 1977 inaugural parade, Carter and Rosalynn walked hand-in-hand down which Washington avenue?

The Carters walked the parade route along Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House on 20 January 1977, the first president to do so after the ceremony.

The 1978 Camp David Accords, brokered by Jimmy Carter, led to a 1979 peace treaty between which two countries?

Egypt and Israel signed the treaty in March 1979, under the second of the two Camp David frameworks, between Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin.

Which agreement signed by President Carter transferred control of a vital canal to its host nation?

During his presidency, Jimmy Carter transferred control of the Panama Canal to Panama through the Panama Canal Treaties.

Which event, involving Americans held captive abroad, marred Carter's final year in office?

The Iranian Revolution and subsequent Iran Hostage Crisis, where U.S. citizens were held captive for over a year, marked the later years of Carter's presidency.

The Soviet invasion of which country ended détente and prompted the US boycott of the 1980 Olympics?

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 led to the end of détente and the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Jimmy Carter lost his bid for re-election in 1980 to which Republican candidate?

In 1980, Jimmy Carter lost his re-election campaign to Republican nominee Ronald Reagan.

In which year did Carter found the nonprofit Carter Center?

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter founded the Carter Center in Atlanta in 1982, a year after leaving the White House, to advance peace and health; it has observed more than 100 elections worldwide.

In what year was Jimmy Carter awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?

Carter received the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for decades of work on conflict resolution, democracy and human rights; committee chairman Gunnar Berge said it was also a criticism of the Bush administration's Iraq policy.

Jimmy Carter is well-known for his long-standing volunteer work with which housing charity?

Jimmy Carter devoted his post-presidency life to service, famously building homes through Habitat for Humanity for decades.

For roughly how many years were Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter married when she died in November 2023?

They married on 7 July 1946, weeks after his Naval Academy graduation, and had been married 77 years when Rosalynn died on 19 November 2023.

Which damaged nuclear plant did Carter tour with Rosalynn on 1 April 1979?

Carter, trained as a nuclear engineer, visited the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on 1 April 1979, four days after its Unit 2 reactor partially melted down, to calm public fears.

What was the primary crop grown on Jimmy Carter's family farm?

Jimmy Carter grew up on his family's peanut farm in Archery, Georgia, and later expanded the family's peanut-growing business after leaving the Navy.

When Jimmy left the Navy for the family business, what job did Rosalynn Carter take on?

She taught herself accounting to keep the books while Jimmy took agriculture classes and grew the peanut operation.

In what small community near Plains, Georgia, did Jimmy Carter primarily grow up?

Archery, a dirt-road settlement a few miles from Plains, was almost entirely populated by impoverished Black families; the Carters moved there in 1928, when Jimmy was four.

During his second term in Georgia's upper legislative chamber, Carter chaired which committee?

Carter chaired the Senate Education Committee in his second term, 1965-66; he also sat on the Appropriations Committee and helped rewrite the state Democratic Party's rules.

Governor Carter's inaugural line 'the time for racial discrimination is over' left which group feeling betrayed?

Weeks later he announced plans for a Georgia Human Rights Council.

What was Jimmy Carter's rank when he left active duty in the U.S. Navy?

Jimmy Carter left active duty in the Navy in 1953 with the rank of Lieutenant.

In what year did Jimmy Carter graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy?

Jimmy Carter graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering.

By 1961, Carter was chairman of which Sumter County body?

From that platform he began to speak more prominently in favour of integration.

Jimmy Carter's father was a reserve Army Quartermaster Corps lieutenant in which conflict?

Earl Carter served as a reserve Quartermaster Corps lieutenant in World War I, then ran a general store, invested in farmland and became a community leader in Depression-era Plains.

One of Carter's first acts as president, Proclamation 4483, granted unconditional amnesty to whom?

On 21 January 1977, the day after his inauguration, Carter pardoned Vietnam War draft evaders, fulfilling a campaign promise; military deserters were not covered.

Which of these industries saw deregulation efforts during Jimmy Carter's presidency?

He signed the Airline Deregulation Act into law on October 24, 1978.

How many women did Carter appoint to the federal bench, more than all previous presidents combined?

Carter named 41 women to federal judgeships, more than all his predecessors combined, and a record number of Black and Hispanic judges, using new merit-based nominating commissions for the appeals courts.

The Carter Center works with the WHO to eradicate dracunculiasis, better known as what?

Dracunculiasis is Guinea worm disease, caught by drinking water containing infected water fleas; the Carter Center-led campaign cut cases from about 3.5 million in 1986 to 14 reported in 2023.

What was the name of Jimmy Carter's daughter, his youngest child?

Amy Lynn Carter's nanny for most of the years from 1971 to 1981 was Mary Prince, a woman wrongly convicted of murder and later pardoned.

In his youth, Jimmy Carter played on the high school team for which sport?

Jimmy Carter played on the Plains High School basketball team and also joined Future Farmers of America.

In which year was Carter's childhood memoir 'An Hour Before Daylight' published?

'An Hour Before Daylight', Carter's memoir of his rural Depression-era boyhood, was published in 2001; he wrote roughly one book a year after leaving the White House, including a novel and a children's book.

Which Chalk River reactor had a 1952 partial meltdown that Jimmy Carter helped clean up?

The NRX research reactor at Chalk River, Ontario, suffered a partial meltdown in December 1952; Carter led a US maintenance crew that helped dismantle the damaged core, an experience he said shaped his views on atomic energy.

Carter's 1962 state Senate count trailed Homer Moore's; what was later proven to blame?

Voter fraud by Quitman County political boss Joe Hurst, including stuffed ballot boxes, was exposed and the result overturned; Carter took the seat after winning the November 1962 general election.

Which cabinet department did Carter create in 1977, with James Schlesinger as its first secretary?

The Department of Energy Organization Act, signed on 4 August 1977, consolidated federal energy programs into a new cabinet department; James Schlesinger, a former defense secretary, became its first secretary.

What was the title of the 1987 memoir Jimmy Carter co-wrote with Rosalynn?

'Everything to Gain: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life' (1987), written with Rosalynn, mixed memoir with advice on later life; both Carters later said the collaboration strained their marriage.

Carter's national energy policy combined conservation, new technology and which third element?

Carter's 1977 National Energy Plan paired conservation and new technology with price control, moving to phased decontrol of oil prices only in 1979; his term was nonetheless dogged by the 1979 energy crisis and inflation.

Who chaired the President's Commission on the Holocaust that Carter established in November 1978?

Elie Wiesel, the Auschwitz survivor and author of 'Night', chaired the commission; its 1979 report led to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, dedicated in 1993.

Carter was the 39th U.S. president; which number governor of Georgia was he?

Carter was Georgia's 76th governor, serving from 1971 to 1975; the 1945 state constitution barred a second consecutive term, which pushed him toward national politics.

Why did Carter's schooling at Plains High end after the 11th grade in 1941?

Georgia's combined elementary-high school campus meant he did all his public schooling in one building, then went straight to Georgia Southwestern College.

Which weight-limited team sport did Carter play for Navy at Annapolis?

Carter played sprint football, the 150-pound version of the game, for Navy at Annapolis and ran cross-country as a plebe, an early sign of the fitness he kept up with cycling and tennis into old age.

What wiped out Carter's first peanut harvest after he left the Navy?

Drought wiped out his first peanut crop; he opened several lines of credit to keep the farm afloat, studied agriculture, and barely broke even in year one.

Carter's third-place 1966 primary run helped which segregationist become governor?

Carter's votes forced Arnall into a runoff that Maddox won; the Democratic-majority state House then picked Maddox after no one won a majority in November.

As governor, Carter vetoed a dam on which Georgia river, rousing environmentalists?

In 1973 Carter vetoed the Army Corps of Engineers' Sprewell Bluff Dam on the Flint River, one of his most controversial decisions as governor; it foreshadowed the water-project fights he later picked with Congress.

Which memoir did Carter publish in 1975 to introduce himself to voters?

'Why Not the Best?' came out in 1975, when Carter was a one-term former governor running against more than a dozen better-known Democrats; the title echoed a question Admiral Rickover had once put to him.

The 1976 Carter-Ford debates were the first televised presidential debates since when?

Kennedy and Nixon had met on air in 1960; no incumbents or nominees agreed to debate again for sixteen years.

Which magazine's November 1976 issue had Carter admitting 'adultery in my heart'?

Robert Scheer's Playboy interview, in the November 1976 issue that reached newsstands in late September, had Carter confessing he had 'committed adultery in my heart many times', setting off a frenzy about politicians' private lives.

Who was Gerald Ford's running mate in the 1976 election Carter won?

Carter and Mondale took 297 electoral votes and 50.1 percent of the popular vote over the Ford-Dole ticket.

In 1978 Carter declared an emergency in which toxic-waste area of Niagara Falls?

Love Canal, a Niagara Falls neighbourhood built over a Hooker Chemical dump, received a federal emergency declaration in August 1978; more than 800 families were relocated, and the 1980 Superfund law was written in response.

In 1978 Carter used the Antiquities Act to protect 56 million acres in which state?

On 1 December 1978 Carter proclaimed national monuments covering 56 million acres of Alaska; Congress's 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act then protected more than 100 million acres, roughly doubling the national park system.

What garment did Carter famously wear on TV to offset turning down the White House heat?

Carter wore a beige cardigan for his February 1977 televised fireside chat asking Americans to turn down thermostats; he later put solar water-heating panels on the White House and called the energy crisis 'the moral equivalent of war'.

A 1978 bill Carter signed legalized which hobby for the first time since Prohibition?

H.R. 1337, signed in October 1978, exempted home-brewed beer from federal excise tax, making homebrewing legal from February 1979; selling malt, hops and yeast to hobbyists seeded the craft-beer boom.

Which automaker's federal loan guarantee did Carter sign into law in January 1980?

The Chrysler Corporation Loan Guarantee Act of January 1980 backed $1.5 billion in loans; workers received $162.5 million in stock, and Chrysler repaid the loans early in 1983, though it filed for bankruptcy in 2009.

In what year did Carter sign the act establishing the U.S. Department of Education?

The Department of Education Organization Act, signed on 17 October 1979, split the new cabinet department from Health, Education and Welfare; a cabinet-level education department had been a 1976 campaign promise.

Carter's 1978 state visit to which nation was a first for sub-Saharan Africa?

Carter's 31 March to 3 April 1978 visit to Nigeria was the first official state visit by a sitting US president to sub-Saharan Africa; it aimed to improve relations and push a peace conference on Rhodesia.

On New Year's Eve 1977 Carter toasted which country as an 'island of stability'?

Toasting the Shah in Tehran on 31 December 1977, Carter called Iran 'an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world'; the Shah fled little more than a year later.

How many days were the 52 Americans seized at the Tehran embassy held hostage?

The hostages were held 444 days, from 4 November 1979 to 20 January 1981, and released minutes after Reagan was sworn in; Carter's 'Rose Garden strategy' kept him in the White House for much of the crisis.

What was the code name of the staging area for the failed April 1980 hostage rescue?

Desert One, a remote site in Iran's Dasht-e Kavir, was the refuelling point; only five of eight helicopters arrived fit to fly, short of the six required, and a collision during withdrawal killed eight servicemen.

Which secretary of state resigned after opposing the 1980 hostage rescue mission?

Vance had argued against Brzezinski's push for a military option and left after the mission failed; Muskie replaced him.

In which city did Carter and Brezhnev sign the SALT II treaty on June 18, 1979?

The ceremony was held in the Hofburg Palace; the Senate never ratified the treaty after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan.

At the 1980 convention Carter mangled the late Vice President Humphrey's name into what?

Carter called him 'Hubert Horatio Hornblower' in his acceptance speech at the August 1980 convention in New York before correcting himself; Humphrey had died in January 1978.

Which centrist ran as an independent in 1980 after losing the GOP primaries to Reagan?

Illinois congressman John B. Anderson took about 7 percent as an independent; Carter refused to share a stage with him, so the only Carter-Reagan debate came on 28 October, a week before the vote.

How many electoral votes did Carter win in his 1980 landslide loss?

Carter carried six states and the District of Columbia for 49 electoral votes to Reagan's 489; the Senate went Republican for the first time since the 1952 election.

After losing in 1980, Carter said he would model his retirement on which former president?

Carter told the press corps he would emulate Harry S. Truman's retirement and not use public life to enrich himself; he then wrote books to pay off about $1 million in debt from the family farm business.

In 1994 Carter negotiated a nuclear understanding with which North Korean leader?

Carter met Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang in June 1994, weeks before Kim's death, and announced the outline on CNN without White House consent; the Agreed Framework was signed that October.

Who founded The Elders, the group Carter joined at its 2007 Johannesburg launch?

Nelson Mandela founded The Elders and announced it on his 89th birthday, 18 July 2007, in Johannesburg; the group of independent leaders took Carter to Darfur, Cyprus, the Korean Peninsula and the Middle East.

Which 2006 Carter bestseller drew fire for its take on Israeli policy in the West Bank?

'Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid' (2006) drew fierce criticism; at Brandeis in January 2007 Carter apologized for one sentence that seemed to justify suicide attacks and had it changed in later editions.

In 2000 Carter quit which denomination after it barred women from becoming pastors?

Carter cut ties with the Southern Baptist Convention in 2000 after its revised Baptist Faith and Message barred women pastors; he stayed with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and taught Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains into his 90s.

Which singer, a friend since 1973, phoned the White House months before dying in 1977?

Elvis Presley, whom Carter had met as governor in 1973, phoned the White House in 1977 to ask help pardoning a friend and sounded incoherent; after Presley died that August, Carter said he 'changed the face of American popular culture'.

In August 2015 Carter revealed which cancer had spread to his brain and liver?

Carter announced in August 2015 that melanoma had spread to his liver and brain; treated with surgery, radiation and the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab, he reported in December that scans showed no cancer, and he lived another nine years.

All three of Carter's younger siblings died of which disease?

Pancreatic cancer killed Ruth Carter Stapleton (1983), Billy (1988) and Gloria (1990), as it had their father Earl in 1953; Carter was screened for it for the rest of his life.

In 2019 the Carters became the longest-wed presidential couple, overtaking which pair?

They passed George and Barbara Bush's 26,765 days on 17 October 2019 and reached 77 years of marriage before Rosalynn died in November 2023.

Which president did Carter personally ask to deliver his eulogy?

Carter asked Joe Biden, the first senator to endorse him in 1976, to deliver the eulogy; all five living presidents attended the 9 January 2025 state funeral at Washington National Cathedral.

The USS Jimmy Carter, commissioned in 2005, is the final boat of which submarine class?

USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23) is the third and last Seawolf-class attack submarine; Carter is the only president to have qualified in submarines, and Rosalynn sponsored the boat at its 2004 christening.

Amy Carter's White House pet, Misty Malarky Ying Yang, was what kind of animal?

Misty Malarky Ying Yang was Amy Carter's Siamese cat; no cat lived in the White House again until the Clintons arrived with Socks in 1993.

Carter's mother Lillian joined the Peace Corps at 68 and served in which country?

Lillian Carter served with the Peace Corps in India from 1966 to 1968, working at a clinic in the Godrej company colony at Vikhroli, near Bombay.

Billy Carter's ties to which country's regime embarrassed his brother's 1980 campaign?

The 'Billygate' affair involved Billy Carter's dealings with Muammar Gaddafi's Libya, including a $220,000 payment, which forced him to register as a foreign agent in July 1980.

What swam 'hissing menacingly' at Carter's fishing boat on a Plains pond in April 1979?

Carter splashed it away with a paddle; a White House photo proved it to skeptical staff, and the press dubbed it the killer rabbit.

Jimmy Carter's Camp David talks between Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat in September 1978 lasted how many days?

13 days, from September 5 to 17, of tense negotiation at the Maryland retreat produced the frameworks that led to a peace treaty the following March.

Under Carter's 1977 treaty, Panama took full control of the canal at noon on what date?

The Neutrality Treaty and Panama Canal Treaty, signed on 7 September 1977, set the handover for noon on 31 December 1999, superseding the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903.

The Carter Center was founded in 1982 in partnership with which Atlanta school?

Carter taught at Emory for decades and in 2019 was granted tenure after 37 years of service.

Carter's book illustrated by his granddaughter Sarah Chuldenko was a collection of what?

'Always a Reckoning and Other Poems' (1995) collected Carter's poetry, with drawings by his granddaughter Sarah Elizabeth Chuldenko; subjects range from his Plains boyhood to Rosalynn.

The Plains church where the Carters wed in July 1946 belonged to which denomination?

They married at Plains Methodist Church, Rosalynn's family church, on 7 July 1946; he had first noticed her as a friend of his sister Ruth while home from Annapolis.

Which song did Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood perform at Jimmy Carter's state funeral in January 2025?

'Imagine', John Lennon's song, was sung by the country duo at Washington National Cathedral, where all five living presidents gathered on January 9, 2025.

After a mid-1979 cabinet shake-up, whom did Carter name chairman of the Federal Reserve?

Paul Volcker took over the Fed in August 1979 when G. William Miller moved to Treasury; his tight-money policy eventually broke double-digit inflation but deepened the recession that helped sink Carter in 1980.

Which senator challenged Carter for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination?

Kennedy won California and New York but ran a surprisingly weak campaign; his convention speech never endorsed Carter.

Carter's 15 July 1979 address on a national 'crisis of confidence' became known as what?

Carter never used the word, but his 15 July 1979 televised address diagnosing a 'crisis of confidence' was quickly dubbed the 'malaise' speech; days later he dismissed five cabinet members.