— Oct. 1, 1924: James Earl Carter Jr. is born in Plains, Georgia, son of James Sr. and Lillian Gordy Carter.
— June 1946: Carter graduates from the U.S. Naval Academy.
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— July 1946: Carter marries Rosalynn Smith, in Plains. They have four children, John William (“Jack”), born 1947; James Earl 3rd (“Chip”), 1950; Donnel Jeffrey (Jeff), 1952; and Amy Lynn, 1967.
— 1946-1953: Carter serves in a Navy nuclear submarine program, attaining rank of lieutenant commander.
— Summer 1953: Carter resigns from the Navy, returns to Plains after father’s death.
— 1953-1971: Carter helps run the family peanut farm and warehouse business.
— 1963-1966: Carter serves in the Georgia state Senate.
— 1966: Carter tries unsuccessfully for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
— November 1970: Carter is elected governor of Georgia. Serves 1971-75.
— Dec. 12, 1974: Carter announces a presidential bid. Atlanta newspaper answers with headline: “Jimmy Who?”
— January 1976: Carter leads the Democratic field in Iowa, a huge campaign boost that also helps to establish Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucus.
— July 1976: Carter accepts the Democratic nomination and announces Sen. Walter Mondale of Minnesota as running mate.
— November 1976: Carter defeats President Gerald R. Ford, winning 51% of the vote and 297 electoral votes to Ford’s 240.
— January 1977: Carter is sworn in as the 39th president of the United States. On his first full day in office, he pardons most Vietnam-era draft evaders.
—September 1977: U.S. and Panama sign treaties to return the Panama Canal back to Panama in 1999. Senate narrowly ratifies them in 1978.
— September 1978: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Carter sign Camp David accords, which lead to a peace deal between Egypt and Israel the following year.
— June 15-18, 1979: Carter attends a summit with Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev in Vienna that leads to the signing of the SALT II treaty.
— November 1979: Iranian militants storm the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 52 hostages. All survive and are freed minutes after Carter leaves office in January 1981.
— April 1980: The Mariel boatlift begins, sending tens of thousands of Cubans to the U.S. Many are criminals and psychiatric patients set free by Cuban leader Fidel Castro, creating a major foreign policy crisis.
— April 1980: An attempt by the U.S. to free hostages fails when a helicopter crashes into a transport plane in Iran, killing eight servicemen.
— Nov. 4, 1980: Carter is denied a second term by Ronald Reagan, who wins 51.6% of the popular vote to 41.7% for Carter and 6.7% to independent John Anderson.
— 1982: Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter co-found The Carter Center in Atlanta, whose mission is to resolve conflicts, protect human rights and prevent disease around the world.
— September 1984: The Carters spend a week building Habitat for Humanity houses, launching what becomes the annual Carter Work Project.
— October 1986: A dedication is held for The Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta. The center includes the Carter Presidential Library and Museum and Carter Center offices.
— 1989: Carter leads the Carter Center’s first election monitoring mission, declaring Panamanian Gen. Manuel Noriega’s election fraudulent.
— May 1992: Carter meets with Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachev at the Carter Center to discuss forming the Gorbachev Foundation.
— June 1994: Carter plays a key role in North Korea nuclear disarmament talks.
— September 1994: Carter leads a delegation to Haiti, arranging terms to avoid a U.S. invasion and return President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power.
— December 1994: Carter negotiates tentative cease-fire in Bosnia.
— March 1995: Carter mediates cease-fire in Sudan’s war with southern rebels.
— September 1995: Carter travels to Africa to advance the peace process in more troubled areas.
— December 1998: Carter receives U.N. Human Rights Prize on 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
— August 1999: President Bill Clinton awards Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
— September 2001: Carter joins former Presidents Ford, Bush and Clinton at a prayer service at the National Cathedral in Washington after Sept. 11 attacks.
— April 2002: Carter’s book “An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood” chosen as finalist for Pulitzer Prize in biography.
— May 2002: Carter visits Cuba and addresses the communist nation on television. He is the highest-ranking American to visit in decades.
— Dec. 10, 2002: Carter is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his “untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”
— July 2007: Carter joins The Elders, a group of international leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela to focus on global issues.
— Spring 2008: Carter remains officially neutral as Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton battle each other for the Democratic presidential nomination.
— April 2008: Carter stirs controversy by meeting with the Islamic militant group Hamas.
— August 2010: Carter travels to North Korea as the Carter Center negotiates the release of an imprisoned American teacher.
— August 2013: Carter joins President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton at the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech and the March on Washington.
— Oct. 1, 2014: Carter celebrates his 90th birthday.
— December 2014: Carter is nominated for a Grammy in the best spoken word album category, for his book “A Call To Action.”
— May 2015: Carter returns early from an election observation visit in Guyana — the Carter Center’s 100th — after feeling unwell.
— August 2015: Carter has a small cancerous mass removed from his liver. He plans to receive treatment at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta.
— August 2015: Carter announces that his grandson Jason Carter will chair the Carter Center governing board.
— March 6, 2016: Carter says an experimental drug has eliminated any sign of his cancer, and that he needs no further treatment.
— May 25, 2016: Carter steps back from a “front-line” role with The Elders to become an emeritus member.
— July 2016: Carter is treated for dehydration during a Habitat for Humanity build in Canada.
— Spring 2018: Carter publishes “Faith: A Journey for All,” the last of 32 books.
— March 22, 2019: Carter becomes the longest-lived U.S. president, surpassing President George H.W. Bush, who died in 2018.
— September 18, 2019: Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter deliver their final in-person annual report at the Carter Center.
— October 2019: At 95, still recovering from a fall, Carter joins the Work Project with Habitat for Humanity in Nashville, Tennessee. It’s the last time he works personally on the annual project.
— Fall 2019-early 2020: Democratic presidential hopefuls visit, publicly embracing Carter as a party elder, a first for his post-presidency.
— November 2020:The Carter Center monitors an audit of presidential election results in the state of Georgia, marking a new era of democracy advocacy within the U.S.
— Jan. 20, 2021: The Carters miss President Joe Biden’s swearing-in, the first presidential inauguration they don’t attend since Carter’s own ceremony in 1977. The Bidens later visit the Carters in Plains on April 29.
— Feb. 19, 2023: Carter enters home hospice care after a series of short hospital stays.
— July 7, 2023: The Carters celebrate their 77th and final wedding anniversary.
— Nov. 19, 2023: Rosalynn Carter dies at home, two days after the family announced that she had joined the former president in receiving hospice care.
— Oct. 1, 2024 — Carter becomes the first former U.S. president to reach 100 years of age, celebrating at home with extended family and close friends.
— Oct. 16, 2024 — Carter casts a Georgia mail ballot for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, having told his family he wanted to live long enough to vote for her. It marks his 21st presidential election as a voter.
— Dec. 29, 2024: Carter dies at home.