Jimmy Carter Biography

Fast Facts

• Awarded the Harry S․ Truman Public Service Award in 1981
• Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002
• The final Seawolf submarine commissioned by the U․S․ Navy was named after him in 1998
• Co-founded the Carter Center in 1982, a non-profit organization aimed at advocating for human rights
• A longtime supporter of Habitat for Humanity and its past expansion efforts
• Attended George Southwestern College and the Georgia Institute of Technology and would later receive his bachelor's degree from the U․S․ Naval Academy in 1946
• Began his career in politics after being elected to the Georgia Senate in the early '60s
• Served as the governor of Georgia from 1971 until 1975, leaving after one term to run for President in the 1976 election against Gerald Ford
• Although he would come in third during the 1966 Georgia gubernatorial election, he would earn enough clout to run again four years later
• Responsible for creating the Department of Energy and the Department of Education while serving as President
• Discharged from military service in 1953 following the death of his father, Earl, so that he and his wife could take over the family peanut farm in Georgia
• Filed a UFO sighting report in Oklahoma City in 1973 at the request of one of his children
• While serving in the Navy, he was one of very few high-ranking officials to disassemble the Canadian nuclear reactor at Chalk River after it suffered a meltdown in 1952
• The first U․S․ President to be born in a hospital