DEL.ICIO.USEx-president fondly recalls birthdays past
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Former President Jimmy Carter has had 83 years of birthday memories. In three days, he’ll celebrate the big 8-4.
Ahead of Wednesday’s festivities at the Carter Presidential Center, the former president was asked during a recent town hall meeting at Emory University about his favorite birthdays over the years.
MIKKI K. HARRIS / mharris@ajc.com
The Carter Presidential Center has free admission Wednesday to celebrate Jimmy Carter’s 84th birthday. The former president recently shared birthday memories at Emory University.
Two memories stuck out. On normalizing relations with China: “I think that one of the reasons Deng Xiaoping was so eager to cooperate was he thought fate had brought us together in that the People’s Republic of China was born on October the first, 1949,” Carter said.
The other: Growing up next door to his wife of 62 years, Rosalynn, in Plains (2008 population: 637). “We were next-door neighbors until she was 1-year-old and I was 4 years old, and then I moved away from her, but I eventually found her back,” Carter said. “So almost all of my birthdays have been very good.”
The presidential center has several birthday-related events scheduled for this week, including free admission to the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum. Carter will be out of town, spokesman Tony Clark said Friday. To brush up on your presidential history, here’s a look back at the life and legacy of a self-described South Georgia “farm boy” who became the nation’s 39th president.
Oct. 1, 1924: Call him Jr. The first of Lillian and James Earl Carter’s four children is born in Plains.
1946: A big year. Graduates from the U.S. Naval Academy in June, marries 19-year-old Rosalynn Smith in July.
1953: After his father dies, Carter resigns from the Navy and goes home to Plains to run the family business: peanuts, cotton and warehousing.
1962: Victory! Elected a state senator, serves two terms.
1970: Elected governor of Georgia on his second try.
Dec. 12, 1974: Really? Announces in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington that he’s running for president.
Nov. 2, 1976: Elected 39th U.S. president.
January 1977: Time magazine’s Man of the Year (for 1976). Inaugurated president.
September 1977: Signs a treaty giving the Panama Canal back to Panama.
1978: Gets Menachem Begin of Israel and Anwar Sadat of Egypt to sign a peace accord. They win the Nobel Peace Prize.
1979: A bad year. Gas prices are up, the economy is down. In what’s now remembered as the “malaise” speech in July, Carter speaks of a crisis “at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will.” In November Iranian students take over the U.S. Embassy in Teheran, holding 66 hostages. In December the then Soviet Union invades Afghanistan.
Nov. 4, 1980: Ronald Reagan defeats Carter in his bid for re-election. The hostages are released the day of Reagan’s inauguration in January 1981.
March 1984: Carter works on a Habitat for Humanity house near Americus. It’s the first of many.
October 1986: The Carter Presidential Center opens in Atlanta with a speech by Reagan, who praises his predecessor.
May 1989: Presidents Carter and Gerald Ford observe elections in Panama — the first of many.
1999: Jimmy and Rosalynn awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
October 2002: Wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
June 2004: Christens USS Jimmy Carter, a nuclear sub.
Staff writer Brian Feagans contributed to this report.
THE CARTER CENTER CELEBRATES NO. 84
Wednesday
• Free admission to Carter Library and Museum (9 a.m.-4:45 p.m.)
• Free screenings of film “Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains,” 9:30 a.m., noon and 2 p.m.
• Drawings for free autographed copy of Carter’s autobiography “Keeping Faith.”
• Information: 404-865-7100 or www.jimmycarter
library.gov.
