During his term in office, Carter brokered a peace deal between Israel and Egypt known as the Camp David Accords, and presided over the Iran hostage crisis. He was the first US president to live to be a 100 years old.
Carter was the 39th US PresidentImage: John Amis/REUTERS
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Former US President Jimmy Carter, who served in the White House from 1977 to 1981, died on Sunday. He was 100.
Carter died "peacefully" at his home in Plains, "surrounded by his family," The Carter Center said in a statement.
The former US president died Sunday afternoon at his home in Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, spent most of their lives. He had been in hospice care for almost two years.
“My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” his son, Chip Carter said.
“My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.”
Those include brokering the 1978 Camp David Peace accords between Egypt and Israel which led to the historic peace treaty between the two countries in 1979.
He was also president when the US negotiated the release of 52 staff members held at the US embassy in Tehran, who were held hostage after the 1979 Islamic Revolution for 444 days.
As he was campaigning for the 1980 US presidential election, a US rescue mission for the hostages failed in April, with eight Americans dying. This proved to be a turning point and is often seen as a critical reason for his landslide defeat to Ronald Reagan.
The hostages were released minutes after Reagan's inauguration in 1981.
After failing to win a second term in office, Carter set up in 1982 The Carter Center, which he aimed to focus on international peacemaking, championing democracy, public health and human rights.
Jimmy Carter celebrates 100th birthday
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Peanut farmer-turned-president
Carter was the first US president to be born in a hospital, on October 1, 1924, to a nurse and an owner of a general store. After a childhood marked by the Great Depression, he attended the Naval Academy and fell in love with his sister's friend Rosalynn Smith.
Carter was relatively unknown outside of Georgia when he secured the Democratic nomination, and later the presidency, in 1976. He promoted moderately progressive policies during his single term, which was also marred by economic malaise and the Iran hostage crisis in 1980, the year he lost his second presidential run to Ronald Reagan.
Carter became best known for defining the concept of the "post-presidency." Alongside his wife, he worked to promote humanitarian causes around the world and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
Jimmy Carter's life in pictures
Jimmy Carter achieved significant successes globally through his blend of moral principles and personal diplomacy.
Image: Library of Congress/Marion S. Trikosko/Handout via REUTERS
Humble beginnings
Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer who won the presidency in the wake of the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War. A moderate Democrat, Carter told voters: "If I ever lie to you, if I ever make a misleading statement, don't vote for me. I would not deserve to be your president."
Image: akg-images/picture alliance
An 'equal partner'
Jimmy Carter married his wife, Rosalynn, in 1946. She stood out as a first lady who publicly supported her husband's policies and even sat in on Cabinet meetings.
Image: Library of Congress/REUTERS
Friends in high places
President Joe Biden, seen here on the right, mourned Carter's death, saying the world had lost an "extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian" and added that he had lost a dear friend.
Image: picture alliance / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Peace broker
Jimmy Carter brokered peace between Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin, an experience that later sparked the idea of The Carter Center in Atlanta. Sadat and Begin were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978 for their work toward peace. Carter won the prize in 2002 in part for his "untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts."
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/B. Daugherty
Royal faux pas
During a stay at Buckingham Palace, having been invited by Queen Elizabeth II, Carter kissed the queen mother on the lips by way of greeting, breaking with royal protocol.
Image: PA Archive/picture alliance
Republican adversary
Carter lost the 1980 US presidential election to Ronald Reagan, who won 44 of the 50 states and amassed an Electoral College landslide.
Image: Arthur Grace/dpa/picture alliance
Rocky relationship
US President Jimmy Carter and West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt had an adversarial relationship. In his diary, Carter wrote that one of the few positive aspects of his loss to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential campaign was that he would no longer have to deal with Helmut Schmidt.
Image: stf/tm/AP Photo/picture alliance
Middle East complexity
Carter urged his successors to recognize a Palestinian state. He also infuriated Israel by questioning whether its treatment of Palestinians constituted "apartheid." In 2006, he wrote a book titled "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid."
Image: Rabih Moghrabi/AFP/dpa/picture-alliance
Friendly foes
In May 2002, Carter visited Cuba and addressed the communist nation on television. He was the highest-ranking American to visit in decades. He attended a baseball game with Fidel Castro, the Cuban president at the time.
Image: Rafael Perez/REUTERS
A respected president
Carter was the 39th president of the United States and the longest-lived American president.
Image: Olivier Douliery/abaca/picture alliance
The Elders
In 2007, Jimmy Carter became a founding member of The Elders with former South African President Nelson Mandela. It constitutes a group of senior statesmen and women who use their experience to advise on conflict resolution and human rights.
Image: Jeff Moore/THE ELDERS/AFP
Integrity more important than reelection
Former President Barack Obama, left, said Carter promised voters that he would always tell the truth. "And he did — advocating for the public good, consequences be damned," Obama said in a statement. "He believed some things were more important than reelection — things like integrity, respect, and compassion," Obama added.
Image: Jason Reed/REUTERS
Habitat for Humanity
With hard hats and hammers, Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, also built homes with Habitat for Humanity. They volunteered a week of their time annually to Habitat for Humanity since 1984. They donated their time and influence and worked with nearly 103,000 volunteers in 14 countries to build, renovate and repair 4,331 homes, the nonprofit said.
Image: Mark Humphrey/AP Photo/picture alliance
Elder statesman
In 2023, Carter entered hospice care at his home in the small town of Plains, Georgia. Despite this, he became the first centenarian US president and voted in the 2024 US presidential election.
Image: John Bazemore/AP/picture alliance
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Legacy beyond presidency
Carter's continuous diplomacy efforts long outlived his stint at the White House. He once said, no longer encumbered by the Washington order, that he went "where others are not treading."
"I can say what I like. I can meet whom I want. I can take on projects that please me and reject the ones that don't," Carter said.
He was openly critical of former President George W. Bush for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He also criticized the US approach to Israel and in 2006 released the book: "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid."
Carter also repeatedly argued that North Korea should be included in international affairs, a position which long went against the official US line.
His 2002 Nobel Peace Prize crowned what the committee called his "untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."
The chairman even argued it was a couple of decades too late, adding he should have won it alongside former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who both won the prize in 1978 over the Carter-mediated Camp David Accords.
