Jimmy Carter at 100: A century of changes for a president, the US and the world since 1924

Already the longest-lived of the 45 men to serve as U.S. president, Jimmy Carter is about to reach the century mark.

The 39th president, who remains under home hospice care, will turn 100 on Tuesday, Oct. 1, celebrating in the same south Georgia town where he was born in 1924.

Here are some notable markers for Carter, the nation and the world over his long life.

Carter has seen the U.S. population nearly triple. The U.S. has about 330 million residents; there were about 114 million in 1924 and 220 million when Carter was inaugurated in 1977. The global population has more than quadrupled, from 1.9 billion to more than 8.1 billion. It already had more than doubled to 4.36 billion by the time he became president.

That boom has not reached Plains, where Carter has lived more than 80 of his 100 years. His wife Rosalynn, who died in 2023 at age 96, also was born in Plains.

Their town comprised fewer than 500 people in the 1920s and has about 700 today; much of the local economy revolves around its most famous residents.

When James Earl Carter Jr. was born, life expectancy for American males was 58. It's now 75.

NBC first debuted a red-and-blue electoral map in the 1976 election between then-President Gerald Ford, a Republican, and Carter, the Democratic challenger. But NBC's John Chancellor made Carter's states red and Ford's blue. Some other early versions of color electoral maps used yellow and blue because red was associated with Soviet and Chinese communism.

It wasn't until the 1990s that networks settled on blue for Democratic-won states and red for GOP-won states. "Red state” and “blue state” did not become a permanent part of the American political lexicon until after the disputed 2000 election between Al Gore and George W. Bush.

Carter was 14 when Franklin D. Roosevelt made the first presidential television appearance. Warren Harding became the first radio president two years before Carter's birth.

There was no Amazon Prime in 1924, but you could order a build-it-yourself house from a catalog. Sears Roebuck Gladstone’s three-bedroom model went for $2,025, which was slightly less than the average worker’s annual income.

Walmart didn’t exist, but local general stores served the same purpose. Ballpark prices: loaf of bread, 9 cents; gallon of milk, 54 cents; gallon of gas, 11 cents.

Inflation helped drive Carter from office, as it has dogged President Joe Biden. The average gallon in 1980, Carter’s last full year in office, was about $3.25 when adjusted for inflation. That's just 3 cents more than AAA's current national average.

The 19th Amendment that extended voting rights to women — almost exclusively white women at the time — was ratified in 1920, four years before Carter's birth. The Voting Rights Act that widened the franchise to Black Americans passed in 1965 as Carter was preparing his first bid for Georgia governor.

Now, Carter is poised to cast a mail ballot for Vice President Kamala Harris. She would become the first woman, first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to reach the Oval Office. Grandson Jason Carter said the former president is holding on in part because he is excited about the chance to see Harris make history.

For all the shifts in U.S. politics, some things stay the same. Or at least come back around.

Carter was born in an era of isolationism, protectionism and white Christian nationalism — all elements of the right in the ongoing Donald Trump era. In 2024, Trump is promising the largest deportation effort in U.S. history, while tightening legal immigration. He has said immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”

Five months before Carter was born, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Immigration Act of 1924. The law created the U.S. Border Patrol and sharply curtailed immigration, limiting admission mostly to migrants from western Europe. Asians were banned entirely. Congress described its purpose plainly: “preserve the ideal of U.S. homogeneity.” The Ku Klux Klan followed in 1925 and 1926 with marches on Washington promoting white supremacy.

Trump also has called for sweeping tariffs on foreign imports, part of his “America First” agenda. In 1922, Congress enacted tariffs intended to help U.S. manufacturers. After stock market losses in 1929, lawmakers added the 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariffs, ostensibly to help American farmers. The Great Depression followed anyway. In the 1930s, as Carter became politically aware, the political right that countered FDR was driven in part by a movement that opposed international engagement. Those conservatives' slogan: “America First.”

Carter is the Atlanta Braves' most famous fan. Jason Carter says the former president still enjoys watching his favorite baseball team.

In the 1990s, when the Braves were annual features in the October playoffs, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were often spotted in the owner's box with media mogul Ted Turner and Jane Fonda, then Turner's wife. The Braves moved to Atlanta from Milwaukee between Carter's failed run for governor in 1966 and his victory four years later. Then-Gov. Carter was sitting in the first row of Atlanta Fulton-County Stadium on April 9, 1974, when Henry Aaron hit his 715th home run to break Babe Ruth's career record.

When Carter was born, the Braves were still in Boston, their original city. Ruth had just completed his fifth season for the New York Yankees. He had hit 284 home runs to that point (still 430 short of his career total) and the original Yankee Stadium — “The House that Ruth Built" — had been open less than 18 months.

Prohibition had been in effect for four years when Carter was born and wouldn’t be lifted until he was 9. The Carters were never prodigious drinkers. They served only wine at state dinners and other White House functions, though it's a common misconception that they did so because of their Baptist mores. It was more because Carter has always been frugal: He didn't want taxpayers or the residence account (his and Rosalynn's personal money) to cover more expensive hard liquor.

Carter’s younger brother Billy, who owned a Plains gas station and died in 1988, had different tastes. He marketed his own brand, Billy Beer, once Carter became president. News sources reported that Billy Carter snagged a $50,000 annual licensing fee from one brewer. That's about $215,000 today. The president’s annual salary at the time was $200,000 — it's now $400,000.

The Times Square debt clock didn’t debut until Carter was in his early 60s and out of the White House. But for anyone counting the $35 trillion debt, Carter doesn’t merit much mention. The man who would wash Ziploc bags to reuse them added less than $300 billion to the national debt, which stood below $1 trillion when he left office.

Carter has lived through 40% of U.S. history since the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and more than a third of all U.S. administrations since George Washington took office in 1789 — nine before Carter was president, his own and seven since.

When Carter took office, just two presidents, John Adams and Herbert Hoover, had lived to be 90. Since then, Ford, Ronald Reagan, Carter and George H.W. Bush all reached at least 93.

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This story was first published on Sep. 28, 2024. It was updated on Oct. 1, 2024 to correct that only one other former president, John Adams, lived to be at least 90. Herbert Hoover died at 90 in 1964.

Follow Barrow at https://twitter.com/BillBarrowAP

FILE - Former President Jimmy Carter pulls notes out of his pocket before delivering remarks during a ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Aug. 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

FILE - Former Presidents George Bush, left, and Jimmy Carter, right, stand with President Clinton during a kick-off rally for the President's volunteer summit at Marcus Foster Stadium in Philadelphia, PA., April 27, 1997. (AP Photo/Greg Gibson, File)

FILE - Former President Jimmy Carter, right, and Atlanta Braves team owner Ted Turner, left, watch early play during Game 6 of the National League Championship Series in Atlanta, Oct. 14, 1998. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan, File)

FILE - The Ku Klux Klan marches down Pennsylvania Ave. past the Treasury Building in Washington D.C. in 1925. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - College student Chuck McManis watches President Jimmy Carter's nationally televised energy speech from a service station in Los Angeles, as a gas station attendant fills up a customer's car, July 15, 1979. (AP Photo/Mao, File)

FILE - Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter, right, and Delaware Gov. Sherman Tribbitt say hello to Atlanta Braves Hank Aaron, left, following a rain canceled game with the Los Angeles Dodgers in Atlanta, Ga., Sept. 27, 1973. (AP Photo, File)

The Israeli military began what it called a “limited, localized” operation against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, carrying out “targeted ground raids” in villages close to the Israeli border. The targets, it said, pose an “immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel.”

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a warning Monday to Iran, which backs Hezbollah and Hamas. “There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach," Netanyahu said, just days after an airstrike south of Beirut killed the leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah group, which is backed by Tehran.

Hezbollah’s acting leader, Naim Kassem, promised the group will fight on following the death Friday of its long-time chief Hassan Nasrallah. Israel has also assassinated several of the group’s top commanders in recent days. Kassem said the group’s fighters are ready and the slain commanders have already been replaced.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since Oct. 8, the day after Hamas sent fighters into Israel and sparked the war in Gaza. It's been almost a year since some 250 people were abducted from Israel, and friends and family are worried about their loved ones as attention turns away from hostages and north toward Lebanon.

Here is the latest:

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it is conducting “localized ground raids” on Hezbollah positions in Lebanon, after troops crossed the border overnight in a long-anticipated ground operation.

The scope of the incursion was unclear and there were no immediate reports of clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters.

In a video statement released to media on Tuesday, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a military spokesperson, said troops were operating against Hezbollah to ensure that Israeli citizens could return to their homes in the north.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel shortly after the outbreak of the war in Gaza. Israel has launched retaliatory airstrikes and the escalating conflict has driven tens of thousands of people from their homes on both sides.

Hagari said a U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006 had not been enforced and that southern Lebanon was “swarming with Hezbollah terrorists and weapons.”

That resolution called for Hezbollah to withdraw from the area between the border and the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (18 miles) to the north, and for the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers to patrol the region.

Both sides have accused the other of violating different terms of the U.N. resolution.

BEIRUT — The United Nations and the Lebanese government have launched a $426 million flash appeal for urgent humanitarian aid for civilians caught up in the ongoing conflict with Israel.

The appeal was launched in Beirut Tuesday by caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon Imran Riza.

Mikati said that Lebanon is going through “one of the most dangerous moments in its history.” He said that 1 million people have been displaced as a result “of the destructive war launched by Israel on Lebanon.”

The flash appeal seeks to assist the displaced by addressing urgent needs in areas such as food, basic assistance, shelter, health care, water and municipal services, the U.N. said.

“Without sufficient resources, humanitarians risk leaving the population of an entire country without the support they urgently require,” Riza warned. He added that the no amount of aid can fully address the crisis if civilians continue to be targeted.

LONDON — A British government-chartered flight is due to leave Beirut on Wednesday to bring United Kingdom nationals out of Lebanon.

The government says U.K. nationals, their spouse or partner, and children under the age of 18 are eligible, and priority will be given to the most vulnerable.

Until this announcement, the government urged Britons to leave the country on commercial flights.

On Monday night, Foreign Secretary David Lammy described the situation in Lebanon as “volatile” and warned it could “deteriorate quickly.”

The U.K. also sent 700 troops to a base in Cyprus to prepare for a potential evacuation of the estimated 5,000 British citizens in Lebanon.

ROME — The head of Italy’s main opposition party, Elly Schlein, called on Israel to retreat from Lebanese territory, saying “territorial sovereignty cannot be violated, international law must always prevail."

Schlein, head of Italy’s left-wing Democratic Party, called for a cease-fire in both Gaza and Lebanon, both under fire from the Israeli military under Prime Minsiter Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We cannot resign ourselves to daily horror,” she said Tuesday. "Europe and the international community cannot watch in silence. We say enough of Netanyahu’s bombardments and Hezbollah’s missiles.”

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s state news agency says an Israeli airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp in south Lebanon killed six people, including the son of a Palestinian official.

National News Agency said the early Tuesday airstrike on Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp in Sidon, the largest of Lebanon’s 12 refugee camps, targeted the home of Gen. Munir Makdah of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah group. NNA said Makdah’s son and daughter-in-law, as well as another woman and three children, were killed in the airstrike.

Makdah’s brother, Khalil Makdah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in August in the port city of Sidon.

BEIRUT — The Lebanese army says it redeployed troops in some observation points along the border with Israel.

The army did not give further details about the posts. It said the Lebanese military is coordinating with United Nations peacekeepers deployed along the tense border area.

The army’s statement Tuesday denied local media reports that troops have moved several kilometers (miles) away from the border ahead of a possible Israel ground operation.

Thousands of Lebanese troops were deployed along the border with Israel following the 34-day Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.

BEIRUT — The Israeli military says parts of south Lebanon are witnessing “intense fighting” and called on people not to enter the area south of the Litani River.

The military’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, posted Tuesday on X that people should not drive into the area south of the Litani River. The area has dozens of towns and villages close to the Israeli border.

Hezbollah’s acting leader, Naim Kassem, said Monday the group will fight any Israeli troops who try to occupy parts of Lebanon. Israeli said its ground forces crossed into southern Lebanon early Tuesday, marking a significant escalation of an offensive against Hezbollah militants and opening a new front in a yearlong war against its Iranian-backed adversaries.

Under a United Nations resolution that ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, the area south of the Litani River was supposed to be controlled by the Lebanese army and a U.N. peacekeeping force, but both Israel and Hezbollah blame each other for violating the resolution. Israel says it wants to root out an elite Hezbollah fighting force from the area.

ROME — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said Tuesday that “a de-escalation at regional level is urgent and necessary.”

“The protection of civilians remains the priority along with guaranteeing the security of the Italian military contingent of UNIFIL present in southern Lebanon," she said in a statement.

Italy, which holds the G7 rotating presidency, is working with allies to stabilize the situation along Israeli-Lebanon border, and to help people who have been displaced by the fighting return to their homes, Meloni said.

The Israeli military began what it called a “limited, localized” operation against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, carrying out “targeted ground raids” in villages close to the Israeli border.

NICOSIA, Cyprus — The foreign minister of Cyprus says evacuations of third-country nationals from Lebanon to the east Mediterranean island nation are “slow and controlled so far.”

Minister Constantinos Kombos told The Associated Press on Tuesday that large-scale evacuations from Lebanon have not begun, even as Israeli ground forces crossed into southern Lebanon, marking a significant escalation of an offensive against Hezbollah militants.

Kombos said Cyprus has received some staff from foreign diplomatic missions and some Saudi nationals a few days ago. About 60 Chinese nationals are due to arrive by ship at the island nation’s main port of Limassol.

Cyprus has agreements with around a dozen countries to act as a temporary host for their evacuated nationals before their repatriation. Under the “Estia” plan, evacuees will be processed and given accommodations for a few days before catching flights to their home countries.

Cyprus helped repatriate hundreds of British and other third-country citizens who were evacuated from Sudan in 2023. In 2006, some 60,000 foreign nationals evacuated from Lebanon during a month-long Israel-Hezbollah war used Cyprus as a waystation before heading abroad.

BEIRUT — Overnight and Tuesday morning, Hezbollah said it targeted groups of soldiers in several Israeli border areas with artillery shelling and rockets. It was not immediately clear if any soldiers were hit.

The militant group has been firing at locations near the border, and claiming to have hit soldiers there, since Oct. 8, in solidarity with Hamas. It has not commented on the Israeli military announcement that it had started a ground incursion.

Suspected attacks Tuesday by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted at least one ship in the Red Sea, likely marking their first assault on commercial shipping in weeks as the Israel-Hamas war threatens to become a regional conflict.

The attack comes as Israeli ground forces entered Lebanon after days of Israeli airstrikes that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and other top leaders and the earlier explosions of sabotaged electronic devices used by the Shiite militia. The Houthis had threatened “escalating military operations” targeting Israel on Monday after they apparently shot down a U.S. military drone flying over the country.

The first attack Tuesday morning took place some 110 kilometers (70 miles) off the port city of Hodeida in the Red Sea, which has become a battlefield for shippers since the Houthis began their campaign targeting ships traveling through a waterway that once saw $1 trillion a year of cargo pass through it.

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center later reported a second attack north of the first. The private intelligence firm Ambrey similarly reported two separate attacks. However, it wasn’t immediately clear if the same vessel had come under attack again.

The Houthis did not immediately claim the attacks. However, they sometimes take hours or days to acknowledge one of their assaults.

The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the United States or the United Kingdom to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.

WASHINGTON — The White House National Security Council said Israel’s “limited operations” to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure across the border were in line with the country’s right to defend itself.

The NSC, however, warned that the an expansion of that operation was a risk. It added that a diplomatic solution was the only way to achieve lasting stability along Israel’s border with Lebanon.

Israeli ground forces crossed into southern Lebanon in an offensive targeting Hezbollah. The Israeli military said Tuesday it has begun a limited ground operation against Hezbollah targets that were an an immediate threat to northern Israeli communities.

"This is in line with Israel’s right to defend its citizens and safely return civilians to their homes. We support Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah and all Iranian-backed terror groups. Of course, we know that mission creep can be a risk and we will keep discussing that with the Israelis,” the NSC said.

United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that he agreed on the need for a ground offensive inside Lebanon to rid the border area of Hezbollah weapons and other means it can use to carry out attacks across the border.

In the call, Austin said the U.S. supports Israel’s right to defend itself and discussed Israel’s military operations.

“We agreed on the necessity of dismantling attack infrastructure along the border,” Austin said in a statement posted on X.

The Israeli military said Tuesday that it began a “limited, localized” operation against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.

It said it was carrying out “targeted ground raids” in villages close to the Israeli border. The targets, it said, pose an “immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel.”

It announced early Tuesday that the operation was planned in recent months and was launched after approval by political leaders.

A man checks the damaged buildings at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A man documents the damaged buildings at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A man documents the damaged buildings at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A damaged building is seen at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

An Israeli Apache helicopter fires a missile towards southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Israeli army tanks manoeuvre in a staging area in northern Israel near the Israel-Lebanon border, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Israeli army tanks manoeuvre in a staging area in northern Israel near the Israel-Lebanon border, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Israeli army tanks manoeuvre in a staging area in northern Israel near the Israel-Lebanon border, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Israeli shelling hits an area in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, early Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Israeli shelling hit an area in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A mourner holds up a poster of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah with a quotation of him: "We will definitely win" at Enqelab-e-Eslami (Islamic Revolution) St. in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

An Israeli tank manoeuvres in northern Israel near the Israel-Lebanon border, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

A cat walks past a building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike that hit the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Israeli soldiers sleep on tanks in a staging area in northern Israel near the Israel-Lebanon border, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)