Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. president to live to be 100 years old — a feat made even more incredible by the fact that he was alive for 40% of the nation’s history.

Carter, who has rarely used his full name — James Earl Carter Jr, was born Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia. Gerald Ford, the Michigan native who was the 38th president after succeeding Richard Nixon, who had resigned the post, died Dec. 26, 2006. At the time of his death he was the longest-living president at age 93.

Mr. Carter said his spiritual rebirth was an “evolutionary thing” rather than “a flash of light or a sudden vision of God speaking.”