100-year-old Jimmy Carter's life has overlapped with these 17 other presidents
Jimmy Carter has witnessed many milestones in his life.
The 39th president of the United States gets to celebrate one of his own Tuesday when he turns 100 years old.
Born in Plains, Georgia, on Oct. 1, 1924, Carter announced his plans to run for the presidency 50 years ago in December. He went on to win the 1976 election, besting Gerald Ford in Electoral College votes 297-241.
Carter is now the first president to become a centenarian, living 43 years (and counting) after leaving the Oval Office in 1981.
One of the many presidential records Carter's longevity has created is the number of American commanders-in-chief (17) he has overlapped with over his life.
Let's take a look at that list of presidents and when they served:
William Howard TaftBorn in September 1857, Taft became the 27th president of the United States when he won the 1908 election over William Jennings Bryan.
He was a one-term president who eventually sat as chief justice of the United States from 1921 through 1930 - the only president to hold the highest seat on the Supreme Court.
A month after resigning as chief justice in February 1930, Taft died at the age of 72. He intersected with Carter for the first five-plus years of the future president's life.
Calvin CoolidgeAmazingly, Carter's life did not cross over with the 28th and 29th presidents of the United States.
Woodrow Wilson, born before Taft in December 1856, died eight months before Carter was born.
Wilson's successor, Warren G. Harding, died on Aug. 2, 1923.
By the time of Carter's birth, President Calvin Coolidge had been in the White House for more than a year. That fall, he went on to win the 1924 election over John W. Davis.
Like Taft, Coolidge's life overlapped with Carter's for less than a decade as he died in January 1933.
Herbert HooverWhen it comes to presidential longevity, Herbert Hoover was Jimmy Carter before Jimmy Carter, making it to his 90th birthday in August 1964 before succumbing to massive internal bleeding just two months later.
He was elected as the 31st president of the United States when Carter was just 4 years old. Nonetheless, the two presidents did share more than four decades together.
Franklin D. RooseveltFDR defeated Hoover in a landslide victory in the 1932 presidential election.
Roosevelt's four-term presidency remains an anomaly in U.S. history, putting him in position to shape the modern Democratic Party — the same party Carter would come to inherit three-plus decades later.
FDR's fourth term was ended prematurely when he died in 1945, and he overlapped with Carter for just 20 years.
Harry S. TrumanTruman did not make it to see his ninth decade, dying at the age of 88, but he did live into the 1970s — long enough to most likely hear about a young Georgia politician making waves in the Democratic Party.
The 33rd president of the United States, Truman completed what would have been Roosevelt's fourth term before winning election in 1948.
Dwight D. EisenhowerLike Taft, the 34th president of the United States holds a special distinction amongst presidents - he's the only one to achieve five-star rank as general of the Army while alive (George Washington was bestowed the distinction as part of the bicentennial celebration in 1976).
Eisenhower, known for planning and supervising two of the most consequential military campaigns of World War II (the North Africa campaign and the invasion of Normandy), served the top post in the nation from 1953 to 1961.
He lived until March 28, 1969, overlapping almost 45 years with the soon-to-be president from Georgia.
John F. KennedyThe 43-year-old senator from Massachusetts was the youngest politician elected president, and one of just three to be in their 40s when they took over the Oval Office (Clinton and Obama).
Kennedy's youth was a stark contrast to Ike, who was elected at 62 in the 1950s.
While Kennedy's election symbolized change in America, the 35th president's term was cut short when he was assassinated in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.
Lyndon B. JohnsonThe last of the presidents not to see Carter win election in 1976, LBJ became president the day JFK died.
As the 36th U.S. president, Johnson won the 1964 election before dropping out of the race four years later to see fellow Democrat and incumbent vice president Hubert Humphrey lose to Richard Nixon.
Johnson died on Jan. 22, 1973, at the age of 64.
Richard M. NixonNixon lived until 1994 and got to experience the entirety of the Carter presidency.
He was most notably removed from office on Aug. 9, 1974 — ending his second term early to become the only U.S. president to resign from the Whiter House, as a result of the Watergate scandal.
Gerald FordNixon's successor had the rare distinction for modern-day presidents of taking over the country in the middle of the summer versus the beginning of the calendar year.
Ford, who was arguably dealt the worst hand of anyone walking into the Oval Office, went on to make U.S. history of his own as the only president to serve without winning an election for president or vice president.
He also held the distinction as the longest-living U.S. president when he passed away on Dec. 26, 2006, at the age of 93, a title that Carter has since taken over.
Ronald ReaganReagan, the Hollywood actor-turned-politician, also made it to 93 before dying in June 2004.
The 40th U.S. president took over after Carter's one-term presidency in 1981, leading the country through the decade before being succeeded by his vice president in the 1988 election.
George H. W. BushBorn the same year as Jimmy Carter, the 41st president of the United States also got to hold the title of oldest-living president for less than a year.
George H.W. Bush lived until he was 94, surpassing Ford's mark in 2017.
He died less than a year later on Nov. 30, 2018.
Bill ClintonAfter consecutive Republican presidents, Clinton won the Oval Office back in the 1992 election.
At the age of 46, he was the second-youngest man ever to be elected to the role of commander-in-chief.
Clinton's post-presidency timespan has reached 23 years, placing him sixth behind Carter, Hoover, Ford, Bush and John Adams (who lived 25 years after serving as the second president).
George W. BushBush, the son of George H.W. Bush, served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 through 2009.
His 15-year post presidency is closer to the average timespan out of office but he remains one of just five who are active (Carter, Clinton, Obama and Trump).
Barack ObamaThe Republican-Democratic presidential swap was upheld in 2008 when Obama bested John McCain.
Not since the Reagan-Bush handoff at the end of the 1980s has either party seen consecutive leaders in the Oval Office.
Obama is the youngest living U.S. president at 63.
Donald TrumpTrump's post-presidency timespan has been marred in controversy, but at 78, he has the most time overlapped with Carter of any non-active U.S. leader.
Joe BidenOf course, Biden holds the distinction of most time overlapped with Carter at 81 (soon to be 82 on Nov. 20, 2024).
The 46th president of the United States was born in 1942, a little more than 18 years after Carter.
