Timeline: President Gerald R. Ford

Following are key events in the life of Gerald R. Ford, the United States' 38th president:

Born: July 14, 1913, Omaha, Neb.

1931: Graduates South High School, Grand Rapids, Mich.

1931 until 1935: Attends University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; plays linebacker and center on UM's national championship football teams

June 17, 1935: Graduated University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

1935 until 1940: Boxing coach and assistant varsity football coach at Yale University

1938: Admitted to Yale Law School

June 7, 1941: Admitted to Michigan bar.

June 18, 1941: Graduated Yale Law School, LL.B. degree

Apr. 20, 1942: Enlisted as ensign in U.S. Naval Reserve

June 1944 until December 1944: Director of physical education, gunnery division officer and assistant navigator aboard light aircraft carrier, USS Monterey, Pacific theater

January 1946: Discharged with reserve rank of lieutenant commander, with 47 months of active service and 10 battle stars

1946 through 1949: Practiced law with firm of Butterfield, Keeney & Amberg in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Sep. 14, 1948: Won Republican nomination for U.S. House of Representatives, defeating four- term incumbent in primary

Nov. 2, 1948: Elected to Congress

Jan. 3, 1949, until Dec. 6, 1973: Served in U.S. House of Representatives (Fifth District, Michigan)

1963 through 1964: Member of Warren Commission investigating Kennedy assassination

Jan. 4, 1965: Elected House minority leader

1965: Co-author of "Portrait of the Assassin (Lee Harvey Oswald)," with John R. Stiles

1969: Ford attempted to bring about the impeachment of Associate Justice William O. Douglas, a civil libertarian

1968, 1972: Permanent Chairman, Republican National Convention

Dec. 6, 1973: Confirmed as vice president (nominated by President Richard Nixon under provisions of the 25th Amendment, after resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew)

Aug. 9, 1974: Sworn in as president of the United States following the resignation of President Nixon

Aug. 9, 1974, until Jan. 20, 1977: Serves as president of the United States

Sept. 8, 1974: Pardons Nixon

Sept. 16, 1974: Ford offers amnesty to military deserters and draft dodgers of the Vietnam era

November 1974: Signs the Vladivostok Accords, an arms control agreement, with the Soviet Union

April 30, 1975: The last Americans are evacuated from the U.S. Embassy in Saigon

May 14, 1975: Orders the attack of Cambodian naval bases in retaliation for Cambodia's capture of an American freighter, the Mayaguez; the 30 hostages are safely released, but 41 Americans die in the rescue operation

Summer 1975: The Soviet Union signs the Helsinki Agreements on human rights with the United States and 33 other nations

Sept. 5, 1975: First assassination attempt, by Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, during visit to California

Sept. 22, 1975: Second assassination attempt, by Sara Jane Moore, happens during separate trip to California

Aug. 18, 1976: Nominated for president at Republican National Convention in Kansas City

Nov. 2, 1976: Defeated by Jimmy Carter

1979: Publishes his memoirs, "A Time to Heal"

Apr. 27, 1981: Gerald R. Ford library in Ann Arbor, Mich., and Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Mich., dedicated

1982: Established the American Enterprise Institute's World Forum, an international gathering of former and current world leaders and business executives, which he hosts annually in Vail/Beaver Creek, Colo.

August 1999: Receives the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award

October 1999: President and Mrs. Ford awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for "dedicated public service and outstanding humanitarian contributions"

August 2000: Suffers mild stroke while attending Republican convention in Philadelphia

May 2003: Hospitalized for dizziness experienced while golfing in California

Dec. 13, 2005: Ford, suffering from "a horrible cold," is hospitalized for what his chief of staff calls routine medical tests.

Dec. 26, 2006: Ford dies at his Rancho Mirage, Calif., home at 6:45 p.m.

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