| 1913 | Born on July 14 as Leslie Lynch King Jr., in Omaha, Nebraska; his mother, Dorothy Gardner King, flees her marriage two weeks later and takes him to live with her family in Grand Rapids, Michigan |
| 1917 | Dorothy King marries a Grand Rapids businessman named Gerald R. Ford; he informally adopts her son, who is hereafter known as Gerald R. Ford Jr. |
| 1931–35 | Attends the University of Michigan; plays center and linebacker on the football team and is named Most Valuable Player of the 1934 team |
| 1935 | Graduates from the University of Michigan |
| Receives offers from the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions to play professional football | |
| Becomes a boxing coach and an assistant football coach at Yale University | |
| Legally changes name to Gerald R. Ford Jr. | |
| 1938–41 | Attends Yale Law School |
| 1940 | Volunteers for Wendell Willkie’s presidential campaign and attends first Republican National Convention |
| 1941 | Graduates in the top third of his law school class at Yale; returns to Grand Rapids to practice law and becomes active in local politics |
| 1942–45 | Serves in the U.S. Navy during World War II and sees action in the Pacific aboard the USS Monterey |
| 1946 | Receives honorable discharge from the navy and returns to Grand Rapids, resuming his involvement in reforming local politics |
| 1948 | Successfully challenges Representative Bartel J. Jonkman in the Republican congressional primary |
| Marries Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren | |
| Elected to U.S. Congress | |
| 1949 | Begins first term in Congress and meets and befriends fellow representative Richard Nixon |
| 1950 | Appointed to the House Appropriations Committee |
| 1952 | Dwight Eisenhower elected president; Republicans take control of Congress |
| 1954 | Democrats regain control of Congress in midterm elections |
| 1959 | Joins movement within the House Republican caucus to replace House Minority Leader Joseph Martin with Charles Halleck |
| 1960 | Mentioned as possible Republican vice presidential nominee but is not chosen |
| John F. Kennedy elected president, defeating Richard Nixon | |
| 1963 | Elected House Republican Conference chairman |
| President Kennedy assassinated in Dallas | |
| Appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to serve on the Warren Commission to investigate Kennedy’s death | |
| 1964 | Warren Commission issues its report, concluding that there was no evidence of a conspiracy in Kennedy’s assassination |
| Decides to challenge Halleck for the post of House minority leader | |
| 1965 | Elected House minority leader by a 73–67 vote |
| Publishes (with Jack Stiles) Portrait of the Assassin | |
| 1966 | Congressional Republicans make strong gains in the midterm elections |
| 1968 | Again mentioned as possible Republican vice presidential nominee |
| Richard Nixon elected president | |
| 1969 | Unsuccessfully calls for the impeachment and removal from office of Justice William O. Douglas, on ethics grounds |
| 1972 | Watergate break-in |
| Nixon reelected president | |
| 1973 | Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns on October 10 after pleading no contest to bribery and tax evasion charges |
| Nominated by President Nixon on October 12 to be vice president | |
| Confirmed by Congress as vice president and sworn in on December 6 | |
| 1974 | Supreme Court orders Nixon to turn over White House tapes related to Watergate |
| House Judiciary Committee approves three articles of impeachment against Nixon | |
| Nixon announces his resignation on August 8, effective the next day | |
| Sworn in as the thirty-eighth president of the United States on August 9 | |
| Announces support for clemency for Vietnam War draft evaders | |
| Nominates Nelson Rockefeller to be vice president | |
| Pardons Nixon on September 8 for any crimes he may have committed as president | |
| Announces “Whip Inflation Now” program | |
| Meets with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in Vladivostok | |
| 1975 | Announces on April 23 that the Vietnam War “is finished as far as America is concerned.” |
| Orders the emergency evacuation of American personnel and South Vietnamese refugees | |
| The South Vietnamese capital of Saigon falls on April 30 | |
| Cambodia seizes the Mayaguez, a U.S. merchant ship; marines sent in to rescue the crew | |
| Travels to Helsinki to meet with the leaders of thirty-four other nations to sign the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe | |
| Survives two assassination attempts in California, one by Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme and one by Sara Jane Moore | |
| Refuses to support a federal bailout for New York City but later approves a line of credit once city and state leaders take steps to address the crisis | |
| Reorganizes cabinet, naming Donald Rumsfeld as secretary of defense, Elliot Richardson as secretary of commerce, George H. W. Bush as director of CIA, Dick Cheney as White House chief of staff, and Brent Scowcroft as national security adviser | |
| Urges Rockefeller to withdraw his name from consideration as the 1976 vice presidential nominee | |
| Nominates John Paul Stevens to the U.S. Supreme Court | |
| 1976 | Celebration of the U.S. bicentennial |
| Defeats Ronald Reagan for the Republican presidential nomination; selects Senator Robert Dole as his running mate | |
| Debates Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter three times | |
| Loses presidential election to Carter | |
| 1977 | Leaves office on January 20 |
| 1979 | Publishes his memoir, A Time to Heal |
| 1980 | Discusses the possibility of joining Reagan’s ticket as the vice presidential candidate, but no agreement is struck |
| 1981 | Attends funeral of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat |
| 1982 | The Betty Ford Center opens |
| 1987 | Publishes Humor and the Presidency |
| 1998 | Urges “rebuke” and “censure” as alternatives to an impeachment trial in the case of President Bill Clinton |
| 1999 | Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal |
| 2001 | Receives the Profile in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Foundation |
| 2006 | Dies on December 26, having surpassed Ronald Reagan as the nation’s longest-lived president |