Timeline

July 1913	Gerald Ford is born in Omaha, Nebraska
Spring 1935	Ford graduates from the University of Michigan with a BA in Economics and turns down offers from the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers to play professional football to instead work as an assistant varsity football coach and boxing coach at Yale University
Spring 1941	Ford graduates from Yale Law School in the top third of his class
December 1941	Pearl Harbor is attacked
May 1943	Ford is assigned to a new aircraft carrier, the USS Monterey
February 1946	Ford honorably discharged from the Navy
September 1948	Ford defeats four-term incumbent Bartel Jonkman in Michigan primary election for the U.S. Congress
October 1948	Ford marries Elizabeth Ann “Betty” Bloomer
November 1948	Ford is elected to the U.S. Congress to represent the Fifth District of Michigan with 60.5% of the vote
January 1963	Ford is elected Republican Conference Chairman in the U.S. House of Representatives
November 1963	President John F. Kennedy is assassinated
January 1965	Ford is elected Minority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives (73–67)
July 1969	Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to walk on the moon
1970	Average cost of a gallon of gas: $0.36; average cost of a gallon of milk: $1.15
June 1972	Five burglars break into the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C.
January 1973	The trial of the Watergate burglars begins in Washington, D.C.; the defendants plead guilty in federal court
October 1973	Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns and pleads no contest to accepting bribes and income tax evasion
	President Richard Nixon nominates Ford as Vice President
December 1973	Ford is sworn in as Vice President by President Richard Nixon under the 25th Amendment after the Senate approved his nomination 92–3 and the House approves 387–15 in November
January 1974	Average cost of a gallon of gas: $0.53; average cost of a gallon of milk: $1.57
March 1974	Most Arab states involved in the oil embargo against the United States agree to end the ban
July 1974	U.S. House Judiciary Committee approves two Articles of Impeachment against President Richard Nixon
August 1974	Richard Nixon becomes the first U.S. President ever to resign the presidency. Chief of Staff Alexander Haig delivers President Nixon’s letter of resignation to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at 11:35 a.m. Ford takes the oath of office at noon in the East Wing. Rumsfeld lands at Dulles Airport at 1:55 p.m. to be met by his former assistant, Richard B. Cheney.
	President Ford selects Nelson Rockefeller as his Vice President
September 1974	Ford pardons Nixon
	U.S. Government announces clemency for draft evaders and military deserters
October 1974	Ford appears before the House Judiciary subcommittee on Criminal Justice to respond to questions concerning his pardon of Nixon—the first President since Abraham Lincoln to testify before a congressional committee
	Ford makes his first foreign trip as President of the United States to Nogales, Magdalena de Kino (Mexico)
November 1974	Ford visits Japan, South Korea, and Russia
	Ford travels to the Soviet Union to meet with General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev in Vladivostok and signs the SALT-2 treaty to reduce each side’s numbers and types of nuclear weapons
December 1974	Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as Vice President of the United States
January 1975	Ford signs an Executive Order establishing a Commission on CIA Activities within the United States and appoints Vice President Rockefeller as the Chairman of the Commission
	Average cost of a gallon of gas: $0.57; average cost of a gallon of milk: $1.57
April 1975	Cambodia falls to the Khmer Rouge
	Ford orders the evacuation of American personnel and high-risk South Vietnamese nationals from Saigon in Operation Frequent Wind as a response to advancing North Vietnamese forces, bringing an end to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War
May 1975	SS Mayaguez is captured less than a month after the Khmer Rouge take control of Phnom Penh
July 1975	Apollo 18 and Soyuz 19 make the first U.S./U.S.S.R. link-up in space
	Ford is the first U.S. President to visit the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in Poland
	Ford goes on his second European trip and signs the Helsinki Accords on European Security and Cooperation
	Ford announces his candidacy for the 1976 presidential election
September 1975	Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson, attempts to assassinate Ford on the grounds of the California State Capitol in Sacramento, California
	Second assassination attempt on Ford by Sara Jane Moore in San Francisco, California
November 1975	Former California Governor Ronald Reagan enters the race for the Republican presidential nomination, challenging incumbent President Gerald Ford
January 1976	Average cost of a gallon of gas: $0.60; average cost of a gallon of milk: $1.65
February 1976	Ford defeats Ronald Reagan in the New Hampshire primary with 51% of the vote
April 1976	Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs create Apple Computer in the garage of Steve Jobs’s parents’ house in Cupertino, California
July 1976	Ford speaks at Valley Forge and Independence Hall at America’s Bicentennial Celebration
	Former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter wins the Democratic nomination for President
	Viking I lands on Mars
August 1976	Ford is nominated at the Republican Convention, beating former Governor Ronald Reagan; Ford selects Senator Robert Dole of Kansas as his running mate
September 1976	The first televised debate between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter is held
November 1976	Jimmy Carter wins the election with 297 electoral votes and 40,828,929 popular votes to Ford’s 240 electoral votes and 39,148,940 popular votes
January 1977	Jimmy Carter becomes President of the United States; in his inaugural address he states, “For myself and for our Nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land.”
August 1999	Ford is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton
May 2001	Ford receives the Profile in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Library for his decision to pardon Richard Nixon
December 2006	President Gerald R. Ford dies at age 93
July 2011	Betty Ford dies at age 93
November 2013	The U.S. aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford is christened