Gerald Ford Events

1913 Jul 14 Leslie Lynch King Jr. (Gerald Ford) is Born
Ford was born as Leslie Lynch King, Jr. on July 14, 1913, at 3202 Woolworth Avenue in Omaha, Nebraska, where his parents lived with his paternal grandparents. His father was Leslie Lynch ...
1931
to 1935
Gerald Ford Attends the University of Michigan
1931-1935 Ford attends the University of Michigan and graduates with a B.A. in Economics. He joins the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and is a member of Michigamua, an esteeemed senior ...
1935 Sep Gerald Ford Accepts Assistant Coaching Job at Yale
Following his graduation in 1935 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics, he turned down contract offers from the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers of the National Football League t...
1935 Dec 3 Leslie Lynch King Legally Changes His Name to Gerald R. Ford Jr.
After two and a half years with her parents, on February 1, 1916 Dorothy King married Gerald Rudolff Ford, a salesman in a family owned paint and varnish company. They then called her son...
1938
to 1941
Gerald Ford Attends Yale Law School
Ford hoped to attend Yale's law school beginning in 1935 while serving as boxing coach, assistant varsity football coach, and teacher of JV cheerleading, at which he was very good because...
1941 May Gerald Ford Opens Law Firm With Philip Buchen
Ford graduated from law school in 1941, and was admitted to the Michigan bar shortly there after. In May 1941, he opened a Grand Rapids law practice with a friend, Philip Buchen, who woul...
1942 Apr 20 Gerald Ford Reports for Active Duty for the US Navy
Ford received a commission as ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve on April 13, 1942. On April 20, he reported for active duty to the V-5 instructor school at Annapolis, Maryland. After one m...
1943 May Gerald Ford is Assigned to Sea Duty on the USS Monterey
Applying for sea duty, Ford was sent in May 1943 to the pre-commissioning detachment for the new aircraft carrier USS Monterey, at New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey. F...
1945 Apr
to 1946 Jan
Gerald Ford Serves on the Staff of the Naval Reserve Training Command
From the end of April 1945 to January 1946, he was on the staff of the Naval Reserve Training Command, Naval Air Station, Glenview, Illinois as the Staff Physical and Military Training Of...
1946 Feb 23 Gerald Ford is Honorably Discharged from the US Navy
In January 1946, he was sent to the Separation Center, Great Lakes to be processed out. He was released from active duty under honorable conditions on February 23, 1946. On June 28, 1946,...
1948 Oct 15 Gerald Ford Marries Elizabeth Bloomer Warren
On October 15, 1948, at Grace Episcopal Church in Grand Rapids, Ford married Elizabeth Bloomer Warren, a department store fashion consultant. Warren had been a John Robert Powers fashion ...
1948 Nov 2 Gerald R. Ford is Elected as a US Congressman
After returning to Grand Rapids, Ford became active in local Republican politics, and supporters urged him to take on Bartel J. Jonkman, the incumbent Republican congressman. Military ser...
1963 Nov 29 Lyndon B. Johnson Establishes the Warren Commission to Investigate the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy
The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established on November 29, 1963, by Lyndon B. Johnson to investigat...
1965 Jan 4 Gerald Ford is Voted the House Minority Leader
In 1964, Democratic President Lyndon Johnson led a landslide victory for his party, securing another term as president and taking 36 seats from Republicans in the House of Representatives...
1973 Oct 10 Spiro Agnew Resigns as the Vice President
On October 10, 1973, Spiro Agnew became the second Vice President to resign the office. Unlike John C. Calhoun, who resigned to take a seat in the Senate, Agnew resigned and then pleaded ...
1973 Oct 12 President Richard Nixon Nominates Gerald Ford to be Vice President
On October 10, 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned and then pleaded no contest to criminal charges of tax evasion and money laundering, part of a negotiated resolution to a scheme w...
1974 Aug 9 Richard M. Nixon Resigns the Office of the President of the United States
On March 1, 1974, former aides to the president, known as the "Watergate Seven" — Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, Charles Colson, Gordon C. Strachan, Robert Mardian and Kenneth Parkinson ...
1974 Sep 4 President Ford Appoints George H.W. Bush to the US Liaison Office in the People's Republic of China (PRC)
Gerald Ford, Nixon's successor, appointed Bush to be Chief of the US Liaison Office in the People's Republic of China. Since the United States at the time maintained official relations wi...
1974 Sep 8 Gerald Ford Issues Unconditional Presidential Pardon to Richard Nixon
President Ford granted former President Richard M. Nixon an unconditional pardon today for all Federal crimes that he "committed or may have committed or taken part in" while in office, a...
1975 Sep 5 Lynnette Fromm Attempts to Assassinate President Gerald Ford
Ford faced two assassination attempts during his presidency, occurring within three weeks of each other: while in Sacramento, California on September 5, 1975, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a ...
1975 Sep 22 Sara Jane Moore Attempts to Assassinate President Ford Shortly Following a Similar Incident
Sara Jane Moore, a former FBI informant with connections to various radical groups, today attempted to assassinate President Ford as he left the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco "The...
1976 Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford Join the Ticket for the 1976 Republican Presidential Primaries
In 1976, Reagan challenged incumbent President Gerald Ford in a bid to become the Republican Party's candidate for president. Reagan soon established himself as the conservative candidate...
2006 Dec 26 Gerald Ford Dies
Ford died on December 26, 2006 at his home in Rancho Mirage, California of arteriosclerotic cerebrovascular disease and diffuse arteriosclerosis. His age at the time of his death was 93 y...