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Carter is inaugurated as the thirty-ninth President of the United States.
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Congress passes Emergency Natural Gas Act, authorizing the President to deregulate natural gas prices due to a shortage in supply. Carter signs the bill and announces plans to present an energy program to Congress. He later proposes the establishment of a cabinet-level Department of Energy.
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Secretary of State Cyrus Vance travels to the Middle East in an attempt to reconvene the 1973 Geneva Conference.
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Carter speaks at Notre Dame University, presenting a new direction in foreign policy which takes the focus off anti-Communism and emphasizes support for fundamental human rights.
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Carter invokes the Taft-Hartley Act to end a strike by coal miners.
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Carter warns of the Soviet threat in a foreign policy address at Wake Forest University.
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Carter mediates talks between Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel and President Anwar Sadat of Egypt at Camp David, resulting in a peace treaty between the two nations. -
Congress passes a revised energy bill eighteen months after Carter proposed it. Congress also passes the Humphrey-Hawkins full employment bill.
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The Carter administration grants full diplomatic status to the People's Republic of China.
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Carter announces his “phase two” energy plan calling for conservation and phasing out price controls on oil.
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Carter signs the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty with the USSR. The U.S. Senate never ratifies the controversial treaty, although both nations voluntarily comply with its terms.
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Carter accepts the resignations of five cabinet members and names Hamilton Jordan chief of staff.
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In the longest hostage situation in recorded history, Iranian students take fifty-two American diplomats and citizens hostage for 444 days at the American embassy in Tehran. The students were supporters of the Iranian Revolution and took hostages in protest of the United States’ harboring of the Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi who was accused of numerous violent crimes against Iranian citizens. -
Due to the invasion of Afghanistan, Carter asks the Senate to table its consideration of SALT II. He also placed an embargo on grain sales to the Soviet Union and suggests the possibility of boycotting the Summer Olympics in Moscow. -
Carter announces the “Carter Doctrine” in his State of the Union address, asserting that threats to the Persian Gulf region will be viewed as “an assault of the vital interests of the United States.” -
Carter announces his anti-inflation program which includes a proposal for a balanced budget for the fiscal year 1981.