What are some fun facts about Gerald Ford?

Gerald Ford is the only person to serve as US president without winning a presidential election for either president or vice president. Ford was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. and took the name of his stepfather, Gerald Ford, who married his mother in 1917; the change became formal in 1935. A football star at the University of Michigan, Ford turned down offers from the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers and became a boxing coach at Yale instead. While at Yale, Ford worked as a fashion model and invested in a modeling agency, modeling until 1941. Ford is the only Eagle Scout to have served as president, having earned the Boy Scouts' highest rank in 1927. Before state events, President Ford often had the Navy band play the University of Michigan fight song, "The Victors," instead of "Hail to the Chief." Gerald Ford was alive at the same time as Greta Thunberg — their lives overlapped for 3 years (2003–2006). Gerald Ford shares a birthday with Ingmar Bergman: both were born on July 14.

Gerald Ford

1913 – 2006 · died at about 93^[1]^[2]

Politics & Leadership

Fun Facts About Gerald Ford

Gerald Ford is the only person to serve as US president without winning a presidential election for either president or vice president.^[1]
Ford was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. and took the name of his stepfather, Gerald Ford, who married his mother in 1917; the change became formal in 1935.^[1]
A football star at the University of Michigan, Ford turned down offers from the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers and became a boxing coach at Yale instead.^[1]
While at Yale, Ford worked as a fashion model and invested in a modeling agency, modeling until 1941.^[1]
Ford is the only Eagle Scout to have served as president, having earned the Boy Scouts' highest rank in 1927.^[1]
Before state events, President Ford often had the Navy band play the University of Michigan fight song, "The Victors," instead of "Hail to the Chief."^[1]
Gerald Ford was alive at the same time as Greta Thunberg — their lives overlapped for 3 years (2003–2006).^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]
Gerald Ford shares a birthday with Ingmar Bergman: both were born on July 14.^[1]^[2]^[5]^[6]

Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. He assumed the presidency after the resignation of Richard Nixon, under whom he served as the 40th vice president from 1973 to 1974 after the resignation of Spiro Agnew. A member of the Republican Party, Ford previously served in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1973.^[1]

Contemporaries

Their World

Global Events

1914 World War I begins

1917 Russian Revolution

1918 World War I ends; Spanish flu pandemic begins

1919 Treaty of Versailles signed

1920 League of Nations established

1928 Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin

1929 Wall Street Crash; Great Depression begins

1933 Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany

1936 Spanish Civil War begins

1939 World War II begins

1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor; US enters WWII

1944 D-Day: Allied invasion of Normandy

1945 Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; WWII ends

1945 United Nations founded

1947 India and Pakistan gain independence

1948 State of Israel established

1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted

1949 People's Republic of China proclaimed

1950 Korean War begins

1953 Watson and Crick discover DNA structure

1955 Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

1957 Sputnik launched; Space Age begins

1959 Cuban Revolution; Castro takes power

1961 Berlin Wall constructed

1962 Cuban Missile Crisis

1963 Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

1964 Civil Rights Act signed in the United States

1969 Apollo 11: first humans walk on the Moon

1971 Bangladesh Liberation War and independence

1973 1973 oil crisis

1975 Fall of Saigon; Vietnam War ends

1979 Iranian Revolution

1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster

1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall

1989 Tiananmen Square protests

1990 Nelson Mandela released from prison

1991 Dissolution of the Soviet Union

1994 Rwandan genocide

1994 End of apartheid; South Africa holds first free elections

1997 Dolly the Sheep cloned

1998 Good Friday Agreement signed in Northern Ireland

2001 September 11 attacks

2003 Human Genome Project completed

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami

In Their Field

1917 Balfour Declaration supports Jewish homeland in Palestine

1919 Treaty of Versailles reshapes Europe

1933 Hitler appointed Chancellor; Enabling Act passed

1945 United Nations Charter signed

1947 Marshall Plan announced for European recovery

1949 NATO established

1957 Treaty of Rome establishes European Economic Community

1962 Cuban Missile Crisis brings Cold War to the brink

1972 Nixon visits China; US-China relations transform

1975 Helsinki Accords signed

1991 Maastricht Treaty creates the European Union

Questions About Gerald Ford

When was Gerald Ford born?

Gerald Ford was born on July 14, 1913, and died on December 26, 2006.

How old was Gerald Ford at death?

Gerald Ford was born on July 14, 1913, and died on December 26, 2006, at age 93.

What was Gerald Ford known for?

Gerald Ford was known for: 38th President of the United States. Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. He assumed the presidency after the resignation of Richard Nixon, under whom he served as the 40th vice president from 1973 to 1974 after the resignation of Spiro Agnew. A member of the Republican Party, Ford previously served in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1973.

Who was alive at the same time as Gerald Ford?

Gerald Ford's closest contemporary was Naguib Mahfouz. Their lives overlapped for 93 years.

Sources

Gerald Ford — Wikipedia. Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0
Gerald Ford (Q9582) — Wikidata
Greta Thunberg — Wikipedia
Greta Thunberg (Q56434717) — Wikidata
Ingmar Bergman — Wikipedia
Ingmar Bergman (Q7546) — Wikidata
Portrait: Gerald Ford presidential portrait (cropped).jpg — Wikimedia Commons. David Hume Kennerly, Public domain