The Jimmy Carter rabbit incident, sensationalized as a "killer rabbit attack" by the press, involved a swamp rabbit that swam toward President Carter's fishing boat as it tried to escape some hounds. Carter shooed the animal away with a paddle. Although it was a minor incident, a photo snapped of Carter flailing at the bunny and numerous editorial cartoons were used by the President's adversaries to paint him as a less-than-ideal adversary for the powerful Soviet Union.

In 1979, Carter deregulated the American beer industry by making it legal to sell malt, hops, and yeast to American home brewers for the first time since the effective 1920 beginning of Prohibition. This led to an increase in home brewing over the 1980s and 1990s that by the 2000s had developed into a strong craft microbrew culture in the United States.

Carter was the first president to make a state visit to Sub-Saharan Africa when he went to Nigeria in 1978.

The 1979 oil crisis was due primarily to decreased oil output in the wake of the Iranian Revolution. The price of crude oil more than doubled to $39.50 per barrel over the next 12 months and sparked a panic, resulting in long lines at gas stations as drivers tried to fill their tanks.

During the 1980 campaign, Carter faced challenges from the right (Republican Ronald Reagan), the center (independent John B. Anderson), and the left (Democrat Ted Kennedy). Ultimately, Reagan won in a landslide, and the Senate went Republican for the first time since 1952.

On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian students took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Fifty-two American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for the next 444 days until they were finally freed immediately after Ronald Reagan succeeded Carter as President on January 20, 1981.

The Carter Center's goal is to advance human rights and alleviate human suffering. The center has many projects including election monitoring, mediating conflicts between warring states, and advocating on behalf of victims of human rights abuses.

The Carter Center began spearheading the campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease in 1986. At the time, there were about 3.5 million annual cases of the disease in 20 countries in Africa and Asia. In 2016 there were 25 reported cases in three countries: South Sudan, Chad and Ethiopia. Guinea worm disease is poised to be the first parasitic disease to be eradicated and the only disease to be eradicated without the use of vaccines or drugs.

In October 2000, Carter, a third-generation Southern Baptist, severed connections to the Southern Baptist Convention over its opposition to women as pastors. What led Carter to take this action was a doctrinal statement by the Convention, adopted in June 2000, advocating a literal interpretation of the Bible. This statement followed a position of the Convention two years previously advocating the submission of wives to their husbands. Carter described the reason for his decision as due to: "an increasing inclination on the part of Southern Baptist Convention leaders to be ... exclusionary of accommodating those who differ from them."

After decades of philanthropic work, including a longstanding association with Habitat for Humanity, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.