Read CNN Fast Facts about the life of George H. W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States, and the father of George W. Bush and Jeb Bush.
Birth name: George Herbert Walker Bush
Father: Prescott Bush, investment banker and senator
Mother: Dorothy (Walker) Bush
Marriage: Barbara (Pierce) Bush (January 6,1945-April 17,2018, her death)
Children: Dorothy; Marvin; Neil; John (Jeb); Pauline (Robin), died from leukemia; George
Education: Yale University, B. A., 1948
Military service: US Navy, 1942-1945, Lieutenant Junior Grade
Religion: Episcopalian
Other Facts: Bush was the first sitting vice president to be elected president since Martin van Buren in 1836.
He is the second US president, after John Adams, to be the father of a US president.
Flew 58 combat missions for the Navy during World War II and was awarded three Air Medals and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Has a form of Parkinson’s disease.
His nickname since childhood has been Poppy, and that’s how he was known at Yale, especially as a baseball player.
Timeline: June 1943 – After earning his commission and wings, becomes the youngest pilot in the Navy at the time.
Late 1940s – Captain of the Yale University baseball team and plays in the first two College World Series in 1947 and 1948.
1951 – Establishes the Bush-Overbey Oil Development Company with John Overbey.
1953 – Forms Zapata Petroleum with William and Hugh Liedtke.
1964 – Runs unsuccessfully for the US Senate.
1967-1971 – US Representative from Texas’ 7th District.
1971-1972 – Ambassador to the United Nations.
1973-1974 – Chairman of the Republican National Committee.
1974-1975 – Serves as chief of the United States Liaison Office in China.
January 1976-January 1977 – Director of the CIA.
1980 – Runs for president, but loses his party’s nomination to Ronald Reagan.
January 20,1981 – Is sworn in as vice president of the United States.
July 13,1985 – Acting president for nearly eight hours while President Reagan undergoes surgery.
November 8,1988 – Is elected 41st president of the United States, with 53.1% of the popular vote and 426 electoral votes.
January 20,1989 – Bush is sworn in as the 41st president of the United States.
December 1989 – Sends American troops to Panama (Operation Just Cause).
August 2,1990 – Iraq invades Kuwait.
August 7,1990 – Operation Desert Shield begins.
January 16,1991 – Operation Desert Storm begins.
February 27,1991 – Declares victory in Iraq.
November 3,1992 – Loses the presidential election to Bill Clinton.
December 24,1992 – Pardons six government officials who had been implicated in the Iran-Contra affair.
January 3,1993 – Signs the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-II) with Russia.
June 9,1999 – Celebrates his 75th birthday by skydiving. He celebrates his 80th, 85th and 90th birthdays the same way.
February 19-21,2005 – Tours areas in southeast Asia damaged by a tsunami, with former President Bill Clinton.
September 1,2005 – After Hurricane Katrina, Presidents Bush and Clinton form the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund.
January 10,2009 – The USS George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier is commissioned.
February 15,2011 – Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
November 17-19,2012 – Hospitalized due to bronchitis.
November 23,2012 – Is re-admitted to the hospital following treatment for bronchitis.
January 14,2013 – Is released from the hospital after almost two months of treatment for bronchitis.
July 2013 – Shaves his head in solidarity with a leukemia victim, the son of a member of his Secret Service detail.
2013 – Attends the same-sex wedding of Bonnie Clement and Helen Thorgalsen in Kennebunkport, Maine, and signs their marriage license as a witness.
November 2013 – The National College Baseball Foundation announces its Hall of Fame museum will be named after the 41st president.
May 2014 – Receives the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation Profiles in Courage Award.
June 12,2014 – Celebrates his 90th birthday with a parachute jump as he did for his 75th, 80th and 85th birthdays.
November 11,2014 – The biography “41: A Portrait of My Father,” written by George W. Bush, is released during a special ceremony and discussion session at the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University in College Station.
December 23-December 30,2014 – Hospitalized for what aides describe as a precautionary measure after he experiences shortness of breath.
July 15,2015 – Falls at his home in Kennebunkport, Maine, breaking his C2 vertebrae in his neck. His spokesman Jim McGrath tells CNN the injury is not life threatening.
January 14,2017 – Is hospitalized due to “an acute respiratory problem stemming from pneumonia.” Barbara Bush is admitted to the hospital four days later after “experiencing fatigue and coughing.”
January 30,2017 – Is released from the hospital .
February 5,2017 – Performs the coin toss at Super Bowl 51 in Houston.
April 19,2017 – In a statement, McGrath says that Bush was recently readmitted to the hospital for pneumonia. According to McGrath, Bush is going to remain at the hospital for at least one more night but he is in good spirits and is on the mend.
October 24,2017 – In a now-deleted Instagram post published on her verified account, actress Heather Lind alleges that Bush touched her inappropriately while he was sitting in his wheelchair during a photo op that took place a few years ago. Bush’s spokesman McGrath later issues a statement: “At age 93, President Bush has been confined to a wheelchair for roughly five years, so his arm falls on the lower waist of people with whom he takes pictures,” McGrath says. “To try to put people at ease, the president routinely tells the same joke — and on occasion, he has patted women’s rears in what he intended to be a good-natured manner. Some have seen it as innocent; others clearly view it as inappropriate. To anyone he has offended, President Bush apologizes most sincerely.”
October-November 2017 – At least six other women allege they were also touched inappropriately during photo ops with the former president.
