Mr. Bush entered the White House with one of the most impressive r\u00e9sum\u00e9s of any president. Here\u2019s a look at some milestones in his life.<\/b>
\n1924
George Herbert Walker Bush is born on June 12 in Milton, Mass. The son of a United States senator, he grows up amid wealth in Greenwich, Conn., sheltered from the Depression.
[ George H. W. Bush, a one-term president who steered the nation through a tumultuous period in world affairs, dies at 94.]
1942
Mr. Bush joins the Navy on his 18th birthday during World War II and becomes a torpedo bomber pilot. His plane is shot down by the Japanese in 1944, and he is rescued at sea.
1945
On Jan. 6, after he returns from the war, he marries Barbara Pierce, whom he had met at a dance. They have six children and become the longest-married couple in presidential history.
1948
Captain of the baseball team, a member of the exclusive Skull and Bones club, Mr. Bush graduates from Yale, drives to Texas and lands a job at the oil company Dresser Industries.
1951
He forms an oil exploration business with a Texas entrepreneur. Two years later, they merge with another company to form Zapata Petroleum. Before long he makes his first million.
1963
Mr. Bush successfully runs for chairman of the Harris County Republican committee. His victory catches the eye of Texas Republican leaders.
1964
At the urging of President Richard M. Nixon, he runs for the Senate, challenging the Democratic incumbent, Ralph Yarborough. Mr. Bush loses with 43 percent of the vote.
1966
Mr. Bush is elected, handily, to the House of Representatives from a rich Houston district. \u201cI took some of the far-right positions to get elected,\u201d he says. \u201cI hope I never do it again.\u201d
1970
At the urging of Nixon, he gives up his House seat to run again for the Senate and is defeated again, this time by Lloyd Bentsen Jr.
1971
Nixon appoints Mr. Bush ambassador to the United Nations, though his qualifications are questioned. A General Assembly vote to expel Taiwan is an early setback.
1972
Nixon names Mr. Bush chairman of the Republican National Committee as the Watergate scandal begins to unfold. He later joins a chorus of voices calling on the president to resign.
1974
Succeeding to the presidency, Gerald R. Ford names Mr. Bush envoy to China on Sept. 4,1974, after passing him over for vice president. That job goes to Nelson A. Rockefeller.
1976
The Senate confirms Mr. Bush as director of central intelligence on Jan. 27. Ford charges him with restoring morale at the C. I. A., which was accused of abusing power under Nixon.
1980
After briefly running for president himself, Mr. Bush is Ronald Reagan\u2019s choice for running mate. They win convincingly, ousting Jimmy Carter, and sail to re-election in 1984.
1988
Mr. Bush, behind 17 points in the polls, rallies to defeat Michael S. Dukakis in the presidential race, winning 426 electoral votes, 40 states and 54 percent of the popular vote after a harsh campaign.
1989
In December, President Bush orders a successful invasion to oust Panama\u2019s strongman, Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, who had become notorious for his involvement in the drug trade.
1990
In July, Mr. Bush signs the landmark Americans With Disabilities Act, barring discrimination against the disabled and mandating accessibility to new buildings as well as trains and buses.
1990
Mr. Bush successfully negotiates a budget deal in September to reduce the federal deficit by raising taxes on the wealthy, but abandoning his \u201cno new taxes\u201d promise will cost him.
1991
Having built an international coalition, Mr. Bush, on Jan. 16, orders airstrikes on Baghdad to force invading Iraqi troops out of Kuwait. The war\u2019s success is the pinnacle of his presidency.
1991
With the Cold War ending, Mr. Bush and Mikhail S. Gorbachev in July sign the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, a diplomatic victory that shrinks American and Soviet nuclear arsenals.
1991
He names Clarence Thomas, a black, conservative appeals court judge, to fill the seat vacated by Justice Thurgood Marshall, a black liberal. The confirmation hearings are contentious.
1992
In a three-man race in which Ross Perot wins 19 percent of the vote, Bill Clinton, with 43 percent, denies Mr. Bush a second term. \u201cDon\u2019t understand it,\u201d he wrote. \u201cBut life goes on.\u201d
2001
George W. Bush is elected president with 271 electoral votes, a minuscule victory over Al Gore. Many believe that his father\u2019s name helped him secure the White House.
2005
The former presidents tour Asia on Feb. 19, pledging relief efforts to areas recovering from a tsunami. They become friends and team up on other humanitarian efforts.<\/p>\n