United States President Joe Biden has declared January 9, 2025, a national day of mourning for the late U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

Biden announced in a statement on Sunday, December 29, 2024, calling on all Americans to visit their places of worship to “pay homage” to Carter.

The president said: “I call on the American people to assemble on that day in their respective places of worship, there to pay homage to the memory of President James Earl Carter, Jr.

“I invite the people of the world who share our grief to join us in this solemn observance.”

Carter, the earnest Georgia peanut farmer who as U.S. president struggled with a bad economy and the Iran hostage crisis but brokered peace between Israel and Egypt and later received the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work, died at his home in Plains, Georgia, on Sunday.

He died at the age of 100.

Carter, a Democrat, became president in January 1977 after defeating incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 election. His one-term presidency was marked by the highs of the 1978 Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt, bringing some stability to the Middle East.

But it was also dogged by an economic recession, persistent unpopularity and the Iran hostage crisis that consumed his final 444 days in office.

Ex-US President Jimmy Carter dies at 100

Carter ran for re-election in 1980 but was swept from office in a landslide as voters embraced Republican challenger Ronald Reagan, the former actor and California governor.

Carter lived longer than any U.S. president and, after leaving the White House, earned a reputation as a committed humanitarian. He was widely seen as a better former president than he was a president – a status he readily acknowledged.

World leaders and former U.S. presidents paid tribute to a man they praised as compassionate, humble and committed to peace in the Middle East.

“His significant role in achieving the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel will remain etched in the annals of history,” said Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in a post on X.

The Carter Center said there will be public observances in Atlanta and Washington. These events will be followed by a private interment in Plains, it said.

Final arrangements for the former president’s state funeral are still pending, according to the center.

In recent years, Carter had experienced several health issues including melanoma that spread to his liver and brain, Reuters reported.

Jimmy Carter decided to receive hospice care in February 2023 instead of undergoing additional medical intervention. His wife, Rosalynn Carter, died on November 19, 2023, at age 96.

The Star