Jimmy Carter was once attacked by a "swamp rabbit."

Famous Figures

M ost Presidents are known to have favorite vacation spots when they need to temporarily escape the hustle and bustle of Washington, and for Jimmy Carter it was his farm in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. During one such getaway on April 20, 1979, however, the commander in chief was relaxing on a boat in a pond when what has since become known as the "killer rabbit attack" occurred. The swamp rabbit in question, which, according to The New York Times, was said to be "hissing menacingly, its teeth flashing and its nostrils flared," swam toward Carter until he shooed it away with his paddle. As unbelievable as the incident might sound — including to Carter's own staff, whose skepticism stung him — it was photographed for posterity.

"It was a killer rabbit," one skeptical staff member said upon seeing the picture. "The President was swinging for his life." Carter himself downplayed the incident, describing his supposed attacker as "just a nice, quiet, typical Georgia rabbit" that was likely fleeing from a predator. The media had its fun with the offbeat story nevertheless. The Washington Post ran a front-page article titled "Bunny Goes Bugs: Rabbit Attacks President," accompanied by a Jaws-style poster titled Paws, and the Associated Press published an even more sensationalized cartoon of the encounter.

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By the Numbers

Year Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize

2002

Electoral votes won by Carter in 1976

297

Did you know?

Jimmy Carter reported seeing a UFO.

Ten years before his life-or-death experience with the "killer rabbit," the future President of the United States had an even stranger encounter: He claimed to have seen a UFO. The sighting took place in 1969, while Carter was visiting the Lions Club in Leary, Georgia. In the report he filed four years later, he wrote that "a kind of green light appeared in the western sky. This was right after sundown. It got brighter and brighter. And then it eventually disappeared. It didn't have any solid substance to it, it was just a very peculiar looking light. None of us could understand what it was." Carter was an amateur astronomer with a strong knowledge of physics stemming from his time in the U.S. Navy's nuclear submarine program. He insisted that what he saw wasn't Venus, as some skeptics suggested, and that 10 to 12 others witnessed it as well. He also vowed to encourage the government to release "every piece of information" about UFOs to the public if he were to become President, though he ultimately opted not to do so for fear that the information could have "defense implications" that might risk national security.

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