Gerald Ford: Life in pictures

Gerald Ford, president of the United States from August 1974 to January 1977, was the only US president never to win a national election of any kind.

An American football star at the University of Michigan, Gerald Ford turned down the offer of a professional contract to pursue a law degree at Yale.

He married Elizabeth Bloomer in 1948, the same year he was elected to Congress for the Republican Party, and the couple went on to have four children.

Voted House Republican leader in 1965, he was chosen by President Richard Nixon to serve as his vice-president following the resignation of Spiro Agnew in 1973.

Mr Nixon himself resigned over the Watergate scandal a year later and Mr Ford found himself in the White House at a time when public trust in government was suffering.

He continued a policy of d�tente towards the Soviet Union and when the Vietnam War ended in 1975, he urged America to heal its wounds and regain its sense of pride.

Mr Ford survived two attempts on his life in late 1975. The second took place in San Francisco, when political activist Sarah Jane Moore shot at him, but he was unhurt.

He stood for a second term in 1976 but lost narrowly to Jimmy Carter, a loss attributed in part to his decision to grant disgraced predecessor Richard Nixon a full pardon.

In August 1999, he was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of his work to restore confidence in government after the Watergate scandal.