Jimmy Carter celebrates his 100th birthday on Tuesday, making him the first US president to reach the milestone.

Carter, a Democrat who served in the White House from 1977 to 1981, has spent the past 19 months in nursing home care in his home state of Georgia.

But the former peanut farmer, who first entered politics in the 1960s as a state senator, is “emotionally engaged and still having experiences and laughing, loving”, according to his grandson, Jason, said in September.

To honour the occasion, volunteers with Habitat for Humanity – the housing charity Carter has worked with for 40 years – are building 30 homes in Minnesota this week.