John Sidney McCain III was born on Aug. 29, 1936, to John and Roberta McCain at the Coco Solo Naval Air Station in the Panama Canal Zone.
The Panama Canal was under U.S. control at the time. However, this became a potential legal issue once he became the presumptive Republican nominee for president in 2008. A bipartisan legal review concluded that he was a natural-born citizen.
John McCain as a student at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD.
McCain familyMcCain graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md. He had a low class rank in part because he didn't always obey rules.
John McCain is administered to in a Hanoi, Vietnam hospital as a prisoner of war in the fall of 1967. McCain spent 20 years in the Navy, a quarter of it in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp. On Oct. 26, 1967, McCain's jet was shot down over Hanoi during a bombing mission.
Associated PressOn Oct. 26, 1967, he was shot down during his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam. He fractured both arms and a leg ejecting from his aircraft and sustained a crushed shoulder and bayonet wound during his capture. During his time as a POW, he was regularly tortured and received minimal medical care.
John S. McCain III is escorted by Lt. Cmdr. Jay Coupe Jr., public relations officer, March 14, 1973, to Hanoi's Gia Lam Airport after the POW was released.
Horst Faas / Associated PressOn March 14, 1973, McCain was released with other POWs. He had refused an earlier release that was offered as propaganda because his father was Admiral John S. McCain Jr.
McCain became the Navy's liaison to the U.S. Senate. He later said that this marked his beginning in politics.
After retiring from the Navy, McCain and his second wife, Cindy, moved to Phoenix, Ariz., and McCain went to work for his father-in-law's company.
Rep. John McCain fields questions from the press while his wife, Cindy looks on on July 8, 1983.
Paul VanDevelder / Arizona Daily StarMcCain was elected to Congress, representing District 1 of Arizona as a Republican.
Senate candidate, John McCain makes a speech off the back of a train to kick-off his campaign at the Tucson Amtrak station on February 1, 1986.
Elizabeth Mangelsdorf / Arizona Daily StarAfter serving two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, McCain ran for U.S. Senate and won, filling the seat Barry Goldwater vacated when he retired.
Sens. John Glenn D-Ohio, left, Dennis DeConccini, D-Ariz., and John McCain, R-Ariz., right, arrive at the Senate Ethics committee hearing room Nov.15, 1990 on Capitol Hill. Five senators are to face charges that they took part in alleged influence peddling to help former savings and loan owner Charles H. Keating, Jr.
JOHN DURICKA / Associated PressFrom 1987 to 1989, McCain was investigated as one of the so-called "Keating Five." He was cleared of wrongdoing by the Senate Ethics Committee. He later said he used poor judgement in meeting with federal regulators about a bank investigation.
McCain's family memoir, "Faith of My Fathers" is published. In it, he tells of his early life, military career and his years as a POW during the Vietnam War.
Cindy McCain, left, looks across at her husband, Sen. John McCain, of Ariz., as he announces at a press conference Thursday, March 9, 2000, in Sedona, Ariz. that he is suspending his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
ELAINE THOMPSON / Associated PressMcCain ran for the Republican nomination for president, unsuccessfully. He was diagnosed with skin cancer and had surgery to remove it.
McCain won the Republican nomination for president, but was defeated in November by Barack Obama.
McCain won his sixth term in the U.S. Senate at the age of 80.
On July 14, 2017, during surgery to remove a blood clot above his eye, a tumor was discovered, and days later it was announced that McCain had brain cancer. Two weeks after surgery, he cast a vote on healthcare in the Senate and made a speech blasting "tribal" politics.
Another book collaboration with Mark Salter, "The Restless Wave," is published in May. An audio excerpt released ahead of the book has McCain reminiscing and urging Americans to reject isolation and uphold human rights.
Also in May, a documentary, "John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls," runs on HBO about McCain's life.
In July, a U.S. Navy warship that had been named for McCain's father and grandfather, but Navy Admirals, has Senator McCain's name added to theirs. While all three had the name John Sidney McCain, they went by Sidney, Jack and John (oldest to youngest).
McCain's family announced that he would no longer receive treatment for cancer.
Sen. John McCain died at the age of 81.
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