Archer is the commanding officer of the first starship Enterprise (NX-01) from 2151 to 2161, and is later President of the United Federation of Planets from 2184 to 2192.
Archer, the son of famed warp engineer Henry Archer and his wife Sally, was born in 2112 in Upstate New York, where he spent most of his formative years; he later claimed to have spent the majority of his life in San Francisco. His dreams of exploring started as a boy. As a youth, Archer earned the Eagle Scout Award, along with 26 Merit Badges, from the Boy Scouts of America.

Archer grew up with a distrust of Vulcans, perceiving them as having held back Humanity's progress, particularly with regard to his father's warp five engine. Prior to joining Starfleet, he studied at and played water polo for Stanford University just south of San Francisco. (Starfleet Academy would not be founded until 2161.)

As a commander in Starfleet, Archer served as a pilot in the NX warp trials with A.G. Robinson, Duvall and Gardner Robinson pushed the limits of a test ship, the NX-Alpha, resulting in its destruction. The Vulcans recommended that the warp trials end, which Starfleet agreed to until Charles Tucker III (who would later serve as chief engineer under Archer) fixed the intermix ratios, and Archer and Robinson stole the NX-Beta, the second test ship, to prove its readiness. Although Archer was suspended for the act, it is believed his risk (and the fact that it paid off) eventually secured his role as Captain of Enterprise, Earth's first warp five starship

These are the Voyages of the Starship Earth. Her continuing mission, to support life and keep mankind safe, to bodly go where no planet has gone before.