1. Gabrielle Giffords was born in Tucson, Ariz. On June 8, 1970 to Gloria, an art conservator, and Spencer Giffords who served on the school board district and ran the family's auto and tire business, El Campo Tire, Inc.
2. After graduating with a degree in Latin American history and sociology from Scripps College in Claremont, Calif. in 1993, Giffords studied in Mexico on a Fulbright Scholarship.
3. Giffords graduated from Cornell University in 1996 with a master's degree in regional planning.
4. Giffords worked for Price Waterhouse Coopers in New York from 1996 to 1997, when she returned to Tucson to serve as president and CEO of El Campo Tire.
5. After selling the company, Giffords was elected to the Arizona's state House in 2000. During her time in the legislature, she managed a commercial property business. Two years later, Giffords became the youngest woman elected to the state Senate at the age of 32.
6. Giffords was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2005, replacing Republican Rep. Jim Kolbe who retired after 11 terms. She became Arizona's first Jewish congresswoman.
7. In 2007, Giffords married Navy Capt. Mark Kelly, an astronaut who is scheduled to command the last planned Endeavour shuttle mission in April. Giffords, then an Arizona state senator, met Kelly in China in 2003 while they were both serving on the National Committee on U.S.–China Relations, an American non-profit organization .
8. Giffords voted for the 2010 healthcare reform bill. After Congress passed the bill in March, Gifford's Tucson office was vandalized.
9. Giffords survived a difficult 2010 re-election challenge from Tea Party endorsed former Marine Sgt. Jesse Kelly. She won by 2 percentage points.
10. On January 8, 2011, Giffords was shot in the head by alleged gunman Jared Loughner while meeting with constituents outside of a Tucson grocery store. Loughner killed 6 people, including a member of Giffords's staff and a federal judge, and wounded several others at Giffords's "Congress on your Corner" event.
- See photos of the aftermath of the shooting.
- Read more about the Arizona shooting and Gabrielle Giffords.
- Take the poll: Is Political Rhetoric To Blame for Arizona Shooting?
Reader Comments Read all comments (9)
James of AZ 3:06PM January 25, 2011
jb of WA 6:05PM January 17, 2011
David K. Steele of TX 8:36PM January 12, 2011