10 Things You Didn't Know About Bill Clinton

Compiled by the U.S.News & World Report library staff

1. On Aug. 19, 1946, William Jefferson Blythe IV was born to 22-year-old Virginia Blythe in Hope, Ark. He was named after his father, a traveling salesman, who died in a car accident before Bill was born.

2. While his mother was in school in Louisiana studying to become a nurse anesthetist, his grandparents raised him.

3. Bill was 4 when his mother married Roger Clinton, a car salesman. The family left Hope and moved to Hot Springs, Ark., when Bill was 7. Bill was 10 when Roger Jr., his half brother, was born. He changed his last name to Clinton when he was a teenager.

4. He was a great student and musician. Bill was a saxophone player in his high school band and attended music summer camp in the Ozarks. Upon high school graduation, he received both music and academic scholarships.

5. During his senior year in high school, he traveled to Washington, D.C., as a delegate in an American Legion civics program called Boys Nation. While on the trip, he got to meet and shake hands with President John F. Kennedy.

6. Bill attended Georgetown University, the only college he applied to, from 1964 to 1968. He received a bachelor's degree in international affairs. After graduating, he studied political science at Oxford University for two years as a Rhodes scholar.

7. Bill met Hillary Rodham at Yale University, where they were both studying law. They worked on the presidential campaign for George McGovern in 1972. After receiving his law degree in 1973, Bill returned to his home state to teach law at the University of Arkansas. Hillary moved to Arkansas in 1974; she and Bill were married a year later on October 11. Their daughter, Chelsea Victoria Clinton, was born Feb. 27, 1980.

8. Clinton was elected Arkansas's attorney general in 1976. In 1978, he won the governorship. After losing his re-election race in 1980, he recaptured the governor's office in 1982 and served until 1992. During his 1992 presidential campaign, there were questions about his alleged extramarital affairs and avoidance of the draft during the Vietnam War. Despite this, the "Comeback Kid" received the Democratic nomination and went on to win the presidential election in November 1992. He was re-elected in 1996, even though Republicans had gained control of Congress in 1994.

9. Clinton is also a Grammy winner. In 2004, he won for Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf/Beintus: Wolf Tracks. The next year, he won a Grammy for a reading of My Life, his autobiography.

10. Since leaving office in 2001, Clinton has been involved in many causes, including fighting global warming, childhood obesity, and the AIDS epidemic. He teamed up with former President George H. W. Bush to raise money for victims of the 2004 tsunami that hit South Asia, as well as victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. His book about volunteering and helping others—Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World—was published in September 2007.

Sources:
Biography Resource Center
Los Angeles Times
Maclean's
New York Times
People
Time

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