William Jefferson Clinton

42nd President of the United States
(January 20, 1993 to January 20, 2001)

Nicknames: "Bill"

Born: August 19, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas

Father: William Jefferson Blythe III
Stepfather: Roger Clinton
Mother: Virginia Divine Cassidy Blythe Clinton Kelley
Married: Hillary Rodham (1947- ), on October 11, 1975
Children: Chelsea Victoria Clinton (1980- )

Religion: Baptist
Education: Graduated from Georgetown University (1968); Attended Oxford University (1968-70); Graduated from Yale University Law School (1973)
Occupation: Lawyer, public official
Political Party: Democrat
Other Government Positions:

• Arkansas Attorney General, 1976-78

• Governor of Arkansas, 1978-80, 1982-92

Presidential Salary: $200,000/year + $50,000 expense account

Vice President: Albert Gore, Jr. (1993-2001)

Cabinet:

Secretary of State

Warren M. Christopher (1993-97)

Madeleine Albright (1997-2001)

Secretary of the Treasury

Lloyd M. Bentsen (1993-94)

Robert E. Rubin (1995-99)

Lawrence H. Summers (1999-2001)

Secretary of Defense

Les Aspin, Jr. (1993-94)

William J. Perry (1994-97)

William Cohen (1997-2001)

Attorney General

Janet Reno (1993-2001)

Secretary of the Interior

Bruce Babbitt (1993-2001)

Secretary of Agriculture

Mike Espy (1993-94)

Dan Glickman (1994-2001)

Secretary of Commerce

Ronald H. Brown (1993-96)

Mickey Kantor (1996-97)

William Daley (1997-2000)

Norman Y. Mineta (2000-01)

Secretary of Labor

Robert B. Reich (1993-97)

Alexis M. Herman (1997-2001)

Secretary of Health and Human Services

Donna E. Shalala (1993-2001)

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

Henry G. Cisneros (1993-97)

Andrew M. Cuomo (1997-2001)

Secretary of Transportation

Federico F. Peña (1993-97)

Rodney Slater (1997-2001)

Secretary of Energy

Hazel R. O'Leary (1993-97)

Federico F. Peña (1997-98)

Bill Richardson (1998-2001)

Secretary of Education

Richard W. Riley (1993-2001)

Secretary of Veterans Affairs

Jesse Brown (1993-97)

Togo D. West, Jr. (1998-2000)

Hershel W. Gober (2000-01)

Notable Events:

• 1998

  • President Clinton signed into law the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (PDF). The act provided harsher penalties for copyright infringement on the internet and made it illegal to create or distribute technologies for bypassing controlled access to copyrighted material.

  1999

  • President Clinton authorized American troops, but not ground troops, to take part in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) air strikes against the Serbian government. Although a United Nations (UN) courts ruled that a "genocide" was not taking place in Yugoslavia at this time, the UN court did conclude that Serbian President Slobodan Milošević's government had used a "systematic campaign of terror, including murders, rapes, arsons and severe maltreatments" in suppressing the ethnic Albanians' revolt in Kosovo. NATO forces suffered virtually no loss of life during this military campaign.

  1998

  • On December 19, the House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment against President Clinton, one for perjury and the other for obstruction of justice.

  1999

  • On February 12, the Senate acquitted President Clinton of both articles of impeachment made against him by the House of Representatives.

Internet Biographies:

William J. Clinton -- from The Presidents of the United States of America

Compiled by the White House.

Bill Clinton -- from Table of Presidents and Vice Presidents of the United States - MSN Encarta

Grolier Online has created this resource from its collection of print articles in Encyclopedia Americana. Contains a full biography, written by Mark J. Rozell of Mary Washington College, along with suggestions for further reading.

Bill Clinton -- from The American President

From the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, in addition to information on the Presidents themselves, they have first lady and cabinet member biographies, listings of presidential staff and advisers, and timelines detailing significant events in the lives of each administration.

Historical Documents:

First Inaugural Address (1993)

Second Inaugural Address (1997)

Media Resources:

Audio

From his 1999 State of the Union address: "...the longest peacetime economic expansion in our history." (0:40)

RealAudio | MP3 (318K)

From the Vincent Voice Library at Michigan State University under the leadership of Dr. Maurice Crane.

Audio & Video

The American Presidency Projects's Presidential Audio/Video Archive for William J. Clinton site

Other Internet Resources:

Clinton Presidential Center

Information about Clinton's legacy, foundation and library.

The Clinton Years

In-depth special from CNN.com discussing Clinton's future and a timeline of his eight year presidency.

Impeachment of President William Jefferson Clinton - The University of Michigan Documents Center

A collection of links to online documents and other resources regarding President Clinton's impeachment.

Points of Interest:

• The first version of the official U.S. government White House website went online on Oct. 21, 1994.

• On November 16, 2000, President Clinton was the first president to visit Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War.

William Jefferson Clinton

42nd President of the United States
(January 20, 1993 to January 20, 2001)

Hillary Clinton

Videos