MOSCOW, August 19 (RIA Novosti) - The 42nd President of the United States, William (Bill) Jefferson Blythe III (Clinton), was born in Hope, Arkansas, on August 19, 1946.
His father was killed in a car accident a few months before Bill was born.
When he was 4 years old, Bill's mother married Roger Clinton. Bill later took his stepfather’s surname.
Clinton did well at school and directed a school jazz band, where he played saxophone. After finishing high school, he entered Georgetown University, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Foreign Service in 1968.
Upon graduation, Clinton won a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University in the United Kingdom.
Upon his return to the United States, he enrolled in Yale Law School, from which he graduated in 1973.
At Yale, Clinton met his future wife, Hillary Rodham. They were classmates and participated in some political activities together.
After graduating from Yale, Clinton returned to Arkansas and taught at the University of Arkansas Law School until 1976.
In 1974, he ran for Congress from Arkansas but lost.
In 1975, Bill Clinton married Hillary Rodham. In February 1980, their daughter, Chelsea Clinton, was born.
In 1976, Clinton was elected Attorney General of Arkansas and led a campaign against monopolies and their influence on the authorities.
In 1978, he won the Arkansas gubernatorial election and became the youngest governor in the history of the United States. He then ran for a second term but was defeated by Republican Frank White. In 1982, however, he fully rehabilitated himself and became the first person in the state's history to be re-elected Arkansas governor after a defeat.
Back in the governor’s office, Clinton started to reform the Arkansas education system, while his wife Hillary headed the Education Standards Committee.
In 1984, Clinton was re-elected, and in 1986 he became the first Arkansas governor since the post-civil war reconstruction era to be elected for a four-year term. He was re-elected again in 1990.
The same year, Clinton headed the Democratic Leadership Council, a centrist wing of the US Democratic Party.
In 1991, Bill Clinton entered the presidential race. The issues of the stagnating national economy, for which he held the ruling Republican Party responsible, was the cornerstone of his election campaign.
In 1992, Clinton defeated incumbent President George Bush Senior and populist billionaire and self-nominee Ross Perot to become the 42nd President of the United States.
During his first term in office, Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and brokered the Dayton Accords on a peace settlement in the Balkans and the Oslo Accords between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel.
In 1993, the US peacekeeping operation in Somalia failed.
In 1996, Clinton was re-elected for a second term. He took a tougher foreign policy line and was a fervent supporter of NATO expansion. Under Clinton, the alliance approved the admission of Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic.
In 1998, after Baghdad refused to cooperate with international arms inspectors, the United States carried out air strikes on Iraqi territory.
In 1999, NATO launched a military operation against former Yugoslavia. As a result, Yugoslav troops pulled out of Kosovo and the UN and NATO-led Kosovo Peace Implementation Force (KFOR) moved in.
Clinton’s presidency, particularly his second term, was marred by a series of high-profile scandals. In 1994, the so-called Whitewater scandal surrounding Bill and Hillary Clinton’s real estate investment broke out. In 1998, shocking revelations came to light about Bill Clinton’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
The same year, Paula Jones, a former Arkansas state employee, sued Clinton for sexual harassment in the so-called Troopergate case. When his term ended in January 2001, Clinton delivered a farewell address to the nation, listing his accomplishments during his White House tenure: higher living standards, lower crime and a better environmental situation.
Clinton was the first Democratic president in 60 years to be re-elected for a second term.
Later, he established a charitable foundation bearing his name. The Clinton Foundation (originally the William J. Clinton Foundation) deals with a wide range of issues from healthcare and the anti-AIDS campaign to economics, global climate change, child obesity and other issues.
In 2004, Clinton’s memoirs, entitled “My Life,” became a bestseller.
In May 2009, he accepted UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s invitation to serve as UN special envoy for Haiti.
The former president supported his wife Hillary in her own political career on her way to becoming US Secretary of State between 2009 and 2013.
Clinton is active in his social and charitable activities, appearing at charity events throughout the world.
In 2005, Clinton and the previous president, George Bush Senior, led a national charity campaign to raise money for the victims of hurricane Katrina.
In January 2010, following a devastating earthquake in Haiti, Clinton and George Bush Junior headed a foundation to help Haitian earthquake victims at the request of President Barack Obama, who allocated $100 million in aid.
In July 2011, Clinton handed over $1.25 million in aid for the development of Haiti’s educational system. Haitian President Michel Martelly awarded Clinton the National Order of Honor and Merit.
