Video: 'Clinton: Portrait of a Presidency | NewsNation Films'
(Monday, August 19, 1946, 8:51 a.m. CST) — Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States (1993-2001), was born William Jefferson Blythe III today at Julia Chester Hospital in Hope, Arkansas.
His father, traveling salesman William Jefferson Blythe Jr., had died in an automobile accident several months before his son’s birth. After his mother later married Roger Clinton Sr., the boy took his stepfather’s surname, becoming William Jefferson Clinton.
Raised in the small southwest Arkansas town of Hope, Clinton would emerge as one of the state’s most prominent political figures. After graduating from Georgetown University and Yale Law School, where he met future wife Hillary Rodham, he returned home to begin a career in public service.
A Democrat, Clinton served as Arkansas attorney general before winning election as governor, a position he held for nearly 12 years over two nonconsecutive terms. His administration was marked by education reforms and his rise as a leading voice among a new generation of Democratic governors.
Running as a self-described “New Democrat,” Clinton defeated incumbent President George H.W. Bush and independent candidate Ross Perot in the 1992 presidential election. He became the nation’s first Baby Boomer president and, after winning re-election in 1996 over Republican Bob Dole, one of the youngest presidents to serve two full terms.
During his eight years in the White House, Clinton presided over a period of strong economic growth and budget surpluses. His administration enacted the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, while appointing Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In foreign affairs, Clinton oversaw U.S. military intervention in Bosnia and Kosovo, helped broker the Dayton Peace Agreement, supported NATO expansion into Eastern Europe and promoted peace efforts in the Middle East and Northern Ireland.
His presidency was overshadowed by revelations of an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. In 1998, the House of Representatives impeached Clinton on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, making him only the second U.S. president to be impeached. The Senate acquitted him on both counts in 1999, allowing him to complete his second term.
Clinton left office in 2001 with one of the highest public approval ratings of any departing president. In the years that followed, he remained active in humanitarian work through the Clinton Foundation, served as a United Nations envoy to Haiti, and continued to play a prominent role in Democratic politics.
Following the death of former President Jimmy Carter in 2024, Clinton became the earliest-serving living former U.S. president and the last surviving president to have served in the 20th century.
