President Bill Clinton is seen making remarks as he names Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Stephen G. Breyer, as Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court.
Bill was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946 in Hope, Arkansas. His father, salesman William Jefferson Blythe Jr., died in a tragic car accident three months before his birth — leaving him to be raised by his mother Virginia Dell Cassidy and grandmother Edith Cassidy. Following Bill’s birth, his mother studied nursing in New Orleans where she met her second husband Roger Clinton Sr. Bill later assumed his last name.
Following high school, Bill attended Georgetown University on scholarship where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service degree in 1968. He was an active student at the school as a member of fraternity Phi Beta Kappa. He then attended Oxford in the United Kingdom where he studed politics. He chose not to finish, instead enrolling at Yale Law School, where he met future wife Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The couple married in 1975 and welcomed their only daughter Chelsea in Feb. 1980. Bill entered politics shortly after graduating law school, becoming Governor of Arkansas in 1979. After briefly losing the title, he resumed the position until 1992 when he became President of the United States.
His tenure wasn’t without controversy, largely due to the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Since the end of his presidency, Bill has kept an active hand in politics and philanthropy. Click to see photos of him over the years.