50 Fun Facts About Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton was which number president of the United States?

He served from 1993 to 2001 and was the first president born into the Baby Boomer generation.

What office did Clinton hold in Arkansas from 1977 to 1979?

He then served two non-consecutive stretches as governor, 1979–81 and 1983–92.

What was Bill Clinton's surname at birth?

His father, a traveling salesman, died in a car accident three months before he was born.

In which aptly named Arkansas town was Bill Clinton born?

He grew up partly in Hot Springs after his mother remarried.

At what age did Clinton formally adopt his stepfather's surname?

He had used the name Clinton since 1950, when his mother married Roger Clinton Sr.

Which instrument did Clinton play, winning first chair in the state band?

In high school he played in a jazz trio called The 3 Kings.

Which president did a teenage Clinton meet at the White House in 1963?

He cites that Boys Nation visit and watching the 'I Have a Dream' speech as the two moments that set his path.

Clinton earned his bachelor's degree from which school in 1968?

It was the only university he applied to; he studied in the School of Foreign Service.

For which Arkansas senator did Clinton work as an intern and clerk in college?

Critics later charged he used the senator's influence to avoid the Vietnam draft.

Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar at which Oxford college?

He left early for Yale Law School and never received an Oxford degree.

Where did Bill Clinton meet Hillary Rodham in 1971?

She was a year ahead of him; within a month he had moved to California to live with her for the summer.

Clinton ran which presidential candidate's 1972 campaign effort in Texas?

In Dallas he worked alongside Ann Richards, Ron Kirk and an unknown filmmaker named Steven Spielberg.

What draft lottery number did Clinton receive?

The highest number actually drafted that year was 195.

Clinton's first run for office, a 1974 House race, ended in defeat to which incumbent?

He lost 52–48 in a year when Watergate was dragging down Republicans everywhere else.

How old was Clinton when he took office as Arkansas governor in 1979?

He was the youngest governor in the country at the time, earning the nickname 'Boy Governor'.

Who defeated Clinton in his 1980 bid for re-election as governor?

Clinton joked that the loss made him the youngest ex-governor in the nation's history.

Clinton's 1988 Democratic convention speech was criticized for what?

At 33 minutes it ran twice its expected length; he was nominating Michael Dukakis.

What nickname did the media give Clinton after his second-place New Hampshire finish in 1992?

He had trailed Paul Tsongas badly after the Gennifer Flowers story broke, then came within single digits.

Which journalist first applied the nickname 'Slick Willie' to Clinton in 1980?

Greenberg of the Pine Bluff Commercial felt Clinton was abandoning the progressive policies of earlier Arkansas governors.

On whose late-night show did Clinton famously play his horn in 1992?

Some religious conservatives dubbed him 'the MTV president' afterward.

Which independent candidate took a large share of the vote in 1992 but won no electoral votes?

Clinton won 370 electoral votes to George H. W. Bush's 168.

How many electoral votes did Clinton win in 1992?

His win ended twelve years of Republican control of the White House.

Who was Clinton's vice president for both terms?

Gore narrowly lost the 2000 election to George W. Bush.

Zoë Baird and Kimba Wood, Clinton's first two Justice Dept picks, withdrew over what?

Both had employed undocumented immigrants; Janet Reno became attorney general.

What was the name of the compromise policy on gay service members adopted in 1993?

Clinton had wanted to lift the ban outright but was opposed by senators including John McCain and Sam Nunn.

What did the Brady Bill, signed in November 1993, require?

It also imposed a five-day waiting period until the NICS system launched in 1998.

Which trade agreement did Clinton sign into law on January 1, 1994?

Opposition came from protectionist Democrats, anti-trade Republicans and Ross Perot supporters.

Who headed the task force behind Clinton's failed 1993 health care plan?

The plan died in August 1994, the administration's first major legislative defeat.

Which two justices did Clinton appoint to the Supreme Court?

Both served into the 2020s; Ginsburg was appointed in 1993 and Breyer in 1994.

In what year did Democrats lose control of Congress for the first time in forty years?

The midterm rout pushed Clinton toward more conservative domestic policy, including welfare reform.

When did the first official White House website, whitehouse.gov, launch?

The children's version of the site was hosted by a cartoon of Socks the cat.

Clinton was the first president to visit which part of the UK, in November 1995?

He went on to play a key role in the talks that produced the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

Which 1993 agreement between Rabin and Arafat was signed at the White House?

Clinton later hosted Ehud Barak and Arafat at Camp David in July 2000 for a 14-day summit.

Who was the Republican nominee Clinton defeated in 1996?

Clinton became the first Democrat to win two consecutive presidential elections since Franklin D. Roosevelt.

What share of the popular vote did Clinton win in 1996?

Dole took 40.7% and Ross Perot, running for the Reform Party, 8.4%.

Which 1996 law defined marriage federally as the union of one man and one woman?

The Supreme Court struck it down in 2013 in United States v. Windsor; Clinton himself urged its repeal.

Which bipartisan senator duo helped pass SCHIP, the children's health program, in 1997?

It was the largest successful health care reform of the Clinton years.

What did the 1999 Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act repeal part of?

It let banks offer a full range of investment, commercial banking and insurance services again.

Which president, besides Clinton, had been impeached by the House before 1998?

The House voted 228–206 on perjury and 221–212 on obstruction of justice.

How did the Senate vote on the perjury charge at Clinton's 1999 trial?

The obstruction charge split 50–50; both fell short of the two-thirds needed to convict.

What was the federal budget surplus reported for fiscal year 2000?

Surpluses ran for three straight years, the first since 1969.

How many pardons did Clinton issue on his final day in office?

He also issued 36 commutations; the Marc Rich pardon drew an investigation that found no wrongdoing.

Which New York town did the Clintons move to at the end of his presidency?

The move to 15 Old House Lane settled residency questions ahead of Hillary's Senate run.

What was the title of Clinton's best-selling 2004 autobiography?

His own audiobook reading of it won the 2005 Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album.

What heart surgery did Clinton undergo in September 2004?

After stents in 2010 he adopted a largely plant-based diet and lost 20 pounds for Chelsea's wedding.

Who shared Clinton's 2003 Grammy for Wolf Tracks and Peter and the Wolf?

It won Best Spoken Word Album for Children.

In 2009, Clinton was named UN special envoy to which country?

After the 2010 earthquake he founded the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund with George W. Bush.

What was the name of the Clintons' White House cat?

A stray who jumped into Chelsea's arms in Little Rock, he later lived with secretary Betty Currie because he fought with Buddy the dog.

Which Nobel laureate called Clinton 'the first black president' in 1998?

She pointed to his single-parent, working-class, saxophone-playing Arkansas upbringing.

What approval rating did Clinton leave office with, per CBS News/New York Times?

It matched Reagan and FDR as the highest for a departing president in the modern era.