49 Fun Facts About Bill Clinton

Which band's hit 'Don't Stop' was the theme song of Clinton's 1992 campaign?

Fleetwood Mac: after he won, Clinton persuaded the band to reunite and play the song at his 1993 inaugural ball.

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

Attorney general: he won it in 1976, two years after losing a House race, and was elected governor in 1978.

What was Bill Clinton's surname at birth?

Blythe: his father, William Jefferson Blythe Jr., died in a car accident months before Bill was born.

In which aptly named Arkansas town was Bill Clinton born?

Hope: he lived with his grandparents there while his mother studied nursing in New Orleans.

After his mother remarried in 1950, young Bill Clinton moved to which Arkansas resort town?

Hot Springs: as a teenager there, he stood up to his abusive, alcoholic stepfather.

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

Saxophone: during the 1992 campaign he showed off his playing on late-night television.

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

John F. Kennedy: Clinton met him as a Boys Nation delegate, and he later named it one of two 1963 moments that led him into public life.

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

Georgetown: he was twice elected class president there, but then lost his race for student council president.

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

J. William Fulbright: in 1966 the senator's Foreign Relations Committee held televised hearings on the Vietnam War.

Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar at which Oxford college?

University: his Oxford coursework never added up to a degree, and he left early to return to the United States.

Where did Bill Clinton meet his future wife in 1971?

The Yale Law Library: after about a month of dating, he put off a campaign job to spend that summer with her in California.

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

George McGovern: for all the campaign's work, Nixon carried Texas in his 1972 landslide.

Which strategist coined the line 'It's the economy, stupid' for Clinton's 1992 campaign?

James Carville: he put it on a sign at campaign headquarters as one of three messages to keep staff focused.

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.

Unrest among which refugees at Fort Chaffee hurt Governor Clinton in 1980?

Cuban: they had come in that year's Mariel boatlift, and the federal government had interned them at the fort.

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

Frank D. White: Clinton won the office back from him in 1982.

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 Clinton earn after his strong second place in the 1992 New Hampshire primary?

Comeback Kid: he went on to sweep most Southern primaries on Super Tuesday and build a firm lead for the nomination.

In 1999, NATO air strikes backed by Clinton forced Serbian forces out of which region?

Kosovo: American troops then moved in with other NATO forces to keep the peace there.

On whose late-night talk show did candidate Clinton famously perform in 1992?

Arsenio Hall: the June 1992 appearance was seen as a lift for Clinton's stalled presidential campaign.

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

Ross Perot: he quit the race in July 1992 and jumped back in that October, a wavering that damaged his candidacy.

Which incumbent did Clinton defeat in 1992?

George H. W. Bush: he had pledged 'Read my lips: no new taxes' in 1988, then signed a budget deal that raised taxes.

Who was Clinton's vice president for both terms?

Al Gore: after leaving office he campaigned on climate change and shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

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

Undocumented nannies: after both withdrew, Clinton settled on Florida prosecutor Janet Reno, who got the job.

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

Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Clinton had vowed to end the ban on gay service members, but opposition in Congress and the military forced a compromise.

What did the 1993 Brady Bill require?

Background checks for gun buyers: James Brady, Reagan's press secretary, was shot in the 1981 attempt on Reagan and then campaigned for gun laws.

Which trade agreement, signed by Clinton in December 1993, took effect on January 1, 1994?

NAFTA: the deal itself had been signed in December 1992, before he took office, and Congress approved it only in November 1993.

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

The First Lady: her task force of experts worked in secret, and a federal court later forced some of its records into the open.

Which two justices did Clinton appoint to the Supreme Court?

Ginsburg and Breyer: before choosing Breyer, Clinton offered that seat to Senator George Mitchell, who declined to keep working on health reform.

Which Georgia congressman led the 1994 Republican takeover of the House and became Speaker?

Newt Gingrich: his budget clashes with Clinton led to federal government shutdowns in late 1995 and early 1996.

The Clintons' stake in which Arkansas real estate venture led to years of investigation?

Whitewater: the inquiries found insufficient evidence linking the Clintons to the crimes of others involved.

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

Northern Ireland: he spent the day with both communities, and then switched on Belfast's Christmas lights.

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

The Oslo Accords: in 1995, at a rally supporting them, Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist.

Who was the Republican nominee Clinton defeated in 1996?

Bob Dole: he gave up his Senate seat in June 1996 to devote himself fully to the campaign.

In which city did Clinton's presidential library open in 2004?

Little Rock: its main building is designed to resemble a bridge over the Arkansas River, echoing his 'bridge to the 21st century' theme.

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

DOMA: in 2013 the Supreme Court struck down its federal definition of marriage as a violation of the Fifth Amendment.

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

Kennedy and Hatch: Kennedy had first proposed paying for children's coverage with a 75-cent-a-pack cigarette tax increase.

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?

Andrew Johnson: the Senate acquitted him in 1868, and like Clinton he stayed in office.

Clinton's 1999 Senate trial ended in acquittal because conviction required what?

A two-thirds majority: on the perjury charge, ten Republicans joined all 45 Democrats in voting not guilty.

Which fugitive financier did Clinton pardon on his last day in office?

Marc Rich: his ex-wife Denise had donated to Democrats, and within weeks a House committee opened hearings into the pardon.

Near the end of his presidency, in which New York town did the Clintons buy a house?

Chappaqua: they bought the house so his wife could run for the Senate from New York.

What was the title of Clinton's 2004 autobiography?

My Life: he recorded the audiobook himself, and that reading won the 2005 Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album.

What heart surgery did Clinton undergo in September 2004?

Quadruple bypass: when one of the grafts later blocked, he needed stents in 2010 and then switched to a vegan diet.

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

Mikhail Gorbachev and Sophia Loren: Loren narrated Peter and the Wolf, Gorbachev gave the introduction, and the recording benefited several charities.

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?

Socks: he never made peace with Buddy, the Labrador who arrived in 1997, so after the White House years he went to live with secretary Betty Currie.

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

Toni Morrison: she later said she meant he was being treated like a black man on the street, as if already guilty.

What happened to Clinton's Gallup approval right after the House impeached him?

Hit a new high: polls showed most Americans did not support his impeachment by the House.