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Saturday 10 May 2014

Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III in Hope, Arkansas on August 19, 1946.

His biological father, William Jefferson Blythe, died in a car accident, three months before Clinton was born.

His mother, Virginia Clinton Kelley was a nurse anesthetist, who remarried when William was four to car salesman Roger Clinton.

William took the last name Clinton in high school.

At the age of 14, Clinton stood taller than 6' 0",

Bill Clinton was just 16 years old when he shook hands with President John F. Kennedy in 1963 at a Boys Nation event., just four months before Kennedy’s death.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech so impressed a teenage Clinton that he memorized the entire speech right after it was given.

Clinton excelled as a saxophone player in high school, even earning first chair in an Arkansas state band of students.

Clinton considered becoming a Jazz musician early in his career. In his autobiography, he pondered a life dedicated to the tenor sax, but set those hopes aside, admitting, "I knew I would never be John Coltrane or Stan Getz."

A day after clinching the Democratic presidential nomination, Bill Clinton donned shades and played the saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show. He played "Heartbreak Hotel" and "God Bless the Child."

Bill Clinton collects saxophones, both miniature and life-size.

Hillary Clinton had a special music room built so Bill Clinton could rock out. According to An Invitation To The White House the room, which was decorated with music memorabilia was a "Christmas surprise" for her husband.

Clinton with his saxophone at the White House in 1996

Clinton is the only president who was a Rhodes Scholar, Oxford.

After messing up a question about chickens and free trade during his interview to study at Oxford, Clinton swotted up on the subject. As a result, he knows a surprising amount about the birds. "When I was governor and President, people were amazed at how much I knew about how chickens are raised, processed, and marketed at home and abroad," he said

He did not fight in the Vietnam War as he was in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps for a short time.

Clinton moved to Dallas in 1972 to work on George McGovern’s presidential campaign. Another familiar name who worked with Clinton on the McGovern campaign was one Steven Spielberg.

Bill Clinton married Hillary Rodham of Chicago in Fayetteville, Arkansa on October 11, 1975. They met while attending Yale Law School.

Bill and Hillary Clinton named their daughter Chelsea after Joni Mitchell's "Chelsea Morning."

Clinton was known as the “Boy Governor” when he won election as governor of Arkansas in 1978 at the age of just 32. He lost his next election in 1980, but then he won three consecutive elections.

Clinton, as the newly elected Governor of Arkansas, meeting with President Jimmy Carter in 1978

At the 1988 Democratic Convention, whilst Arkansas governor, Bill Clinton gave the introduction for Michael Dukakis. Throughout the 48 minute speech people were screaming for Dukakis, and wanted him off the stage. Eventually,  he said, "In closing..." The entire audience stood up and went crazy.

Bill Clinton was the American president from 1993-2001.

Clinton used Fleetwood Mac's “Don't Stop” as his theme song when he successfully ran for US president in 1992. He was the first baby boomer president, and knew Fleetwood Mac would appeal to a lot of voters.

Clinton acknowledged on March 29, 1992 experimenting with marijuana "a time or two" while attending Oxford University, adding, "I didn't inhale and I didn't try it again."


Bill Clinton was the first sitting U.S. president to be sued. Paula Jones sued him after claiming he sexually harassed her in 1991.

The Clintons used coffee klatches and overnight stays in the Lincoln bedroom as to raise funds for the decorating of the White House during their stay in the Executive Mansion.

During his time at the White House he had as pets Socks, a cat, and Buddy, a Labrador retriever. Socks was a stray who jumped into Chelsea's arms one day in 1991.

When President Clinton left the White House, the first cat, Socks, was left behind, moving into a new home in suburban Virginia with Clinton's secretary Betty Currie. Conflicts with the first dog, Buddy, were to blame.

Clinton is reportedly allergic to cat dander.

As president Bill Clinton was well known for his fondness for junk food but he also had a weakness for spicy Indian dishes. The White House kitchen cooked some for him and his wife Hilary at least once a week.

Frequently when they get the opportunity to eat out, the Clintons would go to a local Washington Indian restaurant for a chicken tandoori.

In 1996, President Clinton became the first Democrat to be elected to a second term since Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1936.

Although a Southern Baptist his declaration of June as "Gay and Lesbian Pride Month" and his pro-abortion stance has angered many in the Southern Baptist Convention.

President Clinton's infamous sexual encounters with the young White House intern Monica Lewinsky led to him being accused of wrongdoing by the U.S. House of Representatives in December 1998. Although he lied that they did not engage in sexual activity, he was found to have done nothing wrong by the U.S. Senate in February 1999.

Clinton was the second president to be impeached; the first was Andrew Johnson in 1868.

In 2001 President Clinton acknowledged for the first time making false statements under oath about Monica Lewinsky. He was  fined $25,000 and agreed to have his Arkansas law license suspended for five years. In exchange, he didn't face criminal charges after leaving the White House.

Surgeons at Bethesda Naval Medical Center repaired a torn tendon in President Clinton's right knee, caused by a freak stumble at the Florida home of golfer Greg Norman.

Bill Clinton underwent emergency quadruple heart bypass surgery in September 2004 after experiencing an episode of angina. The former President had not suffered a coronary infarction, but some of his arteries were more than 90% clogged up.

In 2004 Bill Clinton was a Grammy Award winner for "Best Spoken Word Album." He was joint narrator of Wolf Tracks and Peter and the Wolf, a conceptual album that combined the orchestral composition Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev with a 2002 composition, Wolf Tracks. He was the first former U.S. president to win the accolade.

In March 2005 Clinton underwent corrective surgery for a partially collapsed lung.

Bill Clinton is an avid coin-collector.

Bill Clinton’s favorite movie is High Noon. He says “I bet I've seen it 25 or 30 times.”

Sources Yahoo! IMDB, Food for Thought by Ed Pearce

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