If you have been following world events this past week, then you must have heard of Hillary Clinton and how she became the first woman in U.S. history to be elected as the presidential nominee of a major political party. It’s this feat of being the first woman to achieve such that has got people on a roll.
Is there more to be known about her, and the life journey that has brought her to this point in history? Below is a summary of her biography.
1. She was born Hillary Diane Rodham on October 26, 1947, in Chicago to Hugh E. Rodham, who owned a drapery making business, and Dorothy Howell Rodham, a full-time homemaker. She is the eldest of three children, with younger brothers Hugh Jr. and Anthony.
2. As a 12 year old, she wrote to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, asking how she could become an astronaut. She received a reply saying that NASA didn’t accept women in the astronaut program (at that time). Her mother tried to comfort her by saying that her eyesight was much too bad anyway.
3. She attended Eugene Field Elementary School, Park Ridge, Illinois, from 1953 to 1957; Ralph Waldo Emerson Middle School, Park Ridge, Illinois, from 1957 to 1961; and Maine Township High School, Park Ridge, from 1961 to 1965, where she was a National Honor Society member.
4. In 1965, she began attending Wellesley College, Massachusetts, where she became the senior class president and graduated from in 1969, gave the commencement address of her graduating class – the first student to do so in the history of the school. From there, she proceeded to the Yale Law School, where she met Bill Clinton and earned a J.D (Juris Doctor) in 1973, graduating with honours.
5. She went on to enroll at Yale Child Study Centre, where she took courses on children and medicine for her post-graduate studies. She took on cases of child abuse, providing free legal service to the poor, and also serving as staff lawyer for the Children’s Defense Fund. Her work with the Children’s Defense Fund made it possible for children with disability to have access to education.
6. In 1974, she went to Washington, D.C., as one of only three women out of 43 lawyers to work on the inquiry into the possible impeachment of President Richard Nixon. And on October 11, 1975, married Bill Clinton.
7. In 1977, she co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, and was appointed the first female chair of the Legal Services Corporation. In 1978, she became the first woman partner at Rose Law Firm, a position she continued to hold even as the First Lady of Arkansas, becoming Arkansas’s first professional first lady.
8. On February 27, 1980, she gave birth to she and Bill’s only child, a daughter, Chelsea Victoria Clinton.
9. She was the First Lady of Arkansas during Bill Clinton’s governorship from 1979 to 1981 and later from 1983 to 1992. She would later become the First Lady of the United States during the presidency of Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001. Upon the expiration of Bill Clinton’s term in office, she contested, won, and became a Junior Senator representing New York in the US Senate from 2001 to 2009, making her the only first lady to have ever sought elective office. From 2009 to 2013, she served as the 67th United States Secretary of State under President Barack Obama.
10. On July 28, 2016 in Philadelphia, she accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination to contest against Donald Trump of the Republican Party for the United States Presidency. This she achieved after coming out victorious against Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Party’s primary elections.
11. If she wins the 58th U.S. presidential election to be held on November 8 2016; she will be the first woman to become President of the United States of America and the country’s 45th President when she’s sworn into office on the noon of January 20, 2017.
And there you have a brief summary of this great woman’s life journey. Hope it inspires you as it has several millions already!
