Hillary Rodham Clinton

Former President Bill Clinton, center, and daughter Chelsea Clinton, right, look on during a ceremonial swearing-in for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Monday, Feb. 2, 2009, at the State Department in Washington. Among enthusiastic cheers, the former U.S. Senator and presidential candidate was sworn in as the 67th Secretary of State. Vice President Joe Biden administered the oath at the State Department.

End Of The Trail

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., pauses as she is applauded at the National Building Museum in Washington, Saturday, June 7, 2008, where she suspended her pioneering campaign for the presidency and summoned supporters to use "our energy, our passion, our strength" to put Barack Obama in the White House. "I endorse him and throw my full support behind him," said the former first lady at the end of a bruising campaign.

Firsts

Hillary Rodham Clinton has been in the public eye for some 40 years, her face one of the best-known in the world. She has been both admired and reviled with great intensity. She is a first lady full of other firsts - the first student to speak at her college commencement; the first first lady to become a United States Senator; the first woman to be treated seriously as a candidate for president of the United States.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, 60, was born on Oct. 26, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois. She is best-known for whom she married, but she had her own promising career before Bill Clinton's ascent in politics, and has had a prominent one after his retirement from it. Here she speaks at her 60th birthday celebration at the Beacon Theater in New York, with former President Bill Clinton, and their daughter Chelsea, listening.

Presidential Aspirant At Age 18

Hillary Rodham first ran for president in 1965 -- the president of student government at Park Ridge East High School, in the Chicago suburb where she was raised. She lost. She has since said that one of her opponents told her she was stupid to think that a girl could be elected president. Here she is with classmates in a 1964 yearbook photo, when she was a junior -- and junior class vice-president.

Conservative Beginnings

Clinton's father, Hugh Rodham, who had a textile business, was "a staunch conservative," her mother, homemaker Dorothy Rodham, "more liberal." Clinton started out as a supporter of Barry Goldwater, but became a Democrat in college. Here her parents fuss over her in a New York hotel room during the Democratic National Convention, in July, 1992.

College Celebrity

Clinton recently returned to her alma mater, Wellesley College. "In so many ways, this all-women's college prepared me to compete in the all-boys club of presidential politics," she told the students. In 1969, president of the student government, she delivered a commencement address - "We're searching for more immediate, ecstatic and penetrating mode of living" -- that led to her first TV, newspaper and magazine coverage.

Lawyer, Congressional Aide, Wife...

Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary enter the White House Feb. 27, 1979 to attend a dinner honoring the nation's governors. She had met Bill Clinton while both were students at Yale Law School, and married him in 1975. Before that, she had researched the problems of migrant workers for a Senatorial committee and served on the staff on the House committee investigating the Watergate scandal.

.. Mother, Children's Advocate

Clinton gave birth to Chelsea on February 27, 1980, while First Lady of Arkansas. Her primary focus had been on children's issues. She did research at the Yale Child Study Center, and worked as first staff attorney for the Children's Defense Fund. The title of first book, in 1995, was based on the African proverb "It takes a village to raise a child".

Arkansas's First Lady

The Clintons celebrated the inauguration of Bill Clinton as Arkansas governor in 1991, his fifth and final term. In the 12 years she was Arkansas First Lady, she worked to improve the state's education and health care systems, and served on several national non-profit boards, including Legal Services Corporation, which funds lawyers for the poor. She was also a full partner (the first woman) at the Rose Law Firm.

Campaigning For The White House

Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign generated criticism of his wife. She defended him against claims of adultery by seeming to disparage country singer Tammy Wynette. She answered charges of a possible conflict of interest between her career and his by saying "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas". Other accusations, most ominously "Whitewater," followed her into the White House.

Traditional First Lady, Plus...

For eight years, Clinton served many of the same functions of First Lady as had her predecessors (such as Barbara Bush, upper left), attending state dinners and funerals, meeting luminaries such as Princess Diana, the Pope, and Big Bird, going on trips abroad (she visited a record-breaking 80 countries), overseeing White House decorations, and in many ways acting as her husband's cheerleader and ambassador.

Co-President?

The Clintons listened to a man who explained why he is afraid of losing health insurance for his family. Bill Clinton had campaigned promising "two for the price of one," and he appointed his wife to head a commission to overhaul the American health care system. It failed. (In 2007, the candidate is trying again.) She also worked on issues involving women's rights, children, and veterans.

Whitewater

On January 26, 1996, Hillary Clinton leaves federal court after four hours, the first First Lady ever to testify before a grand jury; she was ordered to explain her role in the Whitewater land deal. Allegations over Whitewater led to the appointment of a special prosecutor, who broadened the investigation, thus leading eventually to the impeachment of the president.

Scandal

On August 17, 1998, President Clinton admitted to a grand jury that he had had an improper relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, and gave a televised address that evening. The next day, the Clintons departed the White House for a vacation. He was eventually impeached by the House, charged with perjury and obstruction of justice.

Impeachment

At the end of the second day of the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton on January 15, 1999, the strain, shame and humiliation are evident his face and that of First Lady Hillary Clinton as they listen to speeches at a Democratic National Committee dinner. He was acquitted.

Running For The Senate

While still First Lady, Clinton ran for the United States Senate from New York, a state in which she had never lived, encouraged by Senator Charles Schumer (right). She used the occasion of her 52nd birthday in 1999 to hold a fundraiser with such luminaries as Lauren Bacall, and embark on what she called a listening tour of the state. Rudy Giuliani was going to be her opponent but dropped out. Clinton won.

Living History

Clinton was paid $8 million for "Living History," about her eight years in the White House. "While Bill talked about social change, I embodied it," she wrote. "I had my own opinions, interests and profession...I represented a fundamental change in the way women functioned in our society...I was called a 'Rorschach test' for the American public...an apt way of conveying the varied and extreme reactions that I provoked."

Iraq War Opponent

In 2003, Clinton toured Baghdad, one of three trips she has taken to Iraq. The senator, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, voted to give President Bush the right to use military force in Iraq, but has since said she would have voted differently "if we knew then what we know now." As president, she would "end our military engagement in Iraq's civil war and immediately start bringing our troops home."

Clinton officially declared her candidacy for president of the United States on Saturday, Jan. 20, 2007, a few months after easily winning re-election to the Senate. "I'm in. And I'm in to win," the former first lady said in a video on her Web site. Here she is campaigning in Iowa the day before the Fourth of July