President Bill Clinton – A Chronology
1993
January 20
William Jefferson Clinton is inaugurated as the
forty-second President of the United States.
January 25
President Clinton announces that First Lady Hillary
Rodham Clinton will head the Task Force on
National Health Care Reform. The President hopes
to reform the nation’s health care system so that all
Americans have health insurance, ensuring what is
called “universal coverage,” and to control the skyrocketing costs of health care.
February 5
President Clinton signs the Family Medical Leave
Act that requires companies to provide workers
with up to three months of unpaid leave for family
and medical emergencies.
February 26
Six people were killed and more than a thousand
suffered injuries after a bomb planted under the
World Trade Center in New York City exploded.
The bomb marked the beginning of a string of
threats against the United States made during the
Clinton administration by both foreign and domestic
terrorists.
March 3
President Clinton appointed Vice President Al Gore
to head the National Performance Review, which
devised a “Reinventing Government” Initiative.
The Initiative streamlined government by reducing
the number of federal employees and federal
spending as a percentage of GDP to levels unseen
since the Kennedy administration.
March 11
The Senate confirmed Janet Reno as Attorney
General, the first woman to serve in the position.
Reno was Clinton’s third choice for the position,
after his first two selections were scuttled after
criticism.
April 19
In Waco, Texas, federal law enforcement officers,
under the orders of Attorney General Janet Reno,
ended a 51-day standoff against a religious cult led
by self-styled messiah David Koresh. The fires that
destroyed the cult’s compound killed at least 75
people, and brought Reno widespread criticism for
her aggressive handling of the situation.
June 26
The U.S. Navy, under President Clinton’s orders,
attacked Iraqi intelligence operations in downtown
Baghdad after learning that the Iraqis had plotted to
kill former President Bush during his visit to
Kuwait in April, 1993. The twenty-three tomahawk
missiles reportedly killed 8 persons.
July 19
President Clinton announced an “honorable
compromise” in the debate surrounding gays in the
military. Gays would be allowed to serve, but could
face military investigations if they acknowledged
their homosexuality and could be expelled for it.
The policy was labeled “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
July 20
Vince Foster, Deputy Counsel to the President, was
found dead in a Northern Virginia park. Authorities
ruled his death a suicide, but subsequent federal
investigators would re-open the case in the future.
August 3
The Senate confirmed Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s
nomination to the Supreme Court. She succeeded
the retiring Byron White and became the second
woman to sit on the high court.
August 10
President Clinton signed the Omnibus Budget
Reconciliation Act. The legislation, which passed
both houses by slim majorities, laid out a plan to
reduce the budget deficit by $496 billion through
1998 using a combination of spending cuts and tax
increases.
September 13
President Clinton presided over a ceremony in
Washington, D.C. at which Israeli Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat
signed the Israeli-Palestinian Declaration of
Principles, the first agreement between Jews and
Palestinians, which provided for Palestinian selfgovernment in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
September 22
President Clinton unveiled a plan for universal
health care that would fix what he called a “badly
broken” system. Clinton emphasized that under his
plan all Americans would have high quality health
care and would be able to choose their physicians.
October 3-4
An elite American special forces unit searching for
Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid in
Somalia’s capital city of Mogadishu was ambushed
by Aidid’s forces, leaving 18 Americans dead.
President Bill Clinton announced three days later
that all American military personnel in Somalia
would be home by March 31, 1994. (For details on
this, see
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/am
bush/)
November 30
President Clinton signed the Brady Act, which
required a potential handgun purchaser to wait five
days while a background check was performed by
law enforcement officers.
December 8
President Clinton, after a hard-fought battle in
Congress, signed the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) that would eliminate nearly
every trade barrier between the United States,
Canada, and Mexico, creating the world’s largest
free trade zone.
1994
January 10-11
President Clinton attended the NATO Summit
Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, at which he
announced that the United States would maintain at
least 100,000 troops in Europe. He also introduced
the “Partnership for Peace” program that aimed to
build closer ties between NATO and former
Warsaw Pact states. (Dept. of State Chrono.)
February 3
President Clinton ended the nineteen year-old trade
embargo against Vietnam, noting that Vietnam was
indeed trying to locate 2,238 Americans listed as
missing in action since the Vietnam War.
March 25
The last American marines left Somalia.
May 26
President Clinton renewed China’s Most Favored
Nation trade status, even though, China had not
made as much progress on human rights issues as
he had hoped.
June 14
President Clinton unveiled his welfare reform
initiatives. Clinton had campaigned in 1992 on the
issue, promising to “end welfare as we know it.”
July 25
President Clinton met with Israeli Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin and King Hussein of Jordan. The
meeting resulted in Israel and Jordan agreeing in
principle to end nearly fifty years of official
antagonism.
August 26
The White House and congressional leaders,
including Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell
(D-ME), announced that Clinton’s ambitious form
of health care reform would not happen in 1994.
Clinton’s initiatives failed to find support in
Congress. (WP, 8/26/94)
September 13
President Clinton signed into law the Violent Crime
Control and Law Enforcement Act that included
provisions that provided for the hiring of 100,000
more policemen and the expansion of the death
penalty to cover more than 50 federal crimes.
September 18
Haiti’s military government, after a tense stand-off
with the Clinton Administration, agreed to cede
power. The Clinton Administration, along with the
United Nations, had tried for over a year to restore
the democratically elected president of Haiti, JeanBertrand Aristide, who had been overthrown in a
coup on September 30, 1991.
October 9
The Clinton Administration announced plans to
send over 35,000 troops to the Persian Gulf to deter
an Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Less than three days
after the announcement, Iraqi troops pulled back
from the Iraq-Kuwait border.
November 8
The Republican Party, in the midterm congressional
elections, won control of both houses of Congress
for the first time in over 40 years. In the Senate,
they held a 53 to 47 advantage, and in the House a
230 to 214 to 1 lead.
December 1
The Senate voted to approve the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) that 117
nations, including the United States, agreed to in
December, 1993. The agreement cut tariffs by over
a third on a wide-range of products and created a
freer international market for goods.
December 5
President Clinton, along with the presidents of
Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine signed
the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) in
Budapest, Hungary. The treaty eliminated more
than 9,000 warheads.
1995
January 23
President Clinton signed the Congressional
Accountability Act that required Congress to abide
by the same anti-discrimination workplace rules that
applied throughout the rest of the country.
January 31
President Clinton authorized the U.S. Treasury
Department to make an emergency loan of up to
$20 billion to Mexico to forestall a financial crisis
that threatened the interconnected Mexican and
American economies.
April 19
In an act of domestic terrorism, a bomb planted in a
truck parked in front of the Alfred P. Murrah
Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma,
exploded, killed 168 people and caused massive
structural damage.. In the days following the
tragedy, Clinton, in widely-praised efforts, spoke
with victims and to the country about how to
recover physically, emotionally, and spiritually
from the attack.
July 11
The United States extended full diplomatic
recognition of Vietnam, twenty-two years after the
U.S. withdrew military forces from that country.
August 30
NATO, with a strong contingent of American
forces, began two weeks of air attacks on Serbian
positions.
October 23
President Clinton and Russian President Yeltsin met
in Hyde Park, New York and continued to discuss
ways to improve relations between their two
nations, especially with regards to nuclear arms
reductions. (St. Dept. Chronology)
November - December
President Clinton and the Republican-controlled
Congress, led by Speaker of the House Newt
Gingrich (R-GA), engaged in a political death
struggle over how to balance the budget by 2002.
Because no agreement could be reached, certain
parts of the federal government were shut-down,
furloughing over a quarter of a million government
workers.
November 21
In Dayton, Ohio, the representatives of Bosnia,
Croatia, and Serbia agreed in principle to a peace
agreement, brokered by American Richard
Holbrooke, to end three years of war in Bosnia.
The agreement established a unitary Bosnian state
and allowed refugees to return home.
November 29 – December 2
During a tour of Europe, President Clinton urged
the continuation of peace efforts in Northern
Ireland.
1996
January 23
President Clinton, in the annual State of the Union
address, declared that “the era of big government is
over.” More important, he positioned himself as a
centrist, moderate Democrat for the upcoming
presidential election, and he hoped that these types
of pronouncements would blunt Republican charges
that he was too liberal.
April 9
President Clinton signed a bill that gave him the
power of the “line-item veto,” which had been
requested by Presidents Reagan and Bush. With
this new power, Clinton could veto specific items in
spending and tax bills, without vetoing the entire
measure.
April 10
President Clinton vetoed a bill that would have
outlawed a certain type of late-term abortions,
namely the partial birth abortion. Clinton emerged
during his presidency as a strong advocate of the
“right to choose,” often stating that he hoped
abortions in the United States would be “safe, legal,
and rare.”
April 29
Vice President Al Gore attended a Democratic
National Committee fund-raising event at a
Buddhist temple in Los Angeles. Gore and the
DNC raised over $60,000, but in doing so perhaps
questionably interpreted a number of campaign
finance laws. The Clinton administration came
under increasing criticism in its second term for
these alleged violations.
May 15
President Clinton announced that American troops
would likely remain in Bosnia as the major
component of an international peacekeeping force
for an additional eighteen months.
May 28
In the first trial to result from the Whitewater
investigation, Jim and Susan McDougal and
Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker, Clinton’s
friends and former business partners in the
Whitewater affair, were convicted of fraud.
August 21
President Clinton signed a health care reform bill
that he expected to expand coverage for many
Americans. The measure specifically allowed
workers who changed or lost their jobs to keep their
health insurance coverage.
August 22
President Clinton signed a welfare reform bill that
radically restructured the American welfare system.
The provisions of the new law limited recipients of
welfare benefits and enacted a “welfare to work”
initiative.
September 3
President Clinton ordered a cruise missile strike
against Iraq after Saddam Hussein led a siege
against the Kurdish city of Irbil in northern Iraq.
September 24
An overwhelming majority of United Nations
members, including the United States, agreed to a
treaty to ban all nuclear weapons testing.
November 5
President Clinton, with 49% of the vote, defeated
Senator Bob Dole (R-KS), with 41% of the vote, for
the presidency. Clinton became the first
Democratic president since Franklin Roosevelt to
win re-election to a second term.
December 5
President Clinton selected Madeline Albright,
American ambassador to the United Nations, to
serve as his secretary of state. After winning Senate
confirmation, Albright was sworn in on January 23,
1997, becoming the first women to hold the
position. (Dept. of State Chrono)
1997
March 11
The Senate voted 99-0 to approve an investigation
into the “improper” and “illegal” fund raising
tactics of both the White House and members of
Congress. Allegations by Republicans and some
Democrats of illegal fund raising by the Clinton
White House spurred the investigation.
March 21
President Clinton and President Yeltsin of Russia
met at Helsinki, Finland, and agreed to begin
negotiations on another nuclear arms reduction
treaty (START III) as soon as both nations had
ratified START II. The United States Senate had
ratified START II in January, 1996.
April 24
The Senate ratified the Chemical Weapons
Convention, which made the production,
acquisition, stockpiling or use of chemical weapons
illegal.
May 2
The Clinton administration and Republican
congressional leaders agreed in principle to a five
year budget plan that would eliminate the budget
deficit. The plan would be accomplished largely
because of the strong economy of recent years.
(NYT, 5/3/97)
May 27
In a decision that affected both the scope of
presidential power as well as the immediate future
of the Clinton presidency, the Supreme Court ruled
that Paula Jones could pursue her lawsuit against
President Clinton, even while he was in office.
August 5
President Clinton signed legislation that provided
for a balanced budget by 2002, ending years of
partisan wrangling between Clinton and Republican
leaders.
October 3
Attorney General Janet Reno, in a letter to
Congress, announced that the Justice Department’s
investigation into allegations that the Clinton
Administration violated campaign finance laws,
especially in their efforts to finance the 1996
presidential campaign, had uncovered no major
violations. (NYT, 10/4/97)
October 28-31
President Clinton welcomed President Jiang Zemin
of China for a state visit.
October 31
President Clinton ordered the United States
government to contribute $3 billion to an
international bail-out of Indonesia totaling over $22
billion. The Clinton Administration argued that the
bailout would help stabilize the shaky financial
situation in southeast Asia.
1998
January 20
News breaks that President Clinton may have had a
sexual relationship with a former White House
intern named Monica Lewinsky. Clinton,
adamantly denying the allegations, stated, “I did not
have sexual relations with that woman, Miss
Lewinsky.”
March 23-April 2
President Clinton went on a six country tour of
Africa, the first for an American president since
1978.
April 2
A judge dismissed Paula Jones’s sexual harassment
lawsuit against President Clinton.
April 10
Catholic and Protestant leaders in Northern Ireland
signed the “Good Friday Peace Accords,” a
substantial agreement in the Northern Ireland peace
process. President Clinton had worked very hard,
with several personal appeals to leaders on both
sides, to bring about the agreement.
August 7
Terrorists bombed American embassies in Kenya
and Tanzania, killing 224, including 20 Americans.
American intelligence believed that Osama bin
Laden, a Saudi exile and alleged terrorist leader,
was behind the attacks. On August 20, the United
States military, under orders from President Clinton,
launched strikes on “terrorist related facilities” in
Afghanistan, bin Laden’s country of residence, and
Sudan in response to the terror attacks. The attacks
on Sudan, however, came under particular scrutiny,
as a number of international observers and the
Sudanese government, contended that America’s
attacks destroyed a civilian pharmaceutical facility,
and not a chemical weapons plant, as the Clinton
administration reported.
September 11
The Office of the Independent Counsel released its
report on the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, commonly
known as the Starr Report. Two days before,
Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr had told the
House that he had uncovered information that may
be grounds for impeachment.
October 23
After nine days of negotiations in rural Maryland,
Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat signed the Wye River
Memorandum. President Clinton mediated the
negotiations, which resulted in an agreement
highlighted by a three stage withdrawal of Israeli
troops from the West Bank.
December 16
President Clinton ordered a three day bombing
attack against Iraq after Saddam Hussein refused to
cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors.
December 19
The House of Representatives voted to impeach
President Clinton on two charges, perjury and
obstruction of justice.
1999
January 20
President Clinton delivered his State of the Union
address to a joint session of Congress in remarkable
circumstances: the Senate had six days earlier
convened an impeachment trial against the
president. Despite the impeachment process, public
opinion polls showed Clinton with his highest
ratings.
February 12
The Senate acquitted President Clinton on both
articles of impeachment, by rejecting one article and
splitting evenly on the second.
March 24
In response to Serbian aggression in Kosovo and
Albania, and allegations of ethnic cleansing, the
United States led NATO attacks against Serbia. On
February 23, Serbian and Kosovar representatives
had agreed to a plan that would have granted more
autonomy to Kosovo over a three year period.
Serbia reneged on the agreement.
June 10
The NATO air campaign against Serbia ended after
Serb forces agreed on June 9 to withdraw from
Kosovo. KFOR, an international peacekeeping
force of 50,000 troops enforced the agreement.
October 13
The United States Senate voted down the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which would have
banned the United States from underground nuclear
testing.
November 15
The United States and China agreed to a trade treaty
that would reduce tariffs and other trade barriers.
The treaty would come into effect after China
joined the World Trade Organization and Congress
granted permanent normal trade relations between
the two countries.
2000
February 1
The Labor Department announced that the nation’s
business expansion had reached eight years and 11
months, marking the longest economic expansion in
American history.
March 8
President Clinton sent a bill to Congress asking for
permanent normal trade relations with China. After
House (May 24) and Senate (September 19)
approval, Clinton signed the bill on October 10.
June 3-5
President Clinton held his first summit meeting with
Russian President Vladimir Putin. They reaffirmed
their nations’ commitment to strategic arms
reductions, but disagreed about American plans to
research and perhaps develop a missile defense
system.
July 11-26
President Clinton hosted Israeli leader Ehud Barak
and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at Camp David
in the hope of reaching a peace agreement. After
two weeks of unsuccessful talks, the summit broke
up with no agreement.
August 14
President Clinton spoke at the opening day of the
Democratic National Convention. Vice President
Al Gore won the Democratic nomination for
president. His challenger was Republican Governor
George W. Bush of Texas.
September 20
Independent Counsel Robert Ray, announced that
his investigation had not uncovered enough
evidence to indict the Clintons for their Whitewater
dealings.
October 7
In Serbia, President Slobodan Milosovic, after
disputed elections that he tried to have rigged in his
favor produced massive protests in the streets,
announced that Vojislav Kostunica was the rightful
president of Serbia.
November 7
On election day, Vice President Gore and Governor
Bush ran so closely that no winner could be
declared. Only after the Supreme Court ruled on
December 13 that there would be no recount of
Florida’s contested votes did Gore concede the
election to Bush.
2001
January 20
Texas Governor George W. Bush inaugurated as the
43rd President of the United States.
Sources
1.
Carruth, Gorton. The Encyclopedia of American Facts and Dates. 10th ed. New
York: HarperCollins, 1997.
2.
“The Clinton Presidency: Eight Years of Peace, Progress and Prosperity.”
Available at http://clinton5.nara.gov/WH/Accomplishments/eightyears-02.html.
Last visited 24 April 2002.
Policy Issues Covered in The American President:
Health Care Reform
Welfare Reform
Budget Battles, 1995
Starr, Lewinsky, and Impeachment
Kosovo
Short bios:
Janet Reno, Attorney General
Richard Holbrooke
David Gergen
Vince Foster
Useful web links: