William J. Clinton (42) Event Timeline |
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11/03/1992 |
Election Day. William J. Clinton wins the 1992 Presidential Election with 43% of the popular vote and 69% of the electoral vote, defeating incumbent George H. W. Bush and Independent Candidate H. Ross Perot. |
1993 |
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01/01/1993 |
Czechoslovakia peacefully divides into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. |
01/20/1993 |
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01/21/1993 |
Henry G. Cisneros confirmed as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, first Hispanic to hold that position. |
01/22/1993 |
End of Zoë Baird nomination fiasco (“nannygate”). Clinton had announced the nomination of corporate attorney Zoë Baird as Attorney General on 12/24/1992. Baird revealed that she had not paid Social Security due for a nanny for two years. A growing controversy ensued. Clinton announced that Baird had written requesting withdrawal of her nomination on this date. |
01/22/1993 |
Issues a series of orders reversing Reagan directives on abortion and family planning: “Mexico City” Policy; “Title X Gag Rule;” Fetal Tissue in research; Abortions in Military Hospitals; Importation of RU-486. |
01/25/1993 |
Appoints First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton to lead healthcare reform task force. |
02/05/1993 |
Signs Family Medical Leave Act requiring employers to give their employees paid leave for medical reasons. |
02/26/1993 |
World Trade Center in New York City is bombed. Several die and many are injured. The event is mentioned in Clinton’s Radio Address of 02/07/1993. Eventually investigation shows that this was a terror attack intended to cause the collapse of the towers. |
03/03/1993 |
Announces the “National Performance Review,” under the direction of Vice President Gore, to seek greater efficiency and lower cost in government. |
03/12/1993 |
Janet Reno Sworn in as Attorney General, the first woman to serve as Attorney General. |
04/19/1993 |
Statement on Tragedy in Waco, TX. Standoff Between the Branch Davidians, a religious group, and federal agents in Waco, Texas ends with 82 dead. |
05/28/1993 |
Executive Order 12850 lists conditions for renewing “most favored nation” trade status with China. |
07/19/1993 |
Announces Don’t Ask Don't Tell Policy which will direct officials not to ask about recruits’ sexuality. |
07/19/1993 | Announces that he is dismissing FBI Director William Sessions on the recommendation of Attorney General Janet Reno. This is the first FBI Director to be dismissed from what is normally a 10-year appointment. |
07/20/1993 |
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08/10/1993 |
Signs Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, increasing the top income tax rate from 35% to 39% as well as reducing tax burden on the lower and middle class. Included a deficit-reduction plan. Passed without Republican votes. |
08/10/1993 |
Ruth Bader Ginsburg sworn in as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, first Jewish female justice. |
09/07/1993 |
Remarks on releasing the report of the National Performance Review. At least 21 subsequent Memorandums and Executive Orders refer to recommendations of the National Performance Review. |
09/13/1993 |
Remarks at the signing of “Declarations of Principles” between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization at the White House. The agreement included gradual self-rule for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. |
09/21/1993 |
Signs National Community Service Trust Act (“AmeriCorps”). |
09/22/1993 |
Presents Healthcare Plan, which attempted to balance the Democratic desire for universal healthcare with conservatives' fear of increased taxes. The plan was rejected by Congress. |
10/07/1993 |
Address to the Nation about fighting in Mogadishu, Somalia on October 3-4 in which 18 US soldiers died (“Black Hawk Down” incident). |
11/30/1993 |
Signs the Brady Act, mandating background checks for purchases of firearms. |
12/08/1993 |
Signs Act implementing NAFTA, the trade agreement between America, Canada, and Mexico. |
12/21/1993 |
Department of Defense issues Directive 1304.26 “Qualification Standards for Enlistment, Appointment and Induction,” Implementing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy announced in July 1993. |
1994 |
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01/10/1994 |
Remarks at NATO Summit in Brussels. Advocates a “Partnership for Peace” plan to integrate Eastern European states with NATO. |
01/14/1994 |
Signs Kremlin Accords, which stop both states from aiming nuclear missiles at one another. |
01/20/1994 |
Attorney General Reno appoints independent counsel to investigate Clinton family investment in the Whitewater Development Corporation. [Link to pdf of Reno press briefing.] |
01/25/1994 |
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02/03/1994 |
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03/24/1994 |
In Press Conference, announces return of troops from Somalis. |
05/06/1994 |
Paula Jones files suit alleging Clinton sexually harassed her in a Little Rock, AK, hotel room in 1991. In an Exchange with Reporters Clinton declined to comment beyond praising his lawyer. |
05/10/1994 |
Announces Assistance to South Africa in anticipation of the Inauguration of Nelson Mandela. |
05/10/1994 |
Nelson Mandela is inaugurated President of South Africa, ending apartheid regime |
05/26/1994 |
Renews “Most Favored Nation” Trade Status for China, saying that China has made favorable progress in many areas. |
06/24/1994 |
Message to Congress Transmitting Proposed Welfare Reform Legislation. A prominent campaign pledge had been to “end welfare as we know it.” |
07/25/1994 |
Remarks at ceremony marking signing of “Washington Declaration” ending state of war between Israel and Jordan. |
07/29/1994 |
US Troops are dispatched to Rwanda as part of a UN humanitarian aid mission. |
08/05/1994 |
U.S. Court of Appeals appoints Kenneth W. Starr as Independent Counsel in the Whitewater case replacing Robert B. Fiske. |
08/26/1994 |
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09/13/1994 |
Signs Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. the largest crime bill in the history of the country. Includes “3-strikes” provision and death penalty for killing a law enforcement officer. Also includes assault weapons ban. [Link to text of law.] |
09/15/1994 |
Address to the Nation on Haiti about US goal to restore democratic government and remove General Raoul Cedras from power. |
09/18/1994 |
Address to the Nation announcing that Haitian General has agreed to cede power. |
09/26/1994 |
Statement on the failure of health care reform because of Republican filibuster. |
09/27/1994 |
Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Wife Visit Washington D.C.. |
10/03/1994 |
Prince Hassan of Jordan and Shimon Peres of Israel meet in Washington D.C. |
10/20/1994 |
First White House website “Welcome to the White House” is announced by Vice President Al Gore. |
11/08/1994 |
Midterm Elections. Republicans gain control of the House and Senate for the first time in 40 years, known as the Republican Revolution. The GOP campaigned on a document called the “Contract with America.” |
12/01/1994 |
Senate passes General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which reduced trade barriers between multiple countries. |
12/05/1994 |
Remarks at Signing of Denuclearization Agreements. Putting the START I treaty into force. |
12/08/1994 |
Signs the “Uruguay Round Agreements Act.” The Uruguay Round Agreements included transforming the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) into the World Trade Organization (WTO). |
1995 |
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01/23/1995 |
Signs Congressional Accountability Act, which applies private workplace laws to federal government. |
01/24/1995 |
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01/31/1995 |
Authorizes Emergency Loan of $20 billion to Mexico, in order to stop the country from becoming insolvent. |
04/19/1995 |
Oklahoma City Bombing, a domestic terrorist attack on a federal building, kills at least 168 people. |
04/23/1995 |
Remarks at a Memorial Service for Oklahoma City Bombing Victims. Over the remainder of his term, Clinton will mention the bombing in remarks over 50 times. |
05/17/1996 |
Signs “Megan’s Law,” requiring states to inform the public about he residential location of registered sex offenders. |
07/11/1995 |
Recognizes Vietnam diplomatically, for the first time. |
09/23/1995 |
Refuses to deploy American troops on the ground to resolve conflict in Bosnia. |
10/03/1995 |
O.J. Simpson is found not guilty of the murder of his ex-wife. |
10/23/1995 |
Meeting with President Yeltsin of Russia to discuss reduction of nuclear materials and arms. |
10/28/1995 |
In Radio Address, describes “the great budget debate” under way. States his view that GOP are engaging in blackmail by linking budget priorities to raising the debt limit. This is a view that Clinton reiterates subsequently in many documents (e.g., the Statement of Administration Policy issued on 11/08/1995). |
11/04/1995 |
Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated in Tel Aviv by an Israeli opponent of the 1993 agreement with the Palestinians. |
11/08/1995 |
Calls for Further Reductions in Weapons of Mass Destruction. |
11/13/1995 |
Vetoes bill allowing temporary debt limit increase. |
11/14/1995 |
Remarks on the start of a government shutdown. This was a major gamble that the public would blame the GOP Congress more than the President. |
11/19/1995 |
Statement Announcing an Agreement to Reopen the Federal Government. Pledges to negotiate to plan a balanced budget consistent with certain key principles. |
11/27/1995 |
Address to the Nation on the Dayton Peace Accords to end the war in Bosnia, with negotiations facilitated by the Clinton Administration. |
12/14/1995 |
Balkan Peace Agreement is Signed in Paris, which ends the Balkan War and three and half years of war in Bosnia. |
12/16/1995 |
Failed Budget Negotiations between Clinton and the Republican Congress results in a second government shutdown. |
1996 |
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01/06/1996 |
Signs legislation funding the government through September 1996, Signs other legislation putting all Federal workers back on the job. Opinion polling showed that voters blamed Republican leaders more than Clinton. |
01/09/1996 |
Veto of “Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act” reforming welfare because it does too little to move people from welfare to work. |
01/23/1996 |
Annual State of the Union Address. “The era of big government is over.” |
02/08/1996 |
Signs Telecommunications Act promoting competition between telecommunications companies. |
02/22/1996 |
Reappoints Alan Greenspan as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. |
04/03/1996 |
FBI arrests Ted Kaczynski, a federal terrorist, known as the Unabomber, who mailed bombs to targets for 17 years. |
04/09/1996 |
Signs Line Item Veto Act, which allows the president to veto certain provisions of a bill five days after signing. |
04/10/1996 |
Vetoes Partial Birth Abortion Legislation, because the proposed law would threaten women’s’ safety. |
04/26/1996 |
Signs Omnibus Appropriations Bill, saying it meets his objectives and “is a bill we can all be proud of.” |
05/28/1996 |
Whitewater Fraud Trial, examining the Clinton’s dealings in their past real estate investment venture. Former Clinton business partners are convicted of fraud. |
07/05/1996 |
The first successfully cloned mammal from an adult cell is born. |
08/20/1996 |
Signs Small Business Job Protection Act that boosts the minimum wage in two steps from $4.25 to $5.15. |
08/21/1996 |
Signs Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which protects patient health information. |
08/22/1996 |
Signs Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (Welfare to Work Act), which created a block grant for welfare that was administered by the states. |
08/29/1996 |
Accepts Democratic nomination for Presidency. |
09/03/1996 |
Announces missile strike on Iraq in response to Iraqi attack on the Kurdish city of Irbil. |
09/24/1996 |
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11/05/1996 |
Election Day. Reelected with 70% of the electoral vote and 49% of the popular vote. Defeats Republican Robert Dole and Reform Candidate H. Ross Perot. |
12/17/1996 |
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1997 |
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01/20/1997 |
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01/23/1997 |
Madeleine K. Albright sworn in as first woman to serve as Secretary of State |
02/04/1997 |
State of the Union Address. |
03/21/1997 |
Russia and the United States Work to Reduce Nuclear Weapons and Ballistic Missiles. |
04/24/1997 |
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05/02/1997 |
Elimination of the Budget Deficit, creating the lowest deficit to GDP ratio of any of the G7 countries. |
05/27/1997 |
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06/13/1997 |
Statement on the Oklahoma City Bombing Trial. Timothy McVeigh is sentenced to death in the Oklahoma City Bombing case. |
08/05/1997 |
Signs the Balanced Budget Act, which proposes to balance the budget by 2002. |
10/03/1997 |
Attorney General Reno Finds No Campaign Violations in Clinton’s campaign. |
10/28/1997 |
President Jiang Zemin of China Visits Washington DC, the first visit in 12 years. |
11/10/1997 |
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12/11/1997 |
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12/23/1997 |
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1998 |
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01/16/1998 |
Kenneth Starr allowed to expand his investigation to include allegations of a Clinton sexual affair with a White House intern (Monica Lewinsky) |
01/26/1998 |
Clinton Publicly Denies Lewinsky Allegations. (“I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time—never.”) He had been deposed on 01/17/1998. |
03/23/1998 |
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04/10/1998 |
Good Friday Peace Accords, which ends the violence of the Troubles, or political conflict in Northern Ireland over remaining in the UK or becoming independent. The Clinton Administration representative Senator George Mitchell had chaired the talks. |
07/17/1998 |
Issues Memorandum directing that documents relating to addiction be publishes. |
08/07/1998 |
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08/17/1998 |
Testifies to grand jury in Lewinsky tape on closed circuit television. Admits to “inappropriate intimate contact.” In defending earlier statements uses memorable line, “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” |
08/20/1998 |
Orders missile strikes against targets in Afghanistan and Sudan in response to embassy bombings. |
09/11/1998 |
Full Report on Lewinsky incident is released to the public (had been provided to Congress on 09/09/1998). |
09/30/1998 |
Announces a budget surplus, the largest since the 1950s as a percentage of the economy. |
10/23/1998 |
Wye River (MD) Memorandum is signed, which aimed to achieve peace between Israel and Palestine by giving Palestine territory in the West Bank. |
10/28/1998 |
Signs Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which helped to clarify copyright laws for digital works. |
11/03/1998 |
Midterm Elections. Democrats gain five seats in the House. |
11/05/1998 |
Iraq fails to comply with United Nations Resolutions demanding that inspectors be allowed to enter the country. |
12/16/1998 |
Orders retaliatory air-strikes on Iraq. |
12/19/1998 |
House Votes to Impeach Clinton on four articles of impeachment for perjury and obstruction of justice. The largest vote in favor is 228-206 on Article 1 (perjury). |
1999 |
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01/07/1999 |
Senate impeachment trial begins. |
01/19/1999 |
State of the Union Address. Makes no mention of impeachment. |
02/12/1999 |
President Clinton is acquitted of impeachment charges by the U.S. Senate. “I want to say again to the American people how profoundly sorry I am for what I said and did to trigger these events. . . “ |
03/24/1999 |
Airstrikes on Serbian Targets in Yugoslavia, in order to stop ethnic cleansing of Albanians . |
04/20/1999 |
In Littleton CO, Columbine High School mass shooting results in the deaths of 12 students. In Remarks, Clinton calls for attention to the problem of violence. |
06/10/1999 |
Address to the nation on the end of the NATO campaign in Serbia. Agreement was reached between the International Security Force and the Governments of Yugoslavia and Serbia. |
10/13/1999 |
Senate fails to ratify treaty banning underground nuclear weapons testing . |
11/15/1999 |
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12/06/1999 |
Signs the Healthcare Research and Quality Act which funds research on rare childhood diseases. |
12/09/1999 |
Memorandum on Narrowing the Digital Divide, which gives more Americans access to information technology. |
12/12/1999 |
Signs the Deceptive Mail Prevention and Enforcement Act, in order to protect elderly from mail fraud. |
12/14/1999 |
Panama Canal is Officially Transferred to Republic of Panama. |
12/31/1999 |
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2000 |
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01/04/2000 |
Renominates Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan for another term at the Federal Reserve. |
01/27/2000 |
State of the Union Address. “My fellow Americans, we have crossed the bridge we built to the 21st century. Now, we must shape a 21st century American revolution of opportunity, responsibility, and community.” |
05/01/2000 |
Announces that high-quality Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) previously available only for military uses, would be available to the public. |
06/03/2000 |
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06/28/2000 |
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07/11/2000 |
Israeli/Palestinian Peace Talks at Camp David end without agreement. |
08/17/2000 |
Al Gore accepts nomination for President of Democratic National Convention. |
09/20/2000 |
Independent Counsel concludes investigation of Whitewater affairs without any indictment. |
09/20/2000 |
United Nation Refugee Workers are Killed in Indonesia and Guinea . |
09/26/2000 |
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10/05/2000 |
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10/05/2000 |
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10/10/2000 |
Signs bill establishing permanent normal trade relations with China. |
10/12/2000 |
Terrorist attack on USS Cole (a guided-missile destroyer) in the port of Aden, Yemen kills 17 sailors. |
10/16/2000 |
Issues Statement on Administration’s Efforts to Bridge the Digital Divide . |
10/28/2000 |
Signs Act dealing with human trafficking and violence against women. |
11/07/2000 |
Election Day. No winner is declared after vote count is inconclusive in Florida. (APP documents related to the ensuing controversy are available here). Hillary Clinton is elected Senator in New York state. |
11/09/2000 |
Remarks at dinner commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the White House. “. . . the White House has never belonged to any one of us. It will always belong to all of us.” |
11/17/2000 |
Remarks at a State Dinner on first state visit by a US President to Vietnam |
12/13/2000 |
Vice President Gore concedes the presidential race to George W. Bush following a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling that makes it impossible to recount contested Florida votes. |
2001 |
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01/20/2001 |
Grants pardons to 140 people including Marc Rich, a commodities trader who had fled to Switzerland to avoid prosecution for a variety of offenses. After the pardon it became known that Mr. Rich’s former wife had made large donations to the Democratic Party and the Clinton library. |
Updated 07/22/2023
William J. Clinton, William J. Clinton Event Timeline Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/347736