Hillary Diane Rodham Clintonor simply Hillary Clinton became known worldwide when her husband Bill Clinton became President of the USA in 1993.  These days it’s not her husband but Hillary herself who’s capturing the world’s attention.  Hillary Clinton was born October 26, 1947, and was the eldest child of Hugh and Dorothy Rodham. She grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, where her father's textile business provided the family with a comfortable income; her parents' emphasis on hard work and academic excellence set high standards.  A student leader in schools, she later became associated with liberal causes.   Hillary campaigned for the Republicans because that was where her parents’ support was. However a year later, after she enrolled at Wellesley College, her political views began to change. Influenced by the assassinations of Malcolm X, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr., she joined the Democratic Party and volunteered in the presidential campaign of antiwar candidate Eugene McCarthy.

After her graduation from Wellesley in 1969, Hillary entered Yale Law School, where she developed a strong interest in family law and issues affecting children.  To date she is still a child rights advocate.  Hillary met Bill Clinton at Yale but they only got romantically involved when in 1974 she moved to Arkansas to teach Law.  They got married October 11, 1975, and had their daughter Chelsea in 1980.  Throughout her husband’s career as Governor and then President, Hillary worked on programs that aided children and the disadvantaged while also maintaining a successful law practice. She served on the boards of several high-profile corporations and was twice named one of the nation's 100 most influential lawyers by the National Law Journal. In Bill's 1992 presidential campaign, Hillary played a crucial role by greeting voters, giving speeches, and serving as one of her husband's chief advisers. With a professional career unequaled by any previous presidential candidate's wife, Hillary was heavily scrutinized. Some of Hillary's financial dealings raised suspicions of impropriety and led to major investigations after she became first lady.

Public revelations about President Clinton's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky brought the first lady into the spotlight in a complex way.  The world looked on as stood faithfully by her husband during the scandal and throughout his ensuing impeachment and trial in the Senate.  In 1999 Hillary Rodham Clinton made history of a different sort when she launched her candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat from New York and won. She became the first “first lady” to win elective office.

Hillary sought to create history once again in 2008.  Over the years she has shown that the ceremonial parts of the first lady's job could be merged with a strong role in public policy and that the clout of the first lady could be converted into a personal political power base.  With that base she has built up over the years, Hillary Clinton announced her intention to run in the 2008 Presidential Elections.  She garnered a lot of support and was down to the very last one of the strongest contenders for the White House.  Unfortunately she lost out to America’s first African-American President Barack Obama.  However she still has a great contribution to make and that is why she was chosen by President Obama to be the Secretary of State.  The world’s eyes continue to focus intently on Hillary Clinton, wife, mother, lawyer, child rights advocate, writer, senator and now Secretary of State.