Hillary Clinton Birthday: Former First Lady, Senator, Presidential Candidate Turns 65

Hillary Clinton’s birthday this year sees the former First Lady, senator, presidential candidate, and secretary of state turn 65.

Born Hillary Diane Rodham on October 26, 1947 to Dorothy and Hugh Rodham, the groovy pants-wearing political activist graduated from Wellesley College and Yale Law School (where she met her future husband, Bill Clinton) in 1969. Clinton moved to Arkansas in 1974, and tied the knot with Bill in 1975.

She was First Lady of Arkansas for 12 years after her husband was elected governor there, and in 1992 shot to international fame as her husband was elected president. As US First Lady, Clinton was behind a drive to improve health care and became the most widely traveled First Lady in American history as she trotted the globe to trumpet women’s rights and human rights.

Yet the smart, sharp-minded Clinton has also had political ambitions of her own, and in 2000 began a historic run for the Senate, becoming the first ever US First Lady elected to the Senate, as well as the first female senator to represent New York.

She attempted to go one better in 2007, battling Barack Obama for the Democrat nomination in a bid to become the first female president of the United States. While Obama held on to clinch the nomination and subsequently the presidency, Clinton was made secretary of state in 2008, a position she still holds today.

In a career jammed with historic firsts, Clinton is also the first former First Lady to serve in a president’s cabinet. Whether you love or hate her policies, there’s no denying that Clinton has been the most prominent, enduring female figure in US politics over the last two decades; indeed, there have been plenty of whispers about her running for the White House again in 2016.

On Hillary Clinton’s birthday, here’s a look at the political powerhouse down the years: