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- William Jennings Bryan is an American orator and politician from Nebraska. Beginning in 1896, he emerged as a dominant force in the Democratic Party, running three times as the party's nominee for President of the United States in the 1896, 1900, and 1908 elections. He served in the United States House of Representatives and as the United States Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson.
Born and raised in Illinois, WilliamBryan moved to Nebraska in the 1880s. He won election to the House of Representatives in the 1890 elections, serving two terms before making an unsuccessful run for the Senate in 1894. The Democratic convention nominated Bryan for president, making Bryan the youngest major party presidential nominee in U.S. history. Subsequently, Bryan was also nominated for president by the left-wing Populist Party, and many Populists would eventually follow Bryan into the Democratic Party. In the intensely fought 1896 presidential election, Republican nominee William McKinley emerged triumphant. Bryan gained fame as an orator, as he invented the national stumping tour when he reached an audience of 5 million people in 27 states in 1896.
Bryan retained control of the Democratic Party and won the presidential nomination again in 1900. In the election, McKinley again defeated Bryan, winning several Western states that Bryan had won in 1896. Bryan's influence in the party weakened after the 1900 election and the Democrats nominated the conservative Alton B. Parker in the 1904 presidential election. Bryan regained his stature in the party after Parker's resounding defeat by Theodore Roosevelt and voters from both parties increasingly embraced the progressive reforms that had long been championed by Bryan. Bryan won his party's nomination in the 1908 presidential election, but he was defeated by William Howard Taft. Along with Henry Clay, Bryan is one of the two individuals who never won a presidential election despite receiving electoral votes in three separate presidential elections.
After the Democrats won the presidency in the 1912 election, Woodrow Wilson rewarded Bryan's support with the important cabinet position of Secretary of State. Bryan helped Wilson pass several progressive reforms through Congress. Bryan resigned from his post in 1915. - Stephen Grover Cleveland was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American history to serve two non-consecutive terms in office. He won the popular vote for three presidential elections-in 1884, 1888, and 1892-and was one of two Democrats (followed by Woodrow Wilson in 1912) to be elected president during the era of Republican presidential domination dating from 1861 to 1933.
- William McKinley (January 29, 1843 - September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. He was president during the Spanish-American War of 1898, raised protective tariffs to boost American industry, and rejected the expansionary monetary policy of free silver, keeping the nation on the gold standard.
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Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 - January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or his initials T. R., was an American politician, statesman, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909. He previously served as the 25th vice president under William McKinley from March to September 1901, and as the 33rd governor of New York from 1899 to 1900. Having assumed the presidency after McKinley's assassination, Roosevelt emerged as a leader of the Republican Party and became a driving force for anti-trust and Progressive policies.- William Howard Taft was the 27th president of the United States (1909-1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921-1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected president in 1908, the chosen successor of Theodore Roosevelt, but was defeated for reelection in 1912 by Woodrow Wilson after Roosevelt split the Republican vote by running as a third-party candidate. In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed Taft to be chief justice, a position he held until a month before his death.
- Thomas Woodrow Wilson was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of Princeton University and as the governor of New Jersey before winning the 1912 presidential election. As president, Wilson changed the nation's economic policies and led the United States into World War I in 1917. He was the leading architect of the League of Nations, and his progressive stance on foreign policy came to be known as Wilsonianism.
- Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. After his death, a number of scandals were exposed, including Teapot Dome, as well as an extramarital affair with Nan Britton, which diminished his reputation.
- Though three U.S. Presidents have died on the Fourth of July, John Calvin Coolidge was the first and only one to have been born on that date, in 1874. He is also the only President to have had the oath of office administered by his father, a justice of the peace, who swore him in when the Coolidges received word of President Warren G. Harding's death. Coolidge's reputation is that of an unfeeling and lazy man, unaware of what was going on in the country and who dawdled while the United States drifted toward the Great Depression. Yet history doesn't really support this caricature of a man who actually was a highly intelligent and complex individual.
Though self-contained and terse, Coolidge was an extremely intelligent man and a fine scholar (his wedding gift to his wife, Grace Goodhue, was his own translation of Dante Alighieri's "Inferno". A week after the wedding, Coolidge, ever the practical New Englander, also presented his wife with 52 pairs of his socks that needed mending). Some have argued that Coolidge was the best-prepared candidate ever to become President, having worked his way through a succession of elective political offices until he wound up as the Vice President under Harding, attaining the presidency when Harding died in office in August of 1923. Coolidge was a laissez-faire proponent, believing, like Jefferson, that the government governs best which governs least. In July of 1924 his son, Calvin Jr., died of blood poisoning. The younger Coolidge, like his mother, was an outgoing and gregarious boy, and his death affected his father deeply. Although some historians have characterized Coolidge's behavior in office as marked by laziness or indolence, it seems now that it was almost certainly a deep depression brought about by the death of his son. Coolidge chose not to run in 1928. Privately, his wife remarked to a friend that "Daddy thinks there is going to be a Depression." On January 5, 1933, he died of heart failure at his home in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Though Coolidge was dismissed for years as a presidential lightweight, his reputation has grown in recent years. President Ronald Reagan retrieved Coolidge's portrait from storage and displayed it in the White House during his tenure in office, and a recent biography has provided a much more favorable view of Coolidge and his presidency than had previously been available. - Additional Crew
Herbert Hoover was born on August 10, 1874 in West Branch, Iowa. His family were devout Quakers. At age eight, Hoover was orphaned and was sent to live with relatives. They showed him little affection, but taught him the importance of hard work and industry. In 1891, Hoover entered Stanford University's School of Engineering, graduating in 1895. Four years later, he married his wife, Lou Henry and they had two sons, Herbert Jr. and Allan. From an early age, Hoover showed a prodigious talent for engineering and was hired by the engineering firm Bewick and Moering, working in Australia and then in China. He was in China when the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 broke out and he coordinated the barricades of Americans trapped in China. At age forty, his engineering career was so successful that he was a millionaire. 1914 saw the outbreak of World War I in Europe. That was when he left his engineering career and entered public service. He organized a relief effort to feed starving Belgians, known as the Commission for the Relief of Belgium. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked Hoover to organize the Food Administration, which encouraged Americans to cut down on food consumption to help the war effort. After the end of World War I in 1918, Hoover organized a massive relief effort to feed starving peoples in Europe, whose countries had been devastated by the war. From 1921 to 1929, Herbert Hoover served as Secretary of Commerce, under Presidents Harding and Coolidge, expanding the department and making it more active in working with business and labor. In 1928, he was the Republican candidate for President and easily defeated his opponent, the Democratic Candidate, Alfred E. Smith. Herbert Hoover was sworn in as President on March 4, 1929. Seven months after he entered office, the Stock Market crashed, ending the "Roaring Twenties" and the economic boom of that decade and ushered in the Great Depression. At first, Hoover was proactive in handling this economic crisis, having meetings with business leaders on how to weather the economic downturn, cutting taxes and increasing money for corporations and state governments. But none of this was effective in the teeth of the worst economic crisis in American history. He tried to calm the situation with statements like "Prosperity is just around the corner," but they were not effective. His dour demeanor and seemingly callous attitudes towards the millions of unemployed were what people saw in him, particularly when he refused to provide direct relief to the unemployed. Things came to a head in the summer of 1932 when the Bonus Expeditionary Force (BEF), an army of World War I veterans, marched to Washington demanding immediate payment of a bonus promised to them in 1945. But the veterans wanted their money now. They camped out along the Anacostia River and lobbied for their bonus. The House of Representatives approved immediate payment, but the Senate voted no. Hoover obtained $100,000 from Congress to buy the veterans train tickets home. Many veterans accepted the offer, but many stayed in Washington. At that point, the US army led by Gen. Douglas McArthur forcibly evicted the veterans from Washington, setting their camps on fire and forcing them out at gunpoint. In so doing, McArthur disobeyed Presidential orders, but Hoover took full responsibility for the eviction of the Bonus Marchers. In the 1932 election, Herbert Hoover was defeated in a landslide by Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt. After he left office in 1933, Hoover returned to California and was an unstinting critic of FDR. After the death of his wife in 1944, Hoover moved to New York City where he lived his last twenty years at the Waldorf Towers, remaining active in Republican Party politics. In 1946, President Harry Truman asked him to undertake yet another relief effort for the people of Europe; he and Truman became surprisingly good friends. In 1953, Hoover chaired a commission to increase efficiency in the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. He died on October 20, 1964 at age ninety.- Soundtrack
Huey Long was born on 30 August 1893 in Winnfield, Louisiana, USA. He was married to Rose McConnell. He died on 10 September 1935 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.- Writer
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, New York, to James and Sara Roosevelt. His father was 54 at the time of FDR's birth and already had a grown son, nicknamed "Rosy". Sarah was only 27 when FDR was born. Growing up, FDR had a happy but sheltered childhood. His family was very wealthy and FDR had a very privileged upbringing, with trips to Europe and private tutors. Sara Roosevelt was a loving but domineering and overprotective mother. FDR was a devoted son, but found clever and subtle ways to get around his mother's domination. At 14 he was sent to Groton, an exclusive prep school led by the Rev. Endicott Peabody. FDR did not enjoy his time at Groton, often being teased by the other kids for having a formal and stuffy manner. Since he had a nephew who was older than him, kids at Groton called him "Uncle Frank". He graduated from Groton in 1900 and went to Harvard, where he edited the "Crimson" but failed to be accepted into the Porcellian Social Club. He graduated Harvard in 1903. Soon after that he fell madly in love with his sixth cousin, Eleanor Roosevelt. They married in 1905, with President Theodore Roosevelt giving the bride away. However, from the start Franklin and Eleanor's marriage was not a happy one. She was quiet and shy, whereas he was boisterous and outgoing. The fact that his mother moved into the house next door to theirs, and ran things, did not help. Franklin and Eleanor had six children (one child died in infancy). In 1910 Franklin was elected to the New York State Legislature from Duchess County. There he made a name for himself as a crusading reformer who favored the "average guy" over big business and championed for honest government. In 1913 he was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy and served under Josephus Daniels and President Woodrow Wilson. In 1918 he began a love affair with his wife's social secretary, Lucy Mercer. When Eleanor discovered the affair, she was understandably devastated and told Franklin she wanted a divorce. At the urging of his mother, Frankilin chose to save the marriage and promised Eleanor that he would never have anything more to do with Lucy. The damage was done, however, and Franklin and Eleanor never again shared the intimacies of marriage, becoming more like political partners. In 1921 FDR was stricken with polio and paralyzed. He permanently lost the use of his legs, but refused to let that thwart his political ambitions. He spoke at the 1924 Democratic Convention for the candidacy of Alfred E. Smith, then the Governor of New York, calling him the "Happy Warrior". In 1928 FDR was elected Governor of New York and was well placed when the stock market crashed in 1929. As governor he took the lead in providing relief and public works projects for the millions of unemployed in the state. His success as New York's governor made him a strong candidate for the Presidency in 1932. He easily beat incumbent President Herbert Hoover.
When Franklin Roosevelt was sworn in as President on March 4, 1933, more than 15 million Americans were unemployed. Millions more had been hard hit by the Depression and the banking system had collapsed. FDR wasted no time in launching a radical economic recovery program, known as the New Deal. He created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which made the federal government the guarantor of people's bank deposits - not the banks themselves - and allowed drought-stricken farmers to refinance their mortgages, He created public works programs including the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)--thus making the government the employer of last resort--as well as setting up the Social Security system, instituting a minimum wage, outlawing child labor--a widespread practice at the time, especially in mines, factories and textile mills--and mandating a 40-hour work week with overtime pay. In responding to the Depression, FDR forever changed the role of the federal government in American life. He was easily reelected in 1936, defeating Republican Alf Landon in a landslide. His second term as president was less successful than his first, however. The Supreme Court had ruled a number of New Deal measures unconstitutional. With an electoral mandate in the bank, FDR proposed "packing" the Supreme Court with justices of his political persuasion for every judge over the age of 70 that did not retire. However, Congress refused to pass the Supreme Court packing plan, and from that point on FDR was unable to get Congress to pass much of his legislation. Also, fascism was rising rapidly throughout Europe and Asia. Germany's Adolf Hitler and Italy's Benito Mussolini had both seized power and began to conquer other countries, such as Ethiopia, Austria and Czechoslavakia. FDR was unable to respond to the threats from Europe and Asia, however, because sentiment in the US was strongly isolationist and Congress had passed a series of neutrality laws that gave the President very little power to respond to international aggression. World War II began in September 1939 when Hitler invaded Poland. Nine months later all of Western Europe had fallen to Hitler. The UK and its Commonwealth and Empire was standing alone. FDR wanted to help Britain, but had to move carefully and skillfully. He negotiated a deal in which the US gave Britain 50 old destroyers in exchange for bases in the Western Hemisphere. With World War II underway, FDR took the unprecedented move of seeking a third term as president. He won that term in November 1940, defeating Republican Wendell Willkie. Safely re-elected, he proposed a radical new program for helping Britain, known as Lend-Lease, in which Britain could buy armaments and other supplies from the US but not have to pay for them until after the war. FDR used the analogy of borrowing a neighbor's hose to put out a house fire to sell Lend-Lease. It passed and America became the "arsenal of democracy" as it began to build armaments for Britain and then the Soviet Union, when Hitler invaded it in mid-1941. Roosevelt met Britain's Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, for the first time in August 1941 where they drew up the Atlantic Charter. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, destroying much of America's Pacific fleet. The next day,FDR declared war on Japan, calling December 7 "a date that will live in infamy." America was in the war, and not only against Japan, but also against Germany and Italy. Under FDR's leadership, America quickly transformed itself from a decaying nation of idle factories, impoverished families, abandoned farms and masses of hobos roaming the streets to a nation turning out planes, tanks, guns, military vehicles and other armaments on a scale that quickly dwarfed the capability of Nazi Germany to do the same. World War II also changed American life as blacks got better jobs in the war plants and women began working outside the home in unprecedented numbers. Helped by Eleanor, FDR used the war as a vehicle for social progress, securing better treatment for minorities and women, higher wages and better benefits for workers and a GI bill, which guaranteed a free college education for all American soldiers who fought in the war. In so doing, he created the American middle class of today.
After a series of military defeats, the US and its allies began to win the war. Invasions of North Africa and Italy were launched and the US started retaking islands in the South Pacific it had lost to Japan at the beginning of the war, starting with the Battle of Midway in 1942. FDR met with Churchill several times throughout the war and with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin at Tehran in 1943 and at Yalta in 1945. The Allied invasion of France, known as D-Day, was launched on June 6, 1944. As the war ended, FDR pushed for his dream of a United Nations and for reforms that would ensure that another World War would never happen. The United Nations did come to pass, as well as new global institutions such as the World Bank and IMF. Also, FDR advocated for decolonization of Africa and Asia, leading to the collapse of the old European empires.
Because of the war, FDR felt he had no right to leave the presidency while Americans under his command were still fighting. So he sought a fourth term in 1944. His opponent was the new governor of New York, Thomas E. Dewey, who ran a campaign of innuendo, hinting that FDR was too ill to lead and that his government had gone stale. FDR retaliated with a speech accusing the Republicans of attacking his dog, Fala. FDR won his fourth term in November 1944. In January 1945 he journeyed to Yalta to confer with Churchill and Stalin for the last time, to settle the postwar world and push for Russian participation in the United Nations. By this time FDR was gravely ill. After the Yalta Conference, he traveled to his resort at Warm Springs, Georgia, where he died suddenly of a massive stroke on April 12, 1945. It was revealed that Lucy Mercer, his one-time lover, was with him when he died and that she had secretly visited him in the White House a number of times during his last year.
There was an elaborate funeral for him, with a train procession from Warm Springs to Washington DC, then to Hyde Park, where he was buried.- Henry Wallace was born on 7 October 1888 in Adair County, Iowa, USA. He was married to Ilo Elsie Browne. He died on 18 November 1965 in Danbury, Connecticut, USA.
- Cordell Hull was born on 2 October 1871 in Olympus, Tennessee, USA. He was married to Rose Frances Whitney. He died on 23 July 1955 in Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
- Thomas E. Dewey is an American lawyer, prosecutor, and politician.
He served as the 47th governor of New York from 1943 to 1954. In 1944, he was the Republican Party's nominee for president. He lost the 1944 election to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the closest of Roosevelt's four presidential elections. He was again the Republican presidential nominee in 1948, but lost to President Harry S. Truman in one of the greatest upsets in presidential election history. Dewey played a large role in winning the Republican presidential nomination for Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952, and helped Eisenhower win the presidential election that year. He also played a large part in the choice of Richard Nixon as the Republican vice-presidential nominee in 1952 and 1956. - Harry S. Truman was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A lifetime member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as a U.S. senator from the state of Missouri from 1935 to 1945. He was chosen as incumbent president Franklin D. Roosevelt's running mate for the 1944 presidential election. Truman was inaugurated as the 34th vice president in 1945 and served for less than three months until President Roosevelt died. Now serving as president, Truman implemented the Marshall Plan to rebuild the economy of Western Europe and established both the Truman Doctrine and NATO to contain the expansion of communism. He proposed numerous liberal domestic reforms, but few were enacted by the Conservative Coalition that dominated the Congress.
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Dwight D. Eisenhower was born on Tuesday, October 14, 1890, as Dwight David Eisenhower, in Denison, Texas. He was the third of seven sons born to David Jacob Eisenhower and Ida Elizabeth Stover. Both of his parents were of German descent. Eisenhower studied at the West Point Military Academy from 1911-1915. He served with the infantry, became the #3 leader of the tank corps, and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel by the end of the First World War. From 1922-1924 he served in the Panama Canal Zone as executive officer to General, Fox Conner. From 1925-1926 he studied at the Command and General Staff College in Kansas, and from 1928-1933 he served as executive officer to Gen. George V. Moseley: Assistant Secretary of War, in Washington, DC.
Eisenhower was chief military aide to Gen. Douglas MacArthur from 1933-1935. He accompanied MacArthur to the Philippines in 1935, and served there as assistant military adviser to the Philippine government until 1939. Back in Washington, he held various staff positions and was promoted to Brigadier General in September 1941. Shortly after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, on Sunday, December 7th, 1941. Eisenhower was assigned to the General Staff. There he gradually rose to Assistant Chief of Staff under the Chief of Staff, Gen. George C. Marshall. Although Eisenhower had no experience in active military command, Marshall recognized his organizational and administrative strength. It was his association with Marshall that brought Eisenhower to London in June 1942 as Commanding General of the European Theater of Operations. He was also appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces of the North African Theater of Operations, which was renamed the Mediterranean Theater of Operations after the capitulation of the German army in Africa. In September of 1943 Eisenhower oversaw the Allied invasion of Sicily and then of Italy, which led to the immediate surrender of Italian forces in southern Italy. However, the German Winter Line fortifications in Italy, kept fighting even after the fall of Berlin.
Eisenhower was in charge of planning and carrying out the Allied landings in Normandy, France, and the invasion of Germany. The first part of his plan, named Operation Overlord, was the largest seaborne operation in history. Under this plan, 2.8 million Allied troops from 12 nations crossed the English Channel. Starting on Tuesday, June 6th, 1944, known as "D-Day", they landed on the beaches of Normandy, France. After extremely fierce heavy fighting, the Allies breached the fortifications and pushed back the defending German forces. Two months later they reached Paris. Adolf Hitler had ordered the German commander of Paris to destroy the city rather than let it fall into Allied hands, but that officer refused to carry out those orders and eventually surrendered the city to the Allies. After fighting that was not as fierce as was expected, the city of Paris was liberated on Friday, August 25th, 1944. Eisenhower was with French Gen. Charles de Gaulle at the Hotel de Ville, where they greeted the Allied forces and took part in the French victory parade. After liberating Belgium and the Netherlands, the Allied troops crossed into Germany. In 1945 US and Soviet armies linked up on the Elbe River, west of Berlin. Soon Eisenhower met with Russian Gen. Georgi Zhukov and the two made a trip to the Soviet Union; the first (and only) time Eisenhower did so. After the German surrender on Tuesday, May 8th, 1945, Eisenhower was made the Military Governor of the US Occupied Zone in Germany, based in Frankfurt. He ordered the detailed search, documentation, photographing and widespread dissemination of what went on in the Nazi death camps. By actions such as these, Eisenhower began the process of documenting the horrors of the Holocaust.
Although he had never been in action himself, Eisenhower was respected as a brilliant military strategist and skilled political leader during the Second World War. He successfully dealt with conflicting demands from many sides, and managed to mollify such tough and determined personalities as Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, Gen. Bernard L. Montgomery and Gen. George S. Patton. From 1945 to 1948 Eisenhower was Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, and from 1950-1952 was Supreme Commander of all NATO forces.
Eisenhower won the 1952 US presidential elections, with Richard Nixon as his Vice President, and brought the Republicans back to national power after 20 years. He was President from 1953-1960, becoming the first and only army general to serve as President in the 20th Century, formally becoming a civilian during his term in office. He ended the Korean War and offered peaceful co-existence with the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin in 1953. He authorized the 1953 Iranian coup d'etat and the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'etat. He invited Nikita Khrushchev to his first visit to the US in 1959, and hosted him at his farm at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where his children and grandchildren met the family of the Soviet leader. Shortly after that, however, the Soviets shot down an American U2 spy plane, captured the pilot and canceled Eisenhower's reciprocal visit to the Soviet Union. Relations between the two superpowers deteriorated very quickly, leading to an increasingly rapid nuclear arms race and a dangerous standoff in the Cold War.
Domestically, Eisenhower began the modernization and integration of American roads into the interstate highway system, modeled after the autobahn, which he saw in Germany. In spite of some serious setbacks with US-Soviet relations, overall his presidency was a successful example of a non-partisan approach to politics.
After his presidential term expired (US Presidents can only serve two terms), Eisenhower was again commissioned a five-star general in the army. He lived in retirement on his farm in Gettysburg, where he wrote his memoirs. He died on Friday, March 28th, 1969, at the Army Hospital in Washington, DC, and was laid to rest in Abilene, Kansas, at the Eisenhower Presidential Library.
The complete lifetime of Dwight D. Eisenhower, was from Tuesday, October 14th, 1890, to Friday, March 28th, 1969. He lived 28,654 days, equaling 4,093 weeks & 3 days.- Joseph McCarthy was born on 14 November 1908 in Appleton, Wisconsin, USA. He was married to Jean Kerr Minetti. He died on 2 May 1957 in Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
- Barry Goldwater was born on 1 January 1909 in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. He was married to Susan Shaffer Wechsler and Margaret Johnson Goldwater. He died on 29 May 1998 in Paradise Valley, Arizona, USA.
- John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts, to Rose Kennedy (née Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald) and Joseph P. Kennedy. John was named after his maternal grandfather, John "HoneyFitz" Fitzgerald, the mayor of Boston. John was very ill as a child and was given the last rites five times, the first one being when he was a new-born. He was the second of four boys born to an Irish Catholic family with nine children: Joseph Jr., John, Robert F. Kennedy (called Bobby), and Ted Kennedy (born Edward). Because Rose made Joe and Jack (the name his family called him) wear matching clothes, they fought a lot for attention. When John was young, the family moved from Boston to New York. John went to Choate, a private school. Most of the time, though, he was too sick to attend. In the late 1930s, father Joe became the ambassador to England. He took sons John and Robert with him, as well as his wife and daughters Kathleen and Rosemary Kennedy. John went to Princeton, then Harvard, and for his senior thesis, he wrote a piece about why England refused to get into the war until late. It was published in 1940 and called "Why England Slept". His older brother Joe was a pilot during the war, and was killed when the bombs his plane was carrying exploded. Not long after that, John's sister Kathleen and her husband died in a plane crash. In the early 1950s, John ran for Congress in Massachusetts and won. He married Jacqueline Kennedy (née Jacqueline Lee Bouvier) on September 12, 1953. Their daughter, Caroline Kennedy, was born on November 27, 1957 and their son, John Kennedy Jr., was born on November 25, 1960. They also had a stillborn daughter named Arabella and a son named Patrick Bouvier, who died a few days after birth. In 1954, J.F.K. had to have back surgery and in the hospital wrote his second book, "Profiles in Courage". His father always said that his son Joe was going to be President of the U.S.; when he died in World War II, though, that task was passed on to John. He ran for president in 1960 against Richard Nixon and narrowly won. His administration had many conflicts, the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis being key examples. In November 1963, he and Jackie (his wife's nickname) went on a trip to Texas. Everywhere they went there were signs saying "Jack and Jackie." On November 22, 1963, John was to give a speech in Dallas, but on his way an assassin hidden on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository opened fire at Kennedy, who was riding in an open car. Hit twice and severely wounded, Kennedy died in a local hospital at 1:00 P.M. The alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was captured a short time later after shooting and killing a Dallas policeman, and was himself assassinated before he could be thoroughly interrogated, let alone tried. In just a little bit of irony, considering the death of Abraham Lincoln a century earlier, Kennedy was shot in a Ford Lincoln (Lincoln was in Ford's Theater when he was shot). He was laid to rest on his son's third birthday.
- Lyndon Baines Johnson often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice president from 1961 to 1963 under President John F. Kennedy. A Democrat from Texas, Johnson also served as a U.S. representative, U.S. senator and the Senate's majority leader. He holds the distinction of being one of the few presidents who served in all elected offices at the federal level.
- George Corley Wallace (August 25, 1919 - September 13, 1998), elected Governor of Alabama as a Democrat four times (1962, 1970, 1974 & 1982) and four-time candidate for President (1964, 1968, 1972 & 1976). Though he is best known for his belligerent defense of segregation, going so far as to block the door of the University of Alabama to prevent its desegregation under federal fiat, he mellowed with age and reached out to African Americans during the 1970s.
Wallace's public racism was rooted in his defeat in his first gubernatorial race in 1958, when he was portrayed as the liberal candidate and soft on segregation. Wallace vowed he would "never be out-niggered again" and won in 1962. He proceeded to keep that promise, publicly defying the Kennedy Administration until being knuckled under by fellow southerner Lyndon B. Johnson.
After a stab at the Democratic presidential nomination in 1964 as a protest candidate, in 1968 Wallace ran the most successful Third-Party challenge between Theodore Roosevelt's "Bull Moose" campaign of 1912 and Ross Perot's "Reform Party" movement of 1992 when he ran for President as a "law and order" candidate (code word for being tough on African Americans) on the American Independent ticket. He won five states (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, & Mississippi) and 46 electoral votes, and it was feared at one point during Election Night that his success might throw the election into the House of Representatives. - Robert Francis Kennedy (1925-68), US politician, was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, the third son of Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy and wife Rose Kennedy. He studied at Harvard and at the University of Virginia University Law School, served at sea (1944-46) in World War II, was admitted to the bar (1951), and served on the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities (1957-59), when he prosecuted several top union leaders. An efficient manager of his brother John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign, he was an energetic Attorney General (1961-64), notably in his dealings with civil rights problems. He became senator from New York in 1965. After winning the Californian Democratic presidential primary election, he was shot at a hotel in Los Angeles. His assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Jordanian-born immigrant, was sentenced to the gas chamber in 1969, but was not executed.
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Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. He was a member of the Republican Party who previously served as a representative and senator from California and was the 36th vice president from 1953 to 1961. His five years in the White House saw reduction of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, detente with the Soviet Union and China, the first manned Moon landings, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Nixon's second term ended early, when he became the only president to resign from office, following the Watergate scandal.- Actor
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Heinz Alfred grew up in his hometown, where he attended school. When the persecution of the Jewish population in Germany intensified as a result of Adolf Hitler's rise to power in January 1933, he emigrated to the USA with his parents Paula Stern and Ludwig Kissinger in 1938. Kissinger attended high school in New York City. A little later he had to help support the family by working in a factory, which is why he switched to night school. In 1943 Kissinger received US citizenship. He then served in the Army until 1946, for which he was deployed in Germany. After the end of the war, Kissinger initially stayed in Europe, where he worked as a lecturer at the European Command Intelligence School in Oberammergau. In 1947, Kissinger returned to the United States to enroll at Harvard University. In 1952 he completed his master's degree there. Two years later he received his doctorate. phil.
From 1952 to 1969, Kissinger headed the summer university at his university called the Harvard International Seminar. Here he got to know many foreign authorities with whom he would later have to deal as a foreign policy expert. In 1957 he was appointed lecturer and in 1962 professor at Harvard, where he held a full teaching position until 1965. Kissinger's entry into a decidedly political activity dates back to the early 1960s. Under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, he served as an advisor to the National Security Council until 1962 and as an advisor on disarmament issues until 1967. In 1965 he was appointed as an advisor to the State Department, which had to deal with the situation in Vietnam. In the following two years, Kissinger visited Vietnam several times. In 1969, President Richard Nixon elevated the veteran foreign policy expert to head the National Security Council. In this position, which he held until 1975, Kissinger opposed the policy of reconciliation and rapprochement that Kennedy and Johnson had previously initiated towards the Soviet Union.
Nevertheless, as one of his first foreign policy successes, he contributed to the conclusion of the SALT negotiations with the USSR, which culminated in the signing of the treaty by Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev in Moscow. Kissinger also played a role in bringing about the agreement on the four-power status of West Berlin, which was reached on September 3, 1971 and contributed significantly to facilitating exchange and travel between both parts of the city. Kissinger also had a great influence on the secret diplomatic preparations that led to a rapprochement between the USA and the People's Republic of China under Nixon's presidency. When faced with the Vietnam problem, Kissinger sought to protect US interests with a policy of military strength, which brought him the most criticism. Nevertheless, he reached a ceasefire with Le Duc Tho in 1973, which earned both the Nobel Peace Prize and initiated the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam. In 1973, Kissinger was promoted to Secretary of State under Nixon. After his resignation as a result of the Watergate affair, he was confirmed in this position for the entire term of office of the successor Gerald Rudolph Ford from 1974 to 1977.
As Foreign Minister, Kissinger tried to mediate between the Arab and Israeli sides, especially in the Middle East conflict, through intensive travel known as "shuttle diplomacy". This enabled him, among other things, In 1974 the conclusion of the troop disengagement agreement. After Kissinger left the ministerial office as a result of Ford's election defeat in 1977, he founded the consulting firm "Kissinger Associates, Inc." in 1982, which produces analyzes for governments and commercial companies worldwide. In 1987 Kissinger was awarded the International Charlemagne Prize of the city of Aachen. After the upheavals of 1989/90 in the former Eastern Bloc states, Kissinger campaigned for the maintenance of the transatlantic alliance systems between the USA and Europe, for the rapid reunification of Germany and the continuation of European unification. He continued to speak out through numerous publications. In 2001 his treatise "Does America Need a Foreign Policy?" was published. In 2005 he received the Bavarian Order of Merit. In 2007, Kissinger was awarded the Baden-Württemberg Medal of Merit.
Henry Kissinger died on November 29, 2023 in Kent.- Nixon's Chief of Staff, 1973-74. Finally urged Nixon to resign. NATO Commander from 1975 to 1979. Secretary of State for Ronald Reagan. Got himself in hot water after the assassination attempt against the President in March 1981 when he appeared in the Press Room in the White House and announced "As of now, I'm in charge here." Vice-President George Bush was on an airplane en-route from Texas at this time. Constitutionally, the next in line in the order of succession is the Vice-President, then the Speaker of the House, then the Senate Pro Tempore, THEN the Secretary of State. His tenure as Secretary of State ended in June 1982, after his unsuccessful attempts to broker a peace settlement between Britain and Argentina in the Falklands War.
- Gerald Rudolph Ford was the 38th President of the United States from August 1974 until January 1977.
Ford was born on July 14, 1913, in Omaha, Nebraska as Leslie Lynch King, Jr., being the son of Leslie Lynch King and Dorothy Ayer Gardner King. His parents separated two weeks after his birth and his mother took him to Grand Rapids, Michigan to live with her parents. On February 1, 1916, his mother Dorothy married Gerald R. Ford, a paint salesman. The Fords began calling their son Gerald R. Ford, Jr. but the name became legal only on December 3, 1935. Aged 13, Ford knew that Gerald Sr., was not his biological father, but it wasn't until 1930 he met his biological father Leslie King, who had made an unexpected stop in Grand Rapids.
Ford grew up in a family with three younger half-brothers, Thomas, Richard, and James. He attended South High School in Grand Rapids, where he already showed his athletics skills, being named to the honor society and the "All-City" and "All-State" football teams. As a scout he was ranked Eagle Scout in November 1927. He earned money by working in the family paint business and at a local restaurant.
Ford attended The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor from 1931 to 1935. He majored in economics and political science and graduated with a B.A. degree in June 1935. He played on the University's national championship football teams in 1932 and 1933 and was voted MVP of Wolverine in 1934. He also played in All-Star and benefit football games. He denied offers from two professional football teams, (Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers), but chose to become boxing coach and assistant varsity football coach at Yale hoping to attend law school there. Ford earned his law degree in 1941.
After returning to Michigan and passing his bar exam, Ford set up a law partnership in Grand Rapids with Philip Buchen, a University of Michigan fraternity brother (who later served on Ford's White House staff as Counsel to the President).
In April 1942 Ford joined the U.S. Naval Reserve and became a physical fitness instructor at a flight school in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In the spring of 1943 he began service in the light aircraft carrier USS Monterey. Ford spent the remainder of the war ashore and was discharged as a lieutenant commander in February 1946. He returned to Grand Rapids to become a partner in the locally prestigious law firm of Butterfield, Keeney, and Amberg.
His first political experience was in the summer of 1940 when he was working in the presidential campaign of Wendell Willkie. Six years later he decided to challenge Bartel Jonkman for the Republican nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1948 election. Ford won the nomination and after that was elected to Congress on November 2, 1948, receiving 61% of the vote.
On October 15 1948, the height of the campaign, Ford married Elizabeth ('Betty') Anne Bloomer Warren, a department store fashion consultant. Betty was born on April 8, 1918 in Chicago, Illinois, but grew up in Grand Rapids. They subsequently had four children: Michael Gerald (March 14, 1950), John Gardner (March 16, 1952), Steven Meigs (May 19, 1956) and Susan Elizabeth (July 6, 1957).
Ford served in the House of Representatives from January 3, 1949 to December 6, 1973. He was re-elected twelve times, winning each time with more than 60% of the vote. As his ambition was to become Speaker of the House already in the early 1950s, he denied offers to run for both the Senate and the Michigan governorship in these years. In 1961 he became chairman of the House Republican Conference. In 1963 President Johnson appointed Ford to the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He was the last living member of the Warren Commission.
In 1965 Ford was chosen as the House minority leader, a post he held until 1973. As minority leader Ford made more than 200 speeches a year all across the country, which made him nationally known. He was not only a close friend of Richard Nixon for many years, but also a loyal supporter in both the 1968 and 1972 presidential elections. As in 1960, Ford was again considered as a vice presidential candidate in 1968. Because the Republicans did not attain a majority in the House, Ford was unable to reach his ultimate political goal, Speaker of the House. Instead, he became President of the Senate.
Late in 1973 Spiro Agnew pleaded no contest to a charge of income tax evasion and resigned as Vice President. President Nixon was empowered by the 25th Amendment to appoint a new vice president and chose Ford. He was sworn in on December 6, 1973.
On August 9, 1974, Nixon became the first president in U.S. history to resign from the office under the threat of impeachment in the Watergate scandal. The same day Gerald R. Ford took the oath of office as 38th President of the United States on August 9, 1974. Also in August 1974, Ford nominated Nelson Rockefeller for vice president, which nomination was confirmed by Congress on December 19, 1974.
One month after taking office President Ford faced one of the toughest decisions in his career. He decided to grant Nixon a full, free and absolute pardon for all offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in. The public opinion was mostly negative about the pardon and there was even suspicion Ford and Nixon had made a deal to grant a pardon if Nixon would resign. Although this happened on September 8, 1974, it might have cost the re-election of Ford two years later.
On November 24, 1974, in the conference hall of the Okeansky Sanitarium, Vladivostok, USSR, President Ford and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev signed the SALT-treaty, following talks on the limitation of strategic offensive arms.
In March 1975, during the final days of the Vietnam War, Ford ordered the airlift of about 237,000 Vietnamese refugees to the United States. Two months later, on May 14, 1975, Ford ordered U.S. forces to retake the S.S. Mayaguez after its seizure by Cambodia, an action Ford characterized as an "act of piracy." The operation saved the ship's 39-member crew, but sadly 41 Americans were killed and 50 more wounded during the preparation and execution of the rescue.
President Ford was twice the target of assassination attempts. Both took place in on two separate trips to California in September 1975 and both were 'performed' by women. On September 5, 1975 he survived an assassination attempt in Sacramento, California, by Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a member of a cult once led by convicted mass murderer Charles Manson. On September 22, 1975, in San Francisco, California, Sara Jane Moore fired a shot at the president, but a bystander diverted the shot.
Despite his former athletics skills, Gerald Ford tumbled several times during his presidency. No cause was ever communicated. At the Republican National Convention in August 1976, Ford fought off a serious challenge from Californian Governor Ronald Reagan to be nominated as his party's presidential candidate. He chose Senator Robert Dole of Kansas as his running mate.
Although he succeeded in closing in on Democrat Jimmy Carter's large lead in the polls, President Ford finally lost one of the closest elections in history in November 1976. After leaving office, Gerald and Betty Ford returned to private life and moved to California where they built a new house in Rancho Mirage, which became his last residence.
President Ford continued to actively participate in the political process and to speak out on important political issues. He lectured at hundreds of colleges and universities. In 1981, the Gerald R. Ford Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, were dedicated.
President Ford was the recipient of numerous awards and honors by many civic organizations, like the recipient of many honorary Doctor of Law degrees from various public and private colleges and universities.
In August 1999, President Bill Clinton presented Ford with the nation's highest civilian award, the Medal of Freedom. Two months later, in October 1999, Senate and House leaders presented Ford and his wife, Betty, with the Congressional Gold Medal. Together with former President Carter, he served as honorary Co-Chair of the National Commission on Federal Election Reform in 2001. In May 2001 he was presented with the Profiles in Courage award for his controversial decision to pardon former President Nixon.
In August 2000 Ford suffered a mild stroke while attending the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On May 16, 2003 following fluctuations in blood pressure and hot weather, Ford suffered dizzy spells on the golf course and taken to hospital. He was released the next day.
Although President Ford cut back on his travel and public appearances in recent years, he attended funeral services for President Ronald Reagan at Washington's National Cathedral, sitting with former Presidents Clinton, Bush and Carter, and their wives in June 2004.
In August 2006, he was discharged from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, after doctors tried to reduce or eliminate blockages in his coronary arteries. They also implanted a pacemaker to improve his heart performance. In the fall of 2006 Ford spent several days at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage for medical tests. He was released on October 16.
On November 12, 2006, Ford officially became the longest-lived president, surpassing Ronald Reagan. Ford would extend the record by 45 days.
On December 26, 2006 at 6:45 p.m., President Ford died in his house in Rancho Mirage, California. He was aged 93 years and 165 days old, making him the longest-lived United States President. No cause of death was communicated. A state funeral and memorial services were held at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. on January 2, 2007. President Ford was buried at his presidential museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
President Gerald Ford was survived by his wife Betty, after more than 58 years of marriage, and by their four children, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. He was also survived by his brother, Richard, of Grand Rapids, Michigan. - Actor
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Bob Dole was born on 22 July 1923 in Russell, Kansas, USA. He was an actor, known for Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990), National Geographic Explorer (1985) and Murphy Brown (1988). He was married to Elizabeth Dole and Phyllis Eloise Holden. He died on 5 December 2021 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA.- Actor
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James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American former politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975 and as a Georgia state senator from 1963 to 1967. Since leaving office, Carter has remained engaged in political and social projects, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his humanitarian work.- Walter Mondale is an American politician, diplomat and lawyer who served as the 42nd vice president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A United States senator from Minnesota (1964-1976), he was the Democratic Party's nominee in the United States presidential election of 1984, but lost to Ronald Reagan in an Electoral College landslide. Reagan won 49 states while Mondale carried his home state of Minnesota and the District of Columbia. He became the oldest-living former U.S. vice president after the death of George Bush in 2018.
- John B. Anderson was born on 15 February 1922 in Rockford, Illinois, USA. He was married to Keke Machakos. He died on 3 December 2017 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA.
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Ronald Reagan had quite a prolific career, having catapulted from a Warner Bros. contract player and television star, into serving as president of the Screen Actors Guild, the governorship of California (1967-1975), and lastly, two terms as President of the United States (1981-1989).
Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois, to Nelle Clyde (Wilson) and John Edward "Jack" Reagan, who was a salesman and storyteller. His father was of Irish descent, and his mother was of half Scottish and half English ancestry.
A successful actor beginning in the 1930s, the young Reagan was a staunch admirer of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (even after he evolved into a Republican), and was a Democrat in the 1940s, a self-described 'hemophiliac' liberal. He was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild in 1947 and served five years during the most tumultuous times to ever hit Hollywood. A committed anti-communist, Reagan not only fought more-militantly activist movie industry unions that he and others felt had been infiltrated by communists, but had to deal with the investigation into Hollywood's politics launched by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947, an inquisition that lasted through the 1950s. The House Un-American Activities Committee investigations of Hollywood (which led to the jailing of the "Hollywood Ten" in the late '40s) sowed the seeds of the McCarthyism that racked Hollywood and America in the 1950s.
In 1950, U.S. Representative Helen Gahagan Douglas (D-CA), the wife of "Dutch" Reagan's friend Melvyn Douglas, ran as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate and was opposed by the Republican nominee, the Red-bating Congressman from Whittier, Richard Nixon. While Nixon did not go so far as to accuse Gahagan Douglas of being a communist herself, he did charge her with being soft on communism due to her opposition to the House Un-American Activities Committee. Nixon tarred her as a "fellow traveler" of communists, a "pinko" who was "pink right down to her underwear." Gahagan Douglas was defeated by the man she was the first to call "Tricky Dicky" because of his unethical behavior and dirty campaign tactics. Reagan was on the Douglases' side during that campaign.
The Douglases, like Reagan and such other prominent actors as Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson, were liberal Democrats, supporters of the late Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal, a legacy that increasingly was under attack by the right after World War II. They were NOT fellow-travelers; Melvyn Douglas had actually been an active anti-communist and was someone the communists despised. Melvyn Douglas, Robinson and Henry Fonda - a registered Republican! - wound up "gray-listed." (They weren't explicitly black-listed, they just weren't offered any work.) Reagan, who it was later revealed had been an F.B.I. informant while a union leader (turning in suspected communists), was never hurt that way, as he made S.A.G. an accomplice of the black-listing.
Reagan's career sagged after the late 1940s, and he started appearing in B-movies after he left Warner Bros. to go free-lance. However, he had a eminence grise par excellence in Lew Wasserman, his agent and the head of the Music Corp. of America. Wasserman, later called "The Pope of Hollywood," was the genius who figured out that an actor could make a killing via a tax windfall by turning himself into a corporation. The corporation, which would employ the actor, would own part of a motion picture the actor appeared in, and all monies would accrue to the corporation, which was taxed at a much lower rate than was personal income. Wasserman pioneered this tax avoidance scheme with his client James Stewart, beginning with the Anthony Mann western Winchester '73 (1950) (1950). It made Stewart enormously rich as he became a top box office draw in the 1950s after the success of "Winchester 73" and several more Mann-directed westerns, all of which he had an ownership stake in.
Ironically, Reagan became a poor-man's James Stewart in the early 1950s, appearing in westerns, but they were mostly B-pictures. He did not have the acting chops of the great Stewart, but he did have his agent. Wasserman at M.C.A. was one of the pioneers of television syndication, and this was to benefit Reagan enormously. M.C.A. was the only talent agency that was also allowed to be a producer through an exemption to union rules granted by S.A.G. when Reagan was the union president, and it used the exemption to acquire Universal International Pictures. Talent agents were not permitted to be producers as there was an inherent conflict of interest between the two professions, one of which was committed to acquiring talent at the lowest possible cost and the other whose focus was to get the best possible price for their client. When a talent agent was also a producer, like M.C.A. was, it had a habit of steering its clients to its own productions, where they were employed but at a lower price than their potential free market value. It was a system that made M.C.A. and Lew Wasserman, enormously wealthy.
The ownership of Universal and its entry into the production of television shows that were syndicated to network made M.C.A. the most successful organization in Hollywood of its time, a real cash cow as television overtook the movies as the #1 business of the entertainment industry. Wasserman repaid Ronald Reagan's largess by structuring a deal by which he hosted and owned part of General Electric Theater (1953), a western omnibus showcase that ran from 1954 to 1961. It made Reagan very comfortable financially, though it did not make him rich. That came later.
In 1960, with the election of the Democratic President John F. Kennedy, the black and gray lists went into eclipse. J.F.K. appointed Helen Gahagan Douglas Treasurer of the United States. About this time, as the civil rights movement became stronger and found more support among Democrats and the Kennedy administration, Reagan - fresh from a second stint as S.A.G. president in 1959 - was in the process of undergoing a personal and political metamorphosis into a right-wing Republican, a process that culminated with his endorsing Barry Goldwater for the Republican presidential nomination in 1964. (He narrated a Goldwater campaign film played at the G.O.P. Convention in San Francisco.) Reagan's evolution into a right-wing Republican sundered his friendship with the Douglases. (After Reagan was elected President of the United States in 1980, Melvyn Douglas said of his former friend that Reagan turned to the right after he had begun to believe the pro-business speeches he delivered for General Electric when he was the host of the "G.E. Theater.")
In 1959, while Reagan was back as a second go-round as S.A.G. president, M.C.A.'s exemption from S.A.G. regulations that forbade a talent agency from being a producer was renewed. However, in 1962, the U.S. Justice Department under Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy successfully forced M.C.A. - known as "The Octopus" in Hollywood for its monopolistic tendencies - to divest itself of its talent agency.
When Reagan was tipped by the California Republican Party to be its standard-bearer in the 1965 gubernatorial election against Democratic Governor Pat Brown, Lew Wasserman went back in action. Politics makes strange bedfellows, and though Wasserman was a liberal Democrat, having an old friend like Reagan who had shown his loyalty as S.A.G. president in the state house was good for business. Wasserman and his partner, M.C.A. Chairman Jules Styne (a Republican), helped ensure that Reagan would be financially secure for the rest of his life so that he could enter politics. (At the time, he was the host of "Death Valley Days" on TV.)
According to the Wall Street Journal, Universal sold Reagan a nice piece of land of many acres north of Santa Barbara that had been used for location shooting. The Reagans sold most of the ranch, then converted the rest of it, about 200 acres, into a magnificent estate overlooking the valley and the Pacific Ocean. The Rancho del Cielo became President Reagan's much needed counterpoint to the buzz of Washington, D.C. There, in a setting both rugged and serene, the Reagans could spend time alone or receive political leaders such as the Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, Margaret Thatcher, and others.
Reagan was known to the world for his one-liners, the most famous of them was addressed to Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987. "Mister Gorbachev, tear down this wall" said Reagan standing in front of the Berlin Wall. That call made an impact on the course of human history.
Ronald Reagan played many roles in his life's seven acts: radio announcer, movie star, union boss, television actor-cum-host, governor, right-wing critic of big government and President of the United States.- Pat Buchanan was born on 2 November 1938 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. He is an actor, known for Crossfire (1982), LateLine (1998) and Lake of Fire (2006). He has been married to Shelley Ann Scarney since 8 May 1971.
- The 41st President of the United States of America, George Herbert Walker Bush (known colloquially as "Bush 41" to distinguish him from his son, George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the U.S., who is known as "Bush 43"), was born on June 12, 1924 in Milton, Massachusetts, a suburb south of Boston. His parents were Dorothy (Walker) and Prescott Bush, who was then the president of sales for the Stedman Products Co. of South Braintree, Massachusetts. In 1925, Prescott joined the United States Rubber Co. (New York, NY) as their foreign division manager, necessitating a move to Greenwich, Connecticut.
Prescott Bush (Yale 1917) made his fortune and name as an investment banker on Wall St., eventually becoming a partner of the white shoe brokerage Brown Bros. Harriman. He was a member of the Yale Corp., the principal governing body of Yale University, from 1944 to 1956 and was on the board of directors of the Columbia Broadcasting System (C.B.S.), after having been introduced to C.B.S. Chairman William Paley in 1932 by his friend and business partner Averell Harriman, a major Democratic party power-broker.
George Bush was educated at the exclusive Greenwich Country Day School in Greenwich, Connecticut before moving on to Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, where he matriculated from 1936 to 1942. At Phillips Andover, he captained the baseball and soccer teams and was a member of an exclusive fraternity called the A.U.V, or "Auctoritas, Unitas, Veritas", Latin for "Authority, Unity, Truth". Like his father before him, Bush was on schedule to attend Yale College and would have in the fall of 1942, but for the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor by the Imperial Japanese Navy on December 7, 1941 that necessitated the entry of the United States into World War II.
Upon his graduation from Phillips Andover, George Bush enlisted in the U.S. Navy on June 12, 1942, his 18th birthday, with the intent on becoming an aviator. After completing the 10-month naval aviation course, he was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve three days before his nineteenth birthday, which made him the youngest naval aviator ever at the time.
George Bush married the former Barbara Pierce on January 6, 1945, and after he was demobilized, they moved to New Haven, Connecticut so that he could attend Yale, where he proved a fine student and captained the baseball team, which made it to the first College World Series. They had their first of six children, future President George Walker Bush, two days after the Fourth of July, 1946. In his senior year, George Bush was tapped for the exclusive secret society Skull & Bones, as had been his father (and as his son would be).
Using his father's connections and $2 million in seed money from his relatives (approximately $17 million in 2006 terms), George Bush prospered in the oil industry after graduating from Yale in 1949. Through his father's business and social relationship with a fellow Skull & Bones member, George Bush secured a position with Dresser Industries, on whose board of directors Prescott had served for 22 years.
As the son of a moderate Republican senator, it was natural that George Bush would stand for office. At the time, the "Solid South" was solidly Democratic, with the Republican Party of Civil War winner (and Civil Rights champion) Abraham Lincoln anathema below the Mason-Dixon line.Good Republican candidates were hard to come by (though John Tower later proved that a Republican could win in the Deep South when he took a Senate seat in 1966). One year after his father left the Seante, his son George stood won the Republican nomination to oppose Democratic Senator Ralph Yarborough, an ally of President 'Lyndon Johnson (I)' (QB), who was on his way to defeating Republican Presidential nominee Barry Goldwater in an electoral landslide in 1964. Riding the coat-tails of favorite son Johnson, Yarborough handily won reelection, keeping George Bush in the private sector for two more years.
Bush stood for a House seat in 1966 and won, then won reelection in 1968. In Congress, he established a reputation as a liberal Republican and was known as a supporter of contraception services (his father, Prescott, had been a mainstay of Planned Parenthood). At the request of President Richard Nixon, Bush gave up his seat voluntarily in 1970 to seek the Senate seat of Democratic Senator Ralph Yarborough, who was a fierce Nixon critic. It was felt that Yaborough's liberalism made him vulnerable to a challenge from the right, and it did; however, it was the right-wing of the Democratic Party. Lloyd Bentsen won the Democratic nomination and, endorsed by Yarborough, beat Bush handily in the November general election. (Ironically, Bentsen would one day be the running mate of Bush's 1988 rival for the presidency, Michael Dukakis.) One of the reason for Bush's defeat was that with Yarborough out of the race, Nixon's support for Bush's campaign was only half-hearted.
As a payback to Bush, Nixon appointed him Ambassador to the United Nations, and he later served Nixon as the Chairman of the Republican National Committee during the Watergate crisis. Nixon's successor in the Oval Office, Gerald Ford, briefly considered appointing Bush as his replacement as vice president before going with liberal Republican stalwart Nelson Rockefeller, the four-term governor of the State of New York, but Ford eventually appointed Bush as the first American plenipotentiary to Communist China, then later director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
After losing the 1980 Republican nomination to Ronald Reagan, Bush was chosen as Reagan's running mate and elected Vice President of the United States in Reagan's victory over incumbent President Jimmy Carter in November. In 1988, Bush as vice president was Reagan's heir apparent, and he won the Republican nomination handily, though personally he was not very popular. Bush was perceived as "weak" due to his social liberalism, which included support for abortion rights and contraception. As a "Rockefeller Republican" (that is, an Eastern Establishment pro-business Republican who is moderate or liberal on social issues), Bush, unlike Reagan, was out-of-step in an increasingly conservative party dominated by voters from the South and West. The well-educated, thoughtful Bush, according to Reagan biographer Edmund Morris, was a genuinely nice and gracious person, and more importantly: sincere. However, he was perceived as not standing for anything, at least not in the stark black & white terms that had inspired the conservative if not reactionary Republican Party faithful during the two terms of the "Great Communicator".
As president, Bush saw the collapse of the Soviet Union, and he soared to unprecedented levels of public approval after his firm handling of Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait pushed the Iraqi army out of the invaded kingdom with a minimum amount of U.S. casualties. However, his popularity plummeted by the time the campaign rolled around in 1992 due to his seeming inability to cope with a recession caused by economic dislocations linked to the end of the Cold War.
After the presidency, George Bush prospered financially as a corporate speaker, reportedly making as much as $10 million from the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Bush's business ventures through the Carlyle Group, a private equity fund with close ties to the government of Saudi Arabia, have proved very remunerative. Most importantly, he achieved a sort of personal vindication when his son, George Walker Bush, defeated Clinton's vice president, Al Gore, and was elected the 43rd President of the United States.
In the twilight of his years, comfortably retired from the political wars, Bush teamed with fellow ex-President Bill Clinton for a uniquely close relationship in which the two jointly led campaigns to help the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2005 devastation of the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina via private sector fund-raising.
George Herbert Walker Bush died on November 30, 2018, in Houston, Texas. He joined his wife Barbara, who had passed in April of that year. - Gary Hart was born on 28 November 1936 in Ottawa, Kansas, USA. He is an actor, known for Cheers (1982), The Reagan Presidency (2012) and One Bright Shining Moment (2005). He was previously married to Oletha (Lee) Ludwig.
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Michael Dukakis, three-term governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts who served longer in that post than any other person in history, is best remembered in history as the 1988 Democratic candidate for President in an election in which Ronald Reagan's vice president, George Bush, effectively used "Swift Boat" tactics to undermine Dukakis' candidacy.
Born Michael Stanley Dukakis on November 3, 1933 to Greek-immigrant parents in Brookline, Massachusetts (the birthplace of both John F. Kennedy and his 1988 Presidential opponent Bush). Dukakis' father was a Harvard-educated physician and his mother was a Massachusetts schoolteacher. She worked to eliminate first her native Greek accent and then her New England accent to remove imperfections from her speech pattern that might hinder her teaching ability. In a time and place where non-Anglo-Saxon ethnicity was looked down upon (even that of the Irish Americans who emigrated to the U.S. with the ability to speak English and a knowledge of Anglo-Saxon politics) and even proved a hindrance to social mobility, the Dukakis family was committed to assimilation. Part of the bad rap against Dukakis that would cost him his first reelection campaign as governor and his bid for the White House was that he was too stiff and formal; yet, being brought up in an era and place in which overt displays of emotion were looked down upon upon by the ruling class of Boston Brahmins as too "ethnic" (as well as betraying lower-caste origins), one can understand Dukakis' coolness and reserve as being an attempt not to be stereotyped by his social "betters". (His contemporary, three-term New York governor Mario Cuomo, said that when he entered law practice in the early 1950s, he was told to ditch his Italian name and rename himself something along the lines of "Mike COnnors". He, of course, refused, though that type of ethnic cleansing was considered normal among upwardly mobile and socially ambitious "urban ethnics" of the time.)
The class system in Boston was so strict before being shattered by John F. Kennedy's presidency that JFJ's father, Joseph P. Kennedy, felt the need to relocate his family to New York City in the 1930s so that they would no grow up amidst anti-Irish prejudice. Despite the fact that he was one of the richest men in the country and his wife was the daughter of a Boston mayor, an Irish Catholic was beyond the pale, socially, to the Boston Brahmins, the brethren of the Cabot and Lodge families that dominated the self-proclaimed "Hub" of the universe. (A local ditty went about Boston hailed the Hub as "...the land of the bean and the cod,/Where the Lodges speak only to the Cabots,/And the Cabots speak only to God.)
After graduating from Swarthmore College in 1955, Dukakis served as an enlisted intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army. After completing his military service, he graduated from Harvard Law School in 1960. After serving in the General Court (Massachusetts legislature), Dukakis was elected governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1974, defeating the incumbent Republican Francis W. Sargent. The commonwealth was undergoing a fiscal crisis and the Republican Party was very unpopular in the commonwealth, the only state that had been won in the electoral college by 1972 Presidential candidate George McGovern two years before. Dukakis' victory was the result, partially, of his taking a pledge not to increase the state's sales tax to balance the state budget, but he reneged on the promise soon after taking office. During the great Blizzard of 1978, which shut down Boston and a good deal of the Commonwealth, "The Duke" went into local TV studios in a sweater to announce emergency bulletins. The coldness of his public persona in the midst of the crisis was likened to that of the weather itself, and hurt his popularity. Combined with a nation-wide and local backlash against the high property tax rates, and his reneging on his promise to not raise the sales tax, he lost to Edward J. King in the Democratic primary, as King capitalized on the issue of taxes. Following California's lead, the voters of the Commonwealth voted for Proposition 2 and 1/2 that limited property tax rates to 2 1/2% of the property valuation.
Dukakis defeated King in in the Democratic primary in 1982, and easily defeated his Republican opponent to be reelected governor. (Fellow future Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry was elected Lieutenant Governor on the same ballot with Dukakis, serving in the Dukakis administration from 1983 to 1985, when he was took Paul Tsongas's Senate seat.) The second term and the first years of Dukakis' third term as governor were very successful (he won re-election in 1986 with over 60% of the vote), during which time he presided over a booming economy fueled by the high-technology industry, second at the time only to that of California. A reform-minded technocrat, Dukakis was given credit for the "Massachusetts Miracle" (part of the credit of which should be attributed to Masssachusetts Congressman Tip O'Neil, who had taken over JFK's old congressional district, who as the powerful Democratic Speaker of the House helped direct billions in defense spending to the Commonwealth).
The National Governors Association voted Dukakis the most effective governor in 1986, positioning Dukakis for a bid for the presidency. Basing his candidacy as the architect of the "Massachusetts Miracle", Dukakis overcame the other contenders for the Democratic Party presidential nomination (a group dubbed the "Seven Dwarfs" by the media for their collective lack of stature or prominence on the national stage; Dukakis' own personal lack of stature). The success of the Dukakis' campaign was largely attributed to campaign manager John Sasso, who had originally worked for rival candidate Joseph Biden. (Having also managed the campaigns of Al Gore and John Kerry, Sasso is now 0-3 in presidential election contests.)
Dukakis came out of the Democratic convention with an overwhelming lead over Ronald Reagan's heir-apparent, Vice President George Bush, the Republican nominee, but would not or could not handle the dirty campaign tactics that were the stock-in-trade of all the Vice President's men, including Lee Atwater. While the Dukakis camp expected an attack on their candidate as a traditional liberal, they did not seem to be able to cope with the McCarthyite vitriol from the Bush camp, which sought to make the "L" word the equivalent of what communism had been in the early 1950s. Harking back to McCarthy, Bush had accused Dukakis during one of their televised debates as being a "card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union," replacing "communist" with the ACLU (a variation of the "L"-word) and recycling an old charge from the '50s against liberals and "fellow travelers".
Unlike future Democratic Presidential candidate Bill Clinton (who had delivered the key-note address at the 19988 Democratic convention), who- when confronted with Bush's dirty tactics, such as pillorying his
As it had during the Big Blizzard, The Duke's stoical personality as projected to the voting public was interpreted as a lack of passion (which ran against the traditional stereotype of the Greek-American being fiery if not hot headed, an image that Dukakis, like his mother earlier, chose to expunge from his being). His opponents, touching on his reputation as a technocrat and superb administrator, referred to him as "Zorba the Clerk." Nevertheless, Dukakis widely was perceived to have performed well in the first presidential debate with Bush, and his candidacy was buoyed by his running mate, Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen, who was not afraid to take off the gloves. However, in the second debate, the runner stumbled; Dukakis had been suffering from the flu. Still, his performance was poor and played to his reputation as being cold, particularly his response to moderator Bernard Shaw's question, "Governor, if Kitty Dukakis [his wife] were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?"
Projecting himself as a man of reason, Dukakis replied with no visible emotion, "No, I don't, and I think you know that I've opposed the death penalty during all of my life," and then explained his stance. Many observers felt Dukakis' answer lacked the normal emotions one would expect of a person discussing a loved one's rape and death. Many - including the candidate himself - believe that this, in part, cost Dukakis the election, as his poll numbers dropped from 49% to 42% nationally overnight. Other commentators thought the question itself was unfair, in that it injected an irrelevant emotional element into the discussion of a policy issue.
Arguably the greatest issue of the campaign was that of race and crime, as articulated by the Bush camp in the prison furlough program issue. Framed by Lee Atwater, the Bush camp ran ads that criticized Dukakis for a prison furlough program that resulted in the release of convicted murderer Willie Horton, an African American, who committed a rape and assault in Maryland after fleeing Massachusetts. While it was Al Gore during the Democratic primaries that was the first candidate to publicly raise the furlough issue and highlight the fact that a furloughed prisoner had broken into a house, raped a woman and beaten her husband, Gore never mentioned Horton by name or highlighted the fact that he black, as the TV ads did merely by running his picture.
Despite the fact that the furlough program was started before Dukakis' gubernatorial administration and that the federal government under Ronald Reagan had a similar program that had resulted in similar outcomes, candidate Bush decided to play the race and crime card to boost his candidacy. Bush mentioned Horton by name in a speech in June 1988 and an "independent" political action committee (PAC) legally not affiliated with the Bush campaign, the National Security Political Action Committee, aired an ad entitled "Weekend Passes" which used a mug shot image of the African American Horton. The Bush campaign refused to repudiate it, and indeed, followed it up with its own, official campaign ad, "Revolving Door," criticizing Dukakis over the furlough program without mentioning Horton.
The first Bush to be president also hammered on the patriotism theme (and unlike his son, an errant National Guard pilot during the Vietnam War, George H.W. Bush was an authentic war hero, serving honorably during the Second World War) to undermine Dukakis by portraying him as soft on defense, in regards to the controversial "Star Wars" Space Defense Initiative program, which Dukakis promised to scale down. The response to this provocation lead to a public relations disaster when the Dukakis campaign engineered a photo-op at the General Dynamics plant in Michigan in September 1988, in which The Duke was photographed driving an M1 Abrams tank. Filmed wearing a safety helmet that seemed too large for his head, Dukakis looked awkward, out of place, and decidedly uncomfortable in such a military setting. Footage of Dukakis was used by the Bush campaign as evidence he would not make a good commander-in-chief, and "Dukakis in the tank" is still shorthand among political operatives for disastrous public relations outings.
The campaign arguably was the dirtiest since the 19th century until Bush's son ran for reelection against John Kerry in 2004. Dukakis lost the 1988 election and retired from active politics after his gubernatorial term expired in 1991. The "Massachusetts Miracle" expired during the lead up to the recession that gripped America in the Bush administration, and The Duke's popularity withered as he was forced to significantly raise taxes. He did not run for a fourth term in 1990; controversial Boston University President John Silber, a social reactionary who was dubbed by Ronald Reagan his "Favorite Demcorat" won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, and narrowly lost the general election to William Weld, ushering in nearly two decades of Republican governors in the heavily Democratic Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
After the end of his term, he served on the board of directors for Amtrak. Splitting his time between Boston and Los Angeles, California, he became a professor of political science at Boston's Northeastern University and a visiting professor of public policy at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dukakis has recently developed a strong passion for grassroots campaigning and the appointment of precinct captains to coordinate local campaigning activities, two strategies he feels are essential for the Democratic Party to compete effectively in both local and national elections. His policies have become gospel to Howard Dean, the head of the Democratic Central Committee. He also has taken a strong role in advocating for effective public transportation and high speed rail as a solution to automobile congestion and the lack of space at airports.- Actor
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Rudolph Giuliani is an American politician, attorney, and public speaker who served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He acted as an attorney to President Donald Trump. Politically first a Democrat, then an Independent in the 1970s, and a Republican since the 1980s, Giuliani served as United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 1983. That year he became the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, holding the position until 1989.- Producer
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In every role she has ever held -- as an advocate for women and kids, as an attorney, as First Lady, as Senator, as Secretary of State, and as the first woman in U.S. history to earn a major party's presidential nomination - Hillary Clinton has defied convention and stood up for what she believes.
She knows more than most about setbacks - and comebacks. She has a fierce sense of gratitude for the women who have come before her, and those who inspire her today. She is a mom and a proud grandma who is determined to make the world fairer and more equal for everyone.- Actor
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His father, a sales representative, died in a car accident a few months before his birth. His mother then moved to New Orleans. Bill Clinton initially grew up with his grandparents. In 1950 his mother returned to Hope. That same year she married car dealer Roger Clinton. As a member of a student delegation from the patriotic American Legion, Clinton met in Washington D.C. with President John F. Kennedy. Clinton was interested in politics from a young age. After graduating from high school, he studied international relations at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. until 1968. He then studied law at Yale and Oxford Universities on a scholarship until 1973. During his studies, Clinton was already involved in various student organizations. He played saxophone in a jazz band and supported himself as a staffer in the office of Senator J. William Fulbright. In 1968, Clinton received a "Rhodes Scholarship" that allowed him to travel to the University of Oxford, England.
From 1970 he studied law at Yale University. After receiving his doctorate in 1973, he briefly worked for the House Judiciary Committee. From 1973 to 1976 he was appointed to the University of Arkansas School of Law. In 1974 he ran for a seat in the House of Representatives, but was narrowly defeated by the Republican incumbent John-Paul Hammerschmidt. In 1975, Bill Clinton married Hillary Rodham, Hillary Clinton. In 1976, Clinton was elected to the office of Attorney General of Arkansas. Two years later, in 1978, at just 32 years old, he was appointed governor of Arkansas, the youngest head of government of an American state at the time. After two years he resigned from the senatorial office. His daughter Chelsea was born in 1980. From 1980 to 1983, Bill Clinton worked at the law firm of Wright, Lindsey and Jennings in Little Rock. At the end of 1983 he was re-elected as governor of Arkansas. In 1985 he became a co-founder of the "Democratic Leadership Council" and from 1990 its chairman.
From 1986 to 1987, Clinton served as chairman of the National Governors Association. In 1991, Clinton decided to run for president. In July 1991 he was nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate. Senator Al Gore, who was running for vice-presidency, went into the election campaign with him. Throughout the entire election campaign, Bill Clinton was in the lead by a clear margin, not least because of his successful connection to the historical myth of former President John F Kennedy. In the presidential election on November 3, 1992, Clinton won over the incumbent George H. W. Bush. He then moved into the White House on January 20, 1993 as the 42nd President of the United States of America. At 46, he was the third youngest president in the history of the United States, after Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. Clinton's top priorities during his term in office were the introduction of health insurance, reconciliation with Vietnam, and combating drug abuse, gun violence, and poverty in the United States and the world.
On foreign policy matters, Clinton visited Germany on July 10, 1994. In Berlin he gave a speech in which Clinton, like John F. Kennedy in 1963, said in German "America is at your side - now and forever." In 1994 he received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University. In terms of foreign policy, he supported the Israeli-Jordanian peace process, which led to the peace treaty between the two countries. At the CSCE summit in Budapest in 1995, Clinton, Boris Yeltsin and the presidents of Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan exchanged views on the instruments of ratification of the START I Agreement. The Treaty on the Reduction of Nuclear Weapons with a Range of More Than 5,500 km, signed in 1991, thus came into force. In the following presidential election in November 1996, Clinton was able to clearly assert himself in office against Bob Dole. The summit meeting between Boris Yeltsin and Clinton in Helsinki ended in March 1997 without an agreement on the dispute over NATO's eastern expansion. In May 1997, Clinton traveled to Mexico on an official visit. It was the first visit by a US president to the neighboring country since 1979.
In May 1997, the "Basic Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security between the North Atlantic Organization and the Russian Federation" was signed in Paris. After a long budget dispute between the administration and Congress, an agreement on tax cuts was reached. The US budget was brought out of the red for the first time since 1969. President Clinton's second term was overshadowed by allegations of sexually assaulting government employee Paula Jones in a hotel room in 1991. Clinton denied the accusation.
For the first time in the history of the United States, a sitting president testified under oath on his own behalf on January 17, 1998. On January 26, 1998, Clinton reaffirmed his sworn statement that he had not had an extramarital affair with his intern, Monica Lewinsky. Clinton also rejected the accusation that he had incited Lewinsky to make false statements with an affidavit. For the first time in 130 years, i.e. H. Since the presidency of Andrew Johnson, impeachment proceedings have again been opened against an American president in office.
Clinton later revised his statement. However, at the end of the investigation in 1999, the allegations were not sufficient for either impeachment or indictment. In March 1998, Clinton became the first US president to undertake an extensive tour of southern Africa. As part of this trip, he announced debt relief for African reform states. Paula Jones' lawsuit against Clinton was dismissed by the Arkansas federal court in April 1998. After bombings at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the US fired cruise missiles at six suspected terrorist camps in Afghanistan in retaliation on August 20, 1998. In October 1998, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat signed a peace agreement in Washington at Clinton's initiative. This got the peace process in the Middle East, which had been stalled for almost two years, back on track. Despite protests from the Chinese government, Clinton received the Dalai Lama at the White House in November 1998. As a result of the 2000 hacker attacks on the World Wide Web, a conference on Internet security issues began in Washington. Clinton advocated for a national security center.
On June 2, 2000, during his visit to Germany, Bill Clinton became the first US president to receive the International Charlemagne Prize from the city of Aachen. In his laudatory speech, Gerhard Schröder praised Clinton's commitment to growing together in Europe. That same month, he became the first U.S. president to deliver a speech to the Russian parliament. He offered Russia comprehensive cooperation. During his three-day visit to Moscow, he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and privately visited former President Boris Yeltsin. At the turn of the millennium, Bill Clinton completed his term as one of the most successful presidents of the United States. Above all, his commitment to new companies and technologies gave the USA the longest economic rise in its history. His successor as US President was George W. Bush, who was sworn in as the 43rd President of the United States on February 20, 2001. On June 22, 2004, Bill Clinton published his biography entitled "My Life" in New York. The almost 1,000-page work was pre-ordered two million times before publication.
Bill Clinton underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery in New York on September 6, 2004, but he survived without incident. The former US President is committed to fighting poverty, corruption and climate change worldwide with his "Clinton Global Initiative", which held its first conference in New York in mid-September 2005. For his tireless efforts to help the poorest, Bill Clinton was awarded the German media prize "Bambi" by Hubert Burda Medien in the "Charity" category in Germany in December 2005. In 2007 he was honored with the TED Prize and in 2013 Clinton was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America's highest civilian honor, by Barack Obama.- Dick Cheney was born on 30 January 1941 in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. He has been married to Lynne Cheney since 29 August 1964. They have two children.
- After school, Rumsfeld studied at Princeton University. From 1954 to 1957 he served in the US Navy. He was subsequently represented in the US Congress several times as a member of the Republican Party. In 1954 Rumsfeld married Joyce Pierson, with whom he had three children. In the years 1969/70 and 1971/72, Rumsfeld served as economic advisor to President Richard Nixon. In 1973/74 he served as US envoy to NATO. Under President Gerald Rudolph Ford, Rumsfeld was elevated to White House chief of staff in 1974/75. He served as Secretary of Defense under the same President from 1975 to 1977. After Ford left the presidency, Rumsfeld also lost his political office in 1977. He now turned to business, holding senior positions at G. D. Searle and Company from 1977 to 1985.
From 1985 to 1990, Rumsfeld served as a senior advisor to William Blair and Company. From 1990 to 1993 he worked as a manager for General Instrument Corporation and from 1997 to 2000 for Gilead Sciences, Inc. Rumsfeld received 11 academic honorary degrees. He was, among other things, Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the Eisenhower Medal in 1993. Rumsfeld was given the opportunity to make a political comeback in 2001 when George W. Bush became president. Since then he has taken up the office of Defense Minister again. In this role, he was at the center of global attention, especially after the terrorist attack on the USA on September 11, 2001 and during the US military strike against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan a few months later. Since the summer of 2002, in connection with the preparations for a US attack on Iraq, the world's attention has once again been focused on the statements of the veteran US Secretary of Defense.
As a supporter of his president's war policy, Rumsfeld increasingly overshadows Secretary of State Colin Powell, who dissents from it. Although Rumsfeld came under increasing public criticism over the Iraq War due to allegations of torture against American soldiers, he was able to retain his office during President Bush's second term in office after his re-election in November 2004. After the Iraq War, Rumsfeld emerged primarily as a warning about Iran's terrorist potential and China's growing military power. In 2004/05, the American Secretary of Defense made three trips to Latin America to ensure the support of the local governments in the US dispute with Venezuela. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has long been trying to forge an "Axis of the South" against the North American superpower in order to give the South American countries back their autonomy. He also concluded an alliance with the Cuban head of state Fidel Castro.
Following the Republican defeat in the 2006 congressional elections, Bush announced Rumsfeld's resignation as Secretary of Defense on November 8, 2006. The US administration was responding to ongoing criticism of the deployment of American soldiers in Iraq. Robert Gates was nominated as his successor. His memoirs were published in February 2011 under the title "Known and Unknown: A Memoir".
Donald Rumsfeld died on June 29, 2021 in Taos, New Mexico. - Camera and Electrical Department
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The 43rd President of the United States of America, George Walker Bush (known colloquially as "W" to distinguish himself from his father, George Bush, the 41st president of the U.S.), was born two days after the national holiday of the Fourth of July, 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut. There, his father was attending Yale College in the Class of 1949. His mother was Barbara Bush (the former Barbara Pierce), whom his father had married on January 6, 1945. "W" was their first child. Bush disliked being called "Junior" or Bush II, or even having the term "Jr." abbreviated next to his name.
Initially, W's prospects of living up to his illustrious pedigree were dim. Possibly hobbled by dyslexia (a condition little understood and seldom treated during his childhood), Bush proved an uninspired student in high school. He did maintain a gentlemanly "C+" average at Yale and acquired a Masters of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School, but until he turned 40, he seemed to be floundering. He admittedly had a drinking problem in his youth, but a late marriage to Laura Welch helped stabilize him. His rebirth as a believing Christian (he is a Methodist whereas his parents were Episcopalian) in 1986 helped put him on the straight and narrow path that led him to the Presidency.
Bush has been discounted many times in his life and career for being wooden and unintelligent due to his fractured speaking style, but in fact, his academic performance was on par if not slightly better than that of his better-spoken, fellow Yalie John Kerry. As Bush's test scores and subsequent achievements suggest an above average intelligence, it is appropriate to believe that he likely has benefited from other's underestimation of his gifts. This was apparent in the first televised debate with Al Gore in 2000, when Bush held his own against the condescending vice president, and in doing so, triumphed in the eyes of the political handicappers.
After W. turned his life around in the late 1980s, he began achieving success on his own, though that success inevitably was indebted to his social position and his father's business and political connections, particularly after he himself ascended to the Presidency after the expiration of Ronald Reagan's second term. The first President Bush (Bush 41, as he is colloquially known) had great connections in the Middle East, particularly with the Saudi royal family and the powerful Bin Laden clan. Using his father's Saudi connections, Bush Jr. became a millionaire twice over through Middle Eastern oil projects. His most notable achievement in private life was in becoming president and chief operating partner of the Texas Rangers professional baseball team, which was financially invigorated by the building of a new stadium with taxpayers' funds. For a man whose greatest ambition was not the presidency but to be baseball commissioner, the "job" of Rangers owner suited him just fine, and his stint as the amiable owner of the team helped generate good publicity that wiped out his past image as a playboy. When he cashed out his ownership stake, Bush had a $14 million profit. More importantly, ownership of the Rangers positioned him financially and in the public eye for a successful run for the governorship of Texas, which proved to be his springboard to the presidency.
Under the quirky Texas constitution, the governor of Texas is primarily a ceremonial position, somewhat akin to that of the president in a Parliamentary system. The true political power in Texas lies with the lieutenant governor, who acts as a prime minister (or provincial premier in Canada) in that that he/she runs the legislature. In a life characterized by luck, the capricious Bush was luckier still in that he was told by the lieutenant governor, a Democrat, that he would make Bush a great governor if he would let him. Bush did and established an enviable reputation, one that crossed both party lines in Texas, where it would have been futile for the governor to act in a partisan fashion.
With his father's Eastern Establishment credentials that linked him to the "Rockefeller Republicans" (conservative on financial matters, liberal on social issues) and his mother's own noted social liberalism, Bush was seen as being a moderate with a difference. That difference was his connections to the powerful evangelical Christian wing of the Republican Party, due to his own rebirth as a believing Christian and his immersion in day-to-day Texas politics. In the Sun Belt, fundamentalists and evangelicals were considered ordinary, run-of-the-day folk, not the exotics that Washington and the Eastern Establishment looked at them as.
With a foot in both wings of the party, Bush was seen as a natural candidate for president after Bob Dole's dolorous 1996 candidacy. That he was a "straight shooter" with no scandal attached to him since his misbegotten youth (which he had confessed to and had put behind him) made him attractive to the Republicans, who had tried to terminate William Jefferson Clinton's presidency through impeachment due to his lies linked to his "bimbo eruptions." Bush seemed like a "Man for All Seasons" that would be the GOP's best shot of unseating the Clintonistas as represented by Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election.
With the Republican Establishment firmly behind him as a kind of "Great White Hope" of the Grand Old Party, Bush managed to wrap up the nomination easily, after stumbling initially when confronted with the candidacy of the renegade Republican senator from Arizona, John McCain. Although viewed by most Republicans as a RINO (Republican in name only), McCain dominated the early primaries in states that allowed cross over voting by attracting middle-of-the-road independents and conservative Democrats, but stumbled himself when the primary season headed South. He was badly defeated by Bush in South Carolina, a deeply conservative state that had voted for favorite son (and segregationist) Strom Thurmond in 1948, uber-conservative Barry Goldwater in 1964, and segregationist George Wallace in 1968. McCain also was victimized by smear tactics, such as the whispering campaign started by Mississippi Senator Trent Lott that claimed the renegade McCain had been mentally discombobulated by his seven years as a POW in Vietnam. The dirty tricks used against McCain by Bush campaign manager/major domo Karl Rove would prove to be harbingers of the paranoid style of politics that would come to fruition during Bush's first term.
McCain, a maverick senator with the support of many moderate Republicans and Independents as well as a following among conservative Democrats, was not only smeared, but his attempts to get on the ballot in such states as New York were stymied until the federal courts stepped in. (In 2004, even though he endorsed Bush against Kerry, McCain found himself smeared again by elements connected with Karl Rove when he defended Kerry's war record and patriotism.) The Republican Establishment were determined to give the nomination to a true blue Republican who could win (the color red was not associated with the GOP until Election Night 2000, when it was used as the map color for the Party after a century wherein the Republicans were blue and the Democrats red). After his defeat of McCain in South Carolina, Bush had as easy a time wrapping up the nomination as if he had been an incumbent.
At the beginning of the fall campaign, what with the U.S. still enjoying the tail end of almost eight years of prosperity under President Bill Clinton, his vice president, Al Gore, started out as a prohibitive favorite to win the presidency. Gore, whoever, turned out to be unable to shed his past reputation as an uninspiring campaigner, and failed to fire up the uncommitted. Bush, on the other hand, a relative unknown commodity who had enjoyed good press for the past decade as a baseball owner and governor, did not make many errors after appearing at Bob Jones University several weeks after it had banned interracial dating during the early Republican primaries (for which he apologized). He capitalized on the low expectations others had for him, and won respect - and votes - for going the distance without stumbling or embarrassing himself, while Gore had to live down the bimbo eruptions of his past running mate and his own faux pas, such as his claim to have invented the "Information Superhighway" (Internet). His stiff, "Wooden Indian" style came off as pompous on the campaign trail, giving Bush's persona a boost as it could have been portrayed as bumbling if he had been up against a natural born campaigner such as Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan.
In the game of politics as played in the US, Gore had everything to lose and Bush had everything to gain. Gore had to rise and exceed expectations while Bush merely had to live up to lowered expectations to rise above them and gain credence, and he did, beginning with the first debate. Going into the first debate, pundits expected the better-spoken Gore to eviscerate the syntactically challenged Bush (whose intelligence they disparaged), but it did not happen. Gore was haughty, and since Bush held his own, the governor of Texas was adjudged the winner. From there to the end of the campaign, Gore could never consolidate his early lead, which slipped away.
On election day, Bush and Gore were locked in a dead heat. In the closest election in a century, it all came down to a matter of 537 votes in Florida. Out of the nearly six million votes cast in the Sunshine State (5,861,785 total, with 36,742 won by third party candidates), Bush was certified as the winner, with a margin representing 0.0087%, less than nine one-thousandths of a percentage point.
After a long drawn-out process involving recounts and court challenges, Bush took the oath of office on January 20, 2001 and won re-election in November 2004 to become the first son of a president to win two terms in office.- Actor
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Former Vice President Al Gore is a founding partner and chairman of Generation Investment Management, and the founder and chairman of The Climate Reality Project, a nonprofit devoted to solving the climate crisis. He is also a senior partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and a member of Apple Inc.'s board of directors.
Gore was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976, 1978, 1980, and 1982 and to the U.S. Senate in 1984 and 1990. He was inaugurated as the 45th vice president of the United States on January 20, 1993, and served eight years.
He is the author of the #1 New York Times best-sellers "An Inconvenient Truth" and "The Assault on Reason," and the best-sellers "Earth in the Balance," "Our Choice: A Plan To Solve the Climate Crisis," "The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change," and most recently, The New York Times best-seller "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power."
He is the subject of the documentary movie "An Inconvenient Truth," which won two Oscars in 2006 - and a second documentary in 2017, "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power." In 2007, Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for "informing the world of the dangers posed by climate change."- Actor
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Ralph Nader was born on 27 February 1934 in Winsted, Connecticut, USA. He is an actor, known for Fun with Dick and Jane (2005), Laugh-In (1977) and LateLine (1998).- Actor
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John Kerry is an American politician who served as the 68th United States Secretary of State from 2013 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as a United States Senator from Massachusetts from 1985 until 2013. He was the Democratic nominee in the 2004 presidential election, losing to Republican incumbent President George W. Bush.- Producer
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U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama II was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. His mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was a white American from Wichita, Kansas. His father, Barack Obama Sr., who was black, was from Alego, Kenya. They were both young college students at the University of Hawaii. When his father left for Harvard, his mother and Barack stayed behind, and his father ultimately returned alone to Kenya, where he worked as a government economist. Barack's mother remarried an Indonesian oil manager and moved to Jakarta when Barack was six. He later recounted Indonesia as simultaneously lush and a harrowing exposure to tropical poverty. He returned to Hawaii, where he was brought up largely by his grandparents. The family lived in a small apartment - his grandfather was a furniture salesman and an unsuccessful insurance agent and his grandmother worked in a bank - but Barack managed to get into Punahou School, Hawaii's top prep academy. His father wrote to him regularly but, though he traveled around the world on official business for Kenya, he visited only once, when Barack was ten. Obama attended Columbia University, but found New York's racial tension inescapable. He became a community organizer for a small Chicago church-based group for three years, helping poor South Side residents cope with a wave of plant closings. He then attended Harvard Law School, and in 1990 became the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review. He turned down a prestigious judicial clerkship, choosing instead to practice civil-rights law back in Chicago, representing victims of housing and employment discrimination and working on voting-rights legislation. He also began teaching at the University of Chicago Law School, and married Michelle Robinson (now Michelle Obama, a fellow attorney; their daughters are Sasha Obama and Malia Obama. Eventually, he was elected to the Illinois state senate, where his district included both Hyde Park and some of the poorest ghettos on the South Side. In 2004, Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat, representing Illinois, and he gained national attention by giving a rousing and well-received keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. In 2008 he ran for President, and despite having only four years of national political experience, he won. In January 2009, he was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, and the first African-American ever elected to that position. Obama was re-elected to a second term in November 2012 - and was sworn in in January 2013. His presidential term ended in January 2017- Actor
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John McCain was born on 29 August 1936 in Canal Zone, Panama. He was an actor and writer, known for Parks and Recreation (2009), John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls (2018) and Saturday Night Live (1975). He was married to Cindy McCain and Carol Shepp. He died on 25 August 2018 in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.- Willard Mitt Romney, the multimillionaire financier who was governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 and a Republican Presidential candidate in 2008 and 2012, was born on March 12, 1947 in Detroit, Michigan, to businessman George Romney and his wife, Lenore Romney (née Lafount). At birth, he was named Willard Mitt after his father's best friend and hotelier, J. Willard Marriott, plus his father's cousin, Milton "Mitt" Romney, a pro football player who was the quarterback of the Chicago Bears. His mother was an aspiring actress who turned down a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to marry George. Of English, Scottish, and German ancestry, Mitt's father was born in Colonia Dublán, Galeana, Chihuahua, Mexico, to American parents.
George Romney eventually served as the head of the Detroit-based automaker, American Motors, and as a popular three-term governor of Michigan before launching his own aborted bid for the 1968 Republican Presidential nomination. A moderate Republican, who was a liberal on civil rights in the mold of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, George served in the first cabinet of President Richard Nixon as his Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. George also was an important figure in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as was his son, Mitt.
Mitt served as a Mormon missionary in France before marrying his high school sweetheart, Ann Romney (nee Davies), in 1969. Mitt had met Ann when he was attending public elementary school and began dating her in his senior year, when he was attending the prep school Cranbrook, where he was the lone Mormon. (Anne, who was not a Mormon, was attending Cranbrook's sister school, Kingswood). His father oversaw Anne's conversion while he was away in France. The couple eventually would have five sons.
After graduating from Brigham Young University, he earned a joint J.D. (law) degree and M.B.A. at Harvard University. Remaining in the Boston area, he became a management consultant, eventually winding up at Bain & Co., where he became the C.E.O. He created the spin-off private equity investment company, Bain Capital, which made him a multimillionaire with a fortune conservatively estimated at $250 million.
A political independent, he registered as a Republican and won the GOP 1994 nomination for the U.S. Senate in the 1994, taking on the very popular incumbent, Ted Kennedy, who was not only the scion of Massachusetts' greatest political family but a political powerhouse in his own right. Though Romney lost the election 41% to Kennedy's 58%, it was the smallest margin of victory Teddy had experienced since first being elected to the Senate in 1962 when his brother John F. Kennedy was in the White House. (In his previous election, 1988, Teddy had won over the Republican nominee 65% to 34% and, in the next election, 2000, he trounced the Republican nominee 73% to 13%). In 2002, Romney took a sabbatical from business to manage the scandal-plagued Salt Lake Organizing Committee that was responsible for putting on the 2002 Winter Olympics. With a steady hand, he eliminated the problems that threatened the Olympics. The 2002 Olympics turned out to be a success.
That same year, he won the Republican gubernatorial nomination for the state of Massachusetts. He ran, unopposed, to win the Republican nomination; then beat the Democrat, State Treasurer Shannon O'Brien, 50% to 45% in the general election.
As Governor of Massachusetts, his signature accomplishments were eliminating a budget deficit, projected at $3 billion, by hiking fees and implementing spending cuts, and signing a law mandating universal health insurance. Though not as liberal as previous Republican Governor William Weld, he was considered a moderate.
With his poll numbers lagging at the end of his first term, indicating that he'd have a tough time winning re-election, Mitt demurred from seeking a second term. He already had his eye on the Presidency.
Romney had made many trips to neighboring New Hampshire, the site of the nation's first presidential primary, while still Governor, and continued to do so in the year after he left office in January 2007. However, U.S. Senator John McCain, a Granite State favorite (who had won the New Hampshire primary in 2000), bested Romney in the primary held on January 8, 2008. At the end of January 2008, Romney spent $90 million, $35 million of which was his own money, for the 2008 U.S. Republican presidential nomination. Though he did eventually win several primaries and caucuses, he failed to win in Florida and dropped out of the race on February 7, 2008, two days after his disappointing showing on "Super Tuesday". He endorsed McCain a week later.
Romney was questioned by federal courts on topics of campaign monies. Freed of constraints on campaign cash by the Supreme Court decision, Citizens United vs. F.E.C., Romney and his allies have spent much more than $90 million in the 2012 election cycle. Some opponents to Romney feel that in the Florida primary, alone, he won because of the money spent on advertising the campaign. Romney and his allies spent $15.4 million on TV and radio ads, which was $3.4 million more than John McCain spent on ads during the entire primary cycle of his 2008 campaign. In 2012, much had changed from 2008, though. Computers and social media now play a huge role in getting messages to every person in America who vote. This required spending much more money than in the past. He won the Republican nomination against opponents (in alphabetical order) Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Gary Johnson, Thaddeus McCotter, Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum. - John Reid Edwards was born in Seneca, South Carolina on June 10th, 1953. John was born to a middle class family. His father worked at a textile mill for years. John attended public schools in Robbins, North Carolina while he was growing up and worked at his father's textile mill himself when he was old enough to do so. He graduated with a B.A. from North Carolina State University in 1974, and graduated with a J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1977.
He owned his own law firm in Raleigh, North Carolina called Edwards & Kirby along with his best friend from college and business partner. Edwards ran for The United States Senate in 1998 as a member of the Democratic party in the North Carolina U.S. Senate race and was elected for the 6 year North Carolina U.S. Senate term from January of 1999 to January of 2005.
In 2002, the first-term Democratic US Senator from North Carolina announced his candidacy for the 2004 US Democratic Presidential nomination. Edwards finished second in the 2004 Democratic Presidential nomination process to Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. Due to his strong showing in the 2004 Democratic Presidential election primaries, he was chosen by Senator Kerry to be his running mate on the 2004 US Democratic ticket for the US Presidency.
As of October of 2004, Edwards is running for the office of The Vice President of The United States on the ticket with Presidential candidate John Kerry against Republican U.S. President George W. Bush, and Republican U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney. - Joe Biden became the 46th President of the United States on January 20th 2021.
He is an actor, known for Parks and Recreation (2009), Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (1991) and Great Performances (1971). He has been married to Jill Biden since June 17, 1977. They have one child. He was previously married to Neilia Biden. - Actor
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Michael R. Bloomberg is an entrepreneur and philanthropist who served three terms as Mayor of the City of New York.
Michael Rubens Bloomberg was in Boston, the son of Charlotte (Rubens) and William Henry Bloomberg, an accountant. He is of Russian Jewish descent. He was raised in a middle class home in Medford, Massachusetts. Michael attended Johns Hopkins University, where he paid his tuition by taking out loans and working as a parking lot attendant. After college, he attended Harvard Business School and in 1966 was hired by a Wall Street firm, Salomon Brothers, for an entry-level job.
Bloomberg quickly rose through the ranks at Salomon, overseeing equity trading and sales before heading up the firm's information systems. When Salomon was acquired in 1981, he was let go from the firm. With a vision of an information technology company that would bring transparency and efficiency to the buying and selling of financial securities, he launched a small startup in a one room office. Today, Bloomberg LP is a global company that has more than 15,500 employees and offices in 73 countries around the world.
During his tenure as mayor, from 2002 through 2013, Bloomberg brought his innovation-driven approach to city government. He turned around a broken public school system by raising standards and holding schools accountable for success. He spurred economic growth and record levels of job creation by revitalizing old industrial areas, spurring entrepreneurship, supporting small businesses, and strengthening key industries, including new media, film and television, bio-science, technology, and tourism. Mayor Bloomberg's economic policies helped New York City experience record-levels of private-sector job growth often in formerly depressed neighborhoods, even in the wake of the deep national recession.
His passion for public health led to ambitious new strategies that became national models, including a ban on smoking in all indoor workplaces, as well as at parks and beaches. Life expectancy grew by 36 months during Mayor Bloomberg's twelve years in office. He launched cutting-edge anti-poverty efforts, including the Young Men's Initiative and the Center for Economic Opportunity, whose ground-breaking programs have been replicated across the country. As a result, New York City's welfare rolls fell 25 percent, and New York was the only big city in the country not to experience an increase in poverty between the 2000 Census and 2012. He also created innovative plans to fight climate change and promote sustainable development, which helped cut the city's carbon footprint by 19 percent. His belief that America's mayors and business leaders can help effect change in Washington led him to launch national bi-partisan coalitions to combat illegal guns, reform immigration, and invest in infrastructure. He was a strong champion of the city's cultural community, expanding support for artists and arts organizations and helping to bring more than 100 permanent public art commissions to all five boroughs.
Upon leaving City Hall, Michael Bloomberg returned to the company he founded while also devoting more time to philanthropy, which has been a top priority for him throughout his career. Today, Bloomberg Philanthropies employs a unique data-driven approach to global change that grows out of his experiences as an entrepreneur and mayor. In addition to Bloomberg Philanthropies' five areas of focus - public health, arts and culture, the environment, education, and government innovation - Bloomberg has continued to support projects of great importance to him, including his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University, where he served as the chairman of the board of trustees from 1996-2001. The university's School of Hygiene and Public Health - the largest public health facility in the U.S. - is named the Bloomberg School of Public Health in recognition of his commitment and support. Bloomberg has donated more than $4.3 billion to a wide variety of causes and organizations.
As chair of the C40 Climate Leadership Group from 2010 to 2013, Bloomberg drew international attention to cities' leading role in the fight against climate change. In 2014, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Bloomberg to be U.N. Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change where he is focusing on helping cities and countries set and achieve more ambitious climate change goals. In 2016, Bloomberg accepted World Health Organization director-general Margaret Chan's invitation to serve as the WHO global ambassador for noncommunicable diseases as part of the WHO's push to achieve UN goals of reducing premature NCD deaths by one-third by 2030, and halving the number of road deaths and injuries by 2020.
Michael Bloomberg is the father of two daughters, Emma and Georgina.- Producer
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Mike Huckabee is an American politician who served as the 44th governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. He was a candidate in the United States Republican presidential primaries in both 2008 and 2016.
He was the host of the talk show Huckabee (2008), which ran on the Fox News Channel from 2008-2017, and runs on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, simulcast on Newsmax TV. He paused the show in January 2015 in order to explore a potential bid for the presidency. From April 2012 through December 2013, he hosted a daily radio program, The Mike Huckabee Show, on weekday afternoons for Cumulus Media Networks. Huckabee is the author of several best-selling books, an ordained Southern Baptist minister noted for his evangelical views, a musician, and a public speaker. He was also a political commentator on The Huckabee Report.
In the 2008 Republican presidential primaries, Huckabee won the 2008 Iowa Republican caucuses and finished second in delegate count and third in both popular vote and number of states won, behind John McCain and Mitt Romney. Huckabee ran again for the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential election, but lost to businessman Donald Trump. His daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, served two years as President Trump's White House Press Secretary.- Producer
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Rick Santorum was born on 10 May 1958 in Winchester, Virginia, USA. He is a producer and executive, known for 77 Chances (2015), Hoovey (2015) and Sweet Sweet Summertime (2017). He has been married to Karen Garver since 2 June 1990. They have seven children.- Congressman and three time Presidential candidate Ron Paul of Texas enjoys a national reputation as the premier advocate for liberty in politics today. Dr. Paul is the leading spokesman in Washington for limited constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, and a return to sound monetary policies based on commodity-backed currency. He is known among both his colleagues in Congress and his constituents for his consistent voting record in the House of Representatives: Dr. Paul never votes for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the constitution. Dr. Paul is the author of several books, including "The Revolution: A Manifesto", "End the Fed", "Liberty Defined", "Challenge to Liberty", "The Case for Gold", and "A Republic, If You Can Keep It".
- Rand Paul was born on 7 January 1963 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He is an actor, known for SenatorRandPaul (2011), The Record with Greta Van Susteren (2022) and Nova (1974). He has been married to Kelley Paul since 20 October 1990. They have three children.
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Donald John Trump was born on June 14, 1946 at the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens, New York City, New York. He is the son of Mary Trump (née Macleod) and Fred Trump, a real estate millionaire. His mother was a Scottish immigrant who initially worked as a maid. His father was born in New York, to German parents.
From kindergarten through seventh grade, he attended the Kew-Forest School. At age 13, he enrolled in the New York Military Academy.
In 1964, he began his higher education at Fordham University. After two years, he transferred to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics.
From 1971 to 2017, he was chairman and president of his family real estate company, Elizabeth Trump & Son (now called The Trump Organization), which was founded in 1923 by his grandmother and father. His business career primarily focused on building or renovating office towers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses.
He has five children, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump with his first wife, Ivana Trump (m. 1977- d.1990), Tiffany Trump with his second wife, Marla Maples (m. 1993- d.1999) and Barron Trump with his third wife, Melania Trump (m. 2005).
He has hosted and produced the reality television series, The Apprentice (2004), which has been nominated for nine Primetime Emmy awards.
He was the 45th President of the United States from January 20, 2017 - January 20, 2021.- Additional Crew
Jeb Bush was born on 11 February 1953 in Midland, Texas, USA. He is known for W. (2008), Courting Des Moines (2016) and Convention '92 (1992). He has been married to Columba Garnica Gallo since 23 February 1974. They have three children.- Actor
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Ben Carson was born on 18 September 1951 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Stuck on You (2003), Casa Publicadora Online 2013 (2013) and Kirk Cameron REVIVE US 2 (2016). He has been married to Candy Carson since 6 July 1975. They have three children.- Producer
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Ted Cruz was born on 22 December 1970 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is a producer and writer, known for Lady Ballers (2023), Verdict with Ted Cruz (2020) and Undecided: The Movie (2016). He has been married to Heidi Cruz since 27 May 2001. They have two children.- Marco Rubio was born on 28 May 1971 in Miami, Florida, USA. He has been married to Jeanette Rubio since 17 October 1998. They have four children.
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Newt Gingrich is an American politician, author, and historian who served as the 50th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he was the U.S. Representative for Georgia's 6th congressional district from 1979 until his resignation in 1999. In 2012, Gingrich was a candidate for the presidential nomination of his party.
A professor of history and geography at the University of West Georgia in the 1970s, Gingrich won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in November 1978, the first Republican in the history of Georgia's 6th congressional district to do so. He served as House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995. A co-author and architect of the "Contract with America", Gingrich was a major leader in the Republican victory in the 1994 congressional election. In 1995, Time named him "Man of the Year" for "his role in ending the four-decades-long Democratic majority in the House".
As House Speaker, Newt Gingrich oversaw passage by the House of welfare reform and a capital gains tax cut in 1997. Gingrich played a key role in several government shutdowns. He resigned altogether from the House on January 3, 1999.
Since leaving the House, Newt Gingrich has remained active in public policy debates and worked as a political consultant. He founded and chaired several policy think tanks, including American Solutions for Winning the Future and the Center for Health Transformation. He ran for the Republican nomination in the 2012 presidential election, but ultimately endorsed front runner Mitt Romney, who won the nomination.- Actor
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Bernie Sanders was born on 8 September 1941 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor, known for My X-Girlfriend's Wedding Reception (1999), The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel (2020) and Tucker Carlson Tonight (2016). He has been married to Jane Sanders since 28 May 1988. He was previously married to Deborah Shiling.- Tim Kaine was born on 26 February 1958 in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. He has been married to Anne Holton since 24 November 1984. They have three children.
- Mike Pence was born on 7 June 1959 in Columbus, Indiana, USA. He is an actor, known for Age of Rush (2021), 2024 Republican Party Presidential Debates (2023) and 2020 Republican National Convention (2020). He has been married to Karen Pence since 8 June 1985. They have three children.
- Paul Ryan was born on 29 January 1970 in Janesville, Wisconsin, USA. He is a producer, known for Murder in the Hollywood Hills (2024), Dateline: The Last Day (2022) and The Widower (2021). He has been married to Janna Christine Little since 2 December 2000. They have three children.
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Mitch McConnell was born on 20 February 1942 in Tuscumbia, Alabama, USA. He is an actor, known for The Andrew Klavan Show (2015), No News Is News (2022) and ABC World News Tonight with David Muir (1953). He has been married to Elaine Chao since 6 February 1993. He was previously married to Sherrill Lynn Redmon.- Richard Shelby was born on 6 May 1934 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. He has been married to Annette Nevin since 1960. They have three children.
- Dick Durbin was born on 21 November 1944 in East St. Louis, Illinois, USA. He has been married to Loretta Schaefer since 1967. They have three children.
- Beto O'Rourke is an American politician who represented Texas's 16th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2013 to 2019. O'Rourke is notable for having run for United States Senate in 2018. He sought the 2020 Democratic nomination for President of the United States.
O'Rourke was born into a local political family in El Paso, Texas, and is a graduate of Woodberry Forest School and Columbia University. While studying at Columbia, O'Rourke began a brief music career as bass guitarist in the post-hardcore band Foss. After his college graduation, he returned to El Paso and began a business career. In 2005, he was elected to the El Paso City Council, serving until 2011. O'Rourke was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012.
After being re-elected to the House in 2014 and 2016, O'Rourke declined to seek re-election in 2018. Despite his defeat, O'Rourke set a record for most votes ever cast for a Democrat in Texas history. On March 14, 2019, O'Rourke announced his campaign for President of the United States in the 2020 United States presidential election. - Nikki Haley was born on 20 January 1972 in Bamberg, South Carolina, USA. She is an actress, known for Army Wives (2007), PBS NewsHour (1975) and ABC World News Tonight with David Muir (1953). She has been married to Michael Haley since 6 September 1996. They have two children.Nimratta
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Elizabeth Warren was born on 22 June 1949 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA. She is an actress, known for Alpha House (2013), Maxed Out (2006) and Capitalism: A Love Story (2009). She has been married to Bruce Hartllng Mann since 12 July 1980. She was previously married to James Robert Warren.- Actress
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Nancy Pelosi is an American Democratic Party politician serving as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives since January 2019. She is the first woman in U.S. history to hold this position. As such, and having first been elected to Congress in 1987, Pelosi is the highest-ranking female elected official in United States history. As Speaker of the House, she is second in the presidential line of succession, immediately after the vice president.
As of 2019, Pelosi is in her 17th term as a congresswoman. She represents California's 12th congressional district, which consists of four fifths of the city and county of San Francisco. She initially represented the 5th district (1987-1993), and then, when district boundaries were redrawn after the 1990 Census, the 8th district (1993-2013).- Bill de Blasio was born on 8 May 1961 in New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor, known for The Good Wife (2009), Horace and Pete (2016) and Springfield of Dreams: The Legend of Homer Simpson (2017). He has been married to Chirlane McCray since 14 May 1994. They have two children.
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Tom Steyer was born on June 27, 1957 in New York City, New York. He attended Yale University, where he graduated with a degree in economics and political science, before receiving an MBA from Stanford Business School.
Steyer is business leader and philanthropist who resides in California. He is the founder and President of NextGen Climate, and the co-founder of Beneficial State Bank. Steyer is the executive producer of Becoming Bulletproof (2014), and La Mission (2009).- Actor
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Pete Buttigieg was born on 19 January 1982 in South Bend, Indiana, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Mayor Pete (2021), The Silo (2002) and The Supporters (2021). He has been married to Chasten Buttigieg since 16 June 2018.- Actor
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Born on March 31, 1940, in Montpelier, Vermont, Patrick Leahy was elected to the United States Senate in 1974 and remains the only Democrat elected to this office from Vermont. As of 2021 he is president pro tempore of the Senate, being its most senior member, and as such is third in the line of succession to the US presidency. He chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee and sits on the Agriculture, Judiciary, and Rules committees.
A lifelong Batman fan, Leahy has appeared in five films and one TV show about the Caped Crusader: he provided the voice for a territorial governor in the Old West on the animated series Batman: The Animated Series (1992), made a cameo appearance as himself in the Jungle Party sequence from Batman & Robin (1997), and appeared in Batman Forever (1995), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), and The Dark Knight (2008) (where he says to Heath Ledger's Joker, "We're not intimidated by you thugs.") He also wrote an introduction for "The Dark Knight Archives," a 1992 compilation of Batman comics, and a preface for "Batman: Death of Innocents," a 1996 graphic novel about the dangers of land mines.
Patrick Leahy has been married to Marcelle Pomerleau Leahy since 1962. They have a daughter, two sons, and five grandchildren, and live in Middlesex, Vermont.- Kamala Harris was born on 20 October 1964 in Oakland, California, USA. She has been married to Douglas Emhoff since 22 August 2014.
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With an almost unpronounceable surname and a thick Austrian accent, who would have ever believed that a brash, quick talking bodybuilder from a small European village would become one of Hollywood's biggest stars, marry into the prestigious Kennedy family, amass a fortune via shrewd investments and one day be the Governor of California!?
The amazing story of megastar Arnold Schwarzenegger is a true "rags to riches" tale of a penniless immigrant making it in the land of opportunity, the United States of America. Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger was born July 30, 1947, in the town of Thal, Styria, Austria, to Aurelia Schwarzenegger (born Jadrny) and Gustav Schwarzenegger, the local police chief. From a young age, he took a keen interest in physical fitness and bodybuilding, going on to compete in several minor contests in Europe. However, it was when he emigrated to the United States in 1968 at the tender age of 21 that his star began to rise.
Up until the early 1970s, bodybuilding had been viewed as a rather oddball sport, or even a mis-understood "freak show" by the general public, however two entrepreneurial Canadian brothers Ben Weider and Joe Weider set about broadening the appeal of "pumping iron" and getting the sport respect, and what better poster boy could they have to lead the charge, then the incredible "Austrian Oak", Arnold Schwarzenegger. Over roughly the next decade, beginning in 1970, Schwarzenegger dominated the sport of competitive bodybuilding winning five Mr. Universe titles and seven Mr. Olympia titles and, with it, he made himself a major sports icon, he generated a new international audience for bodybuilding, gym memberships worldwide swelled by the tens of thousands and the Weider sports business empire flourished beyond belief and reached out to all corners of the globe. However, Schwarzenegger's horizons were bigger than just the landscape of bodybuilding and he debuted on screen as "Arnold Strong" in the low budget Hercules in New York (1970), then director Bob Rafelson cast Arnold in Stay Hungry (1976) alongside Jeff Bridges and Sally Field, for which Arnold won a Golden Globe Award for "Best Acting Debut in a Motion Picture". The mesmerizing Pumping Iron (1977) covering the 1975 Mr Olympia contest in South Africa has since gone on to become one of the key sports documentaries of the 20th century, plus Arnold landed other acting roles in the comedy The Villain (1979) opposite Kirk Douglas, and he portrayed Mickey Hargitay in the well- received TV movie The Jayne Mansfield Story (1980).
What Arnold really needed was a super hero / warrior style role in a lavish production that utilized his chiseled physique, and gave him room to show off his growing acting talents and quirky humor. Conan the Barbarian (1982) was just that role. Inspired by the Robert E. Howard short stories of the "Hyborean Age" and directed by gung ho director John Milius, and with a largely unknown cast, save Max von Sydow and James Earl Jones, "Conan" was a smash hit worldwide and an inferior, although still enjoyable sequel titled Conan the Destroyer (1984) quickly followed. If "Conan" was the kick start to Arnold's movie career, then his next role was to put the pedal to the floor and accelerate his star status into overdrive. Director James Cameron had until that time only previously directed one earlier feature film titled Piranha II: The Spawning (1982), which stank of rotten fish from start to finish. However, Cameron had penned a fast paced, science fiction themed film script that called for an actor to play an unstoppable, ruthless predator - The Terminator (1984). Made on a relatively modest budget, the high voltage action / science fiction thriller The Terminator (1984) was incredibly successful worldwide, and began one of the most profitable film franchises in history. The dead pan phrase "I'll be back" quickly became part of popular culture across the globe. Schwarzenegger was in vogue with action movie fans, and the next few years were to see Arnold reap box office gold in roles portraying tough, no-nonsense individuals who used their fists, guns and witty one-liners to get the job done. The testosterone laden Commando (1985), Raw Deal (1986), Predator (1987), The Running Man (1987) and Red Heat (1988) were all box office hits and Arnold could seemingly could no wrong when it came to picking winning scripts. The tongue-in-cheek comedy Twins (1988) with co-star Danny DeVito was a smash and won Arnold new fans who saw a more comedic side to the muscle- bound actor once described by Australian author / TV host Clive James as "a condom stuffed with walnuts". The spectacular Total Recall (1990) and "feel good" Kindergarten Cop (1990) were both solid box office performers for Arnold, plus he was about to return to familiar territory with director James Cameron in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). The second time around for the futuristic robot, the production budget had grown from the initial film's $6.5 million to an alleged $100 million for the sequel, and it clearly showed as the stunning sequel bristled with amazing special effects, bone-crunching chases & stunt sequences, plus state of the art computer-generated imagery. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) was arguably the zenith of Arnold's film career to date and he was voted "International Star of the Decade" by the National Association of Theatre Owners.
Remarkably, his next film Last Action Hero (1993) brought Arnold back to Earth with a hard thud as the self-satirizing, but confusing plot line of a young boy entering into a mythical Hollywood action film confused movie fans even more and they stayed away in droves making the film an initial financial disaster. Arnold turned back to good friend, director James Cameron and the chemistry was definitely still there as the "James Bond" style spy thriller True Lies (1994) co-starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Tom Arnold was the surprise hit of 1994! Following the broad audience appeal of True Lies (1994), Schwarzenegger decided to lean towards more family-themed entertainment with Junior (1994) and Jingle All the Way (1996), but he still found time to satisfy his hard-core fan base with Eraser (1996), as the chilling "Mr. Freeze" in Batman & Robin (1997) and battling dark forces in the supernatural action of End of Days (1999). The science fiction / conspiracy tale The 6th Day (2000) played to only mediocre fan interest, and Collateral Damage (2002) had its theatrical release held over for nearly a year after the tragic events of Sept 11th 2001, but it still only received a lukewarm reception.
It was time again to resurrect Arnold's most successful franchise and, in 2003, Schwarzenegger pulled on the biker leathers for the third time for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003). Unfortunately, directorial duties passed from James Cameron to Jonathan Mostow and the deletion of the character of "Sarah Connor" aka Linda Hamilton and a change in the actor playing "John Connor" - Nick Stahl took over from Edward Furlong - making the third entry in the "Terminator" series the weakest to date.
Schwarzenegger married TV journalist Maria Shriver in April, 1986 and the couple have four children.
In October of 2003 Schwarzenegger, running as a Republican, was elected Governor of California in a special recall election of then governor Gray Davis. The "Governator," as Schwarzenegger came to be called, held the office until 2011. Upon leaving the Governor's mansion it was revealed that he had fathered a child with the family's live-in maid and Shriver filed for divorce.
Schwarzenegger contributed cameo roles to The Rundown (2003), Around the World in 80 Days (2004) and The Kid & I (2005). Recently, he starred in The Expendables 2 (2012), The Last Stand (2013), Escape Plan (2013), The Expendables 3 (2014), and Terminator Genisys (2015).- Producer
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Steve Bannon was born on 27 November 1953 in Norfolk, Virginia, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for Battle for America (2010), Torchbearer (2016) and Generation Zero (2010).- Mike Pompeo was born on 30 December 1963 in Orange, California, USA. He is an executive. He has been married to Susan Pompeo since 27 May 2000. They have one child. He was previously married to Leslie Libert.
- Ron DeSantis was born on 14 September 1978 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. He is an actor, known for ABC World News Tonight with David Muir (1953), Crain & Company (2020) and The Howie Carr Radio Network (2023). He has been married to Casey DeSantis since 26 September 2009. They have three children.
- Kevin McCarthy was born on 26 January 1965 in Bakersfield, California, USA. He has been married to Judy Wages since 29 August 1992. They have two children.
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Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is an American attorney and author who served as the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She was the first African-American woman to serve in this position. She is married to former President Barack Obama.
Raised on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, Obama is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School. In her early legal career, she worked at the law firm Sidley Austin where she met Barack Obama. She subsequently worked in nonprofits and as the associate dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago as well as the vice president for Community and External Affairs of the University of Chicago Medical Center. Michelle married Barack in 1992, and together they have two daughters.
Obama campaigned for her husband's presidential bid throughout 2007 and 2008, delivering a keynote address at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. She has subsequently delivered acclaimed speeches at the 2012, 2016, and 2020 conventions. As first lady, Obama served as a role model for women and worked as an advocate for poverty awareness, education, nutrition, physical activity, and healthy eating. She supported American designers and was considered a fashion icon.
After her husband's presidency, Obama's influence has remained high. In 2020, Obama topped Gallup's poll of the most admired woman in America for the third year running