President Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe IV on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas, three months after his father died in a traffic accident. When he was four years old, his mother wed Roger Clinton, of Hot Springs, Arkansas. In high school, he took the family name.

He excelled as a student and as a saxophone player and once considered becoming a professional musician. As a delegate to Boys Nation while in high school, he met President John Kennedy in the White House Rose Garden. The encounter led him to enter a life of public service.

Clinton was graduated from Georgetown University and in 1968 won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University. He received a law degree from Yale University in 1973, and entered politics in Arkansas.

He was defeated in his campaign for Congress in Arkansas's Third District in 1974.

1975 He married Hillary Rodham, a graduate of Wellesley College and Yale Law School.

1977 -- Mrs. Clinton joins the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, Arkansas.

1978 -- The Clintons and the McDougals borrow nearly $200,000 from Citizens Bank to buy scenic though remote land along the White River in Flippin, Ark. Without telling Citizens Bank, they borrow $20,000 from another bank to make the down payment.

1978 -- Mrs. Clinton begins trading commodities with an initial investment of $1,000.

1978 -- Clinton is elected governor of Arkansas.

1979 -- James McDougal joins Clinton's gubernatorial administration as an economic advisor.

1979 -- Mrs. Clinton closes out her commodities account after making nearly $100,000.

1979 -- The Whitewater Development company is formed, with ownership shared between the Clintons and McDougals.

1980 -- McDougal quits his job with Clinton and buys a bank in Kingston, Ark., that he renames Madison Bank & Trust Co.

1980 -- Clinton loses his re-election bid for governor. Mrs. Clinton calls McDougal asking for money.

1980 -- Mrs. Clinton borrows $30,000 from Madison Bank to build a model home at Whitewater.

1982 -- The McDougals buy a savings and loan bank and rename it Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan.

1982 -- Clinton wins back the governorship.

1983 -- Clinton borrows $20,000 from the Security Bank of Paragould to reduce Mrs. Clinton's Madison Bank loan.

1984 -- Clinton jogs over to McDougal's office and asks him to help Mrs. Clinton by giving business to her at the Rose firm. McDougal agrees.

1985 -- Mrs. Clinton meets with McDougal, and he agrees to pay a monthly retainer to the Rose firm.

1985 -- McDougal barters the remaining Whitewater lots to Chris Wade for an airplane and the assumption of $35,000 in bank debt.

1985 -- Mrs. Clinton angrily rebuffs the McDougals' effort to have the Clintons sign over their interest in Whitewater.

1986 -- The McDougals separate.

1986 -- McDougal is forced to resign from Madison Guaranty.

1986 -- Mrs. Clinton ends Rose's retainer agreement with Madison.

1986 -- Mrs. Clinton again refuses to transfer the Clintons' interest in Whitewater to the McDougals.

1986 -- Mrs. Clinton balks at giving Susan McDougal a financial disclosure form for Citizens Bank, now renamed 1st Ozark National Bank.

1987 -- Mrs. Clinton deals directly with loan officers at 1st Ozark and assumes control of the Whitewater investment.

1987 -- Clinton signs a bill expanding branch banking, a statute that primarily benefits Twin City Bank, the parent of 1st Ozark.

1989 -- Madison fails in March, costing the taxpayers $60 million.

1989 -- McDougal is indicted on charges relating to the Castle Grande, a Madison-funded real estate project Rose attorneys, including Hillary Clinton, worked on.

1990 -- McDougal is acquitted of the charges.

1990 -- Clinton tells McDougal's lawyer he wants out of Whitewater, but Mrs. Clinton again balks.

1991 -- Clinton announces he is running for president.

1992 -- McDougal and Vince Foster, representing the Clintons, sign papers selling the Clintons' interest in Whitewater to McDougal for $1,000.

1992 -- Clinton's presidential campaign, responding to pressure from the media, issues a statement that the Clintons did nothing improper with Whitewater dealings.

1993 -- Webb Hubbell removes several cardboard file boxes, including those relating to Whitewater, from the Rose firm and stores them in his Washington basement.

Jan. 1993 -- Clinton is inaugurated.

July 20, 1993 -- Foster kills himself.

October 1993 -- RTC investigator Jean Lewis makes nine criminal referrals stemming from her investigation of Madison Guaranty, including one that names Clinton's 1985 gubernatorial campaign.

Dec. 23, 1993 -- Clinton says he and Mrs. Clinton will release all records pertaining to Whitewater.

Jan. 12, 1994 -- Facing mounting pressure, Clinton requests a special prosecutor be appointed.

Jan. 20, 1994 -- Robert B. Fiske Jr., a New York attorney, is appointed by Attorney General Janet Reno as independent Whitewater counsel.

Feb. 24, 1994 -- Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman, who oversees the RTC, acknowledges to the Senate Banking Committee he gave White House officials a "heads-up" on the RTC Madison criminal referrals.

Feb. 25, 1994 -- Clinton aides George Stephanopoulos and Harold Ickes have a conference call with Altman to discuss RTC's choice of Republican lawyer Jay Stephens to head the Madison investigation.

Feb. 25, 1994 -- Altman recuses himself from the RTC investigation of Madison.

March 4, 1994 -- Six of Clinton's senior White House aides are subpoenaed by the FBI to testify. Fiske later subpoenas 12 more officials.

March 22, 1994 -- David Hale, former municipal judge and owner of Capital Management Services, pleads guilty to two felony counts for defrauding the Small Business Administration. Hale implicates the president, saying Clinton pressured him to make a $300,000 loan in 1986.

March 24, 1994 -- The House Banking Committee's top Republican, Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa), gives a floor speech accusing the RTC of stonewalling on public documents, and says he has evidence of a coverup.

March 24, 1994 -- Clinton goes on national TV to defend Whitewater business dealings.

April 22, 1994 -- Mrs. Clinton holds press conference to address Whitewater concerns.

June 12, 1994 -- Fiske questions both Clintons under oath.

June 30, 1994 -- In a preliminary finding, Fiske rules Vincent Foster's death a suicide, and that White House-Treasury contacts had not broken any laws.

July 26, 1994 -- The House Banking Committee begins hearings on Whitewater.

July 29, 1994 -- The Senate Banking Committee begins Whitewater hearings.

Aug. 5, 1994 -- Former Bush Administration Solicitor General Kenneth Starr appointed as replacement for Fiske.

Aug. 29, 1994 -- Roger Altman resigns as deputy Treasury chief, after Senate hearings into White House-Treasury contacts reveal inconsistencies in his testimony.

July 18, 1995 -- Thirteen days of Senate Whitewater Hearings, chaired by Sen. Alfonse D'Amato (R-N.Y.) begin, looking into whether documents were removed from Vincent Foster's office the night he died.

August 7, 1995 -- House Banking Committee hearings, chaired by Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa) begin, looking into whether White House officials improperly tried to influence the RTC investigation of Madison Guaranty and Whitewater. RTC investigator Jean Lewis testifies her superiors made "a concerted effort to obstruct, hamper, and manipulate the results of our investigation."

Aug. 17, 1995 -- Jim and Susan McDougal and Guy Tucker indicted by a grand jury for fraud and conspiracy.

Sept. 29, 1995 -- RTC investigator Jean Lewis resigns.

December 13, 1995 -- the release of the second volume of the Resolution Trust Corporation's $3.6 million Pillsbury Report, from the San Francisco law firm of Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro.   Based on the Clintons' sworn interrogatories, interviews with forty-five other witnesses, and some two hundred thousand documents, the report concluded that the president and first lady had told the truth about their Whitewater investment:  The report failed to challenge their account on a single substantive point.

December 18, 1995 -- the Wall Street Journal ran a straight, clear summary of the report's findings. But other newspapers virtually buried news of its contents. The Washington Post briefly mentioned the report's existence in a story devoted to the battle over William Kennedy's notes.  The New York Times waited until Christmas Eve, then hid Stephen Labaton's perfunctory summary on page 12.

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