Happy Birthday, Bill Clinton!

Former President Bill Clinton turns 65 tomorrow. He was born in 1946, the very first year of the Baby Boom, so it’s not surprising he’s experienced many classic Boomer experiences. Here are a few of them:

He Was Upwardly Mobile

The ability to move up in class and income has always been a characteristic of the United States, but opportunities were unquestionably more plentiful after World War II, beginning with the GI Bill Although Clinton was way too young to take advantage of that, he grew up in an increasingly flexible social atmosphere that allowed him to enter, through hard work and intelligence, the worlds of Georgetown, Oxford and Yale Law. He’s also a Rhodes scholar.

He Witnessed Momentous Change Through The Civil-Rights Movement Growing up in Hope, Arkansas, in the 1950s, Clinton saw segregation first-hand, although his grandparents gave credit to customers in their grocery store. The 1960s civil-rights movement, led most prominently by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (on the right in photo) permanently changed not only the South but the nation, ending segregation and implementing laws that would guarantee equality for black people.

He Protested Against Vietnam, And He Didn't Go While at Oxford University, Clinton protested against the war and helped organize part of the Moratorium, a global protest in October 1969. He avoided the draft, his political opponents later said, through the influence of a U.S. Senator and by temporarily joining the Reserve Officers Training Corps.

He Had Some Kind Of Experience With Illegal Drugs Although Clinton famously said, decades later, that he “didn’t inhale” marijuana at Oxford, he was in the same room with the stuff. Many boomers can look back on considerably more experimentation with drugs than Clinton acknowledged.

He Had A Career Plan In contrast to Depression-era workers, boomers aren’t as addicted to the idea of stationary lifetime employment. Instead, Clinton planned his trajectory from Governor of Arkansas to national leadership positions in the Democratic party and, finally, the presidency.

He Has An Ambitious Wife Although many boomers have wives who work outside the home, Hillary Rodham Clinton took that to a whole new level, eventually becoming a U.S. Senator from New York and Secretary of State.

He Was Unfaithful Clinton’s liaison with Monica Lewinsky was the biggest political scandal of the 1990s and led to his impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives (though not by the Senate). And Lewinsky wasn’t the only one: several women reported affairs or sexual advances by the president

He Knows The Importance Of Mass Media As broadcast journalism changed over the decades, morphing from Walter Cronkite’s somber narratives to perky local reporters, Clinton changed with it. He knew how important short quotes (sound bites) are, and he knew how to make himself seem down-to-earth with his saxophone playing, Ray-Ban sunglasses and appearances on late-night TV shows.

He's Had Some Serious Heart Problems Like millions of boomers, Clinton grew up at a time when there wasn’t nearly as much emphasis on good nutrition as there is today. And he was a noted consumer of junk food. He underwent a quadruple bypass and has two stents in his heart. Post-surgery, Clinton slimmed down and reportedly eats a lot of vegan food.

He's Gone On To A Second Career After his presidency ended in 2001, Clinton started the William J.Clinton Foundation. The nonprofit organization works on a number of issues including disaster relief and economic programs in Third World countries.