Janet Reno Timeline

Date	Event	Comments
July 21, 1938	Born in Miami, FL	First of four children born to Henry and Jane Wood Reno
?1947-1951	Her mother builds the family house from scratch	The experience teaches her that "You can learn to do anything you want, if you aren't hurried"
1951	Parents send her to live in Europe with her uncle, a U.S. military judge for one year	She travels all around Europe on school holidays and gets her writing on her travels published in Miami Herald
1952	Enters high school in Coral Gables High School, FL	Chooses nuclear physicist as focus for social studies project
1956	Graduates from high school	Voted "most intelligent" by her classmates
1956	Begins college at Cornell University	Parents begin practice of selling a chunk of their homestead to finance their children's education
1956-1960 (Summers and school breaks)	Works as a clerk with the Dade County Sheriff's Department to help finance college (county courthouse)	Would sneak down at lunch to watch lawyers in action
1959-1960	Elected president of the Women's Student Government Association at Cornell
May, 1960	Graduates from Cornell with a B.S. in Chemistry
September 1960	Begins law school at Harvard	Is one of only 16 women in class (compared to 509 male students)
1962	Rejected for summer job at Steel, Hector & Davis in Miami (a well-regarded corporate law firm)	The firm had no female lawyers; Reno refuses to take the rejection personally, goes to Brigham & Brigham
June 1963	Graduates from law school	Makes a promise to herself that she would never do anything that she didn't enjoy doing
1963-1967	Returns to Brigham & Brigham as an associate	Handles a variety of real estate work, specializing in eminent domain (where she defends property owners against government attempts to take land
1966	Helps to run the political campaign of friend Gerald Lewis (for FL state house)	Lewis wins the election
November 1966	Reno starts own law firm with Lewis	The "Lewis & Reno" law firm is composed of just two of them and one secretary
August 1967	Henry Reno dies	His body is discovered days after his death in his secluded cabin in the Everglades
March 1971	Hired as general counsel to the House Judiciary Committee in Florida	Authored Florida's no-fault divorce law and drafted the legal terminology that reformed Florida's courts
1971	Profiled in Miami News story with headline, "Drafting Laws a Snap for Lady Legal Eagle"	Quotes her as saying, "I'd like to get married and have four children. I wouldn't mind at all trading a political career for that."
1972	Runs for state representative as a democrat	Beat five Democrats in the primary, but narrowly loses in general election
1972-1976	Goes to work at Dade State Attorneys Office	Her chief duty is to set up Juvenile Division
1976	Signs on as a partner at Steel, Hector & Davis	This is the same firm that had earlier rejected her
January 1978	Appointed interim Dade State Attorney by Governor	Becomes first female state attorney in Florida history; half of her first group of sixteen hires are women
September 1978	Runs for election of office after her interim term expires	Wins with 76% in primary; runs unopposed in the general
1980	Runs unopposed for re-election	Former term as well as this one, is marked by racial strife between blacks and whites in Miami
1981	Reno lobbies state legislature for increased budget	Gets 35% increase for 1982
1984-1986	State's other 19 prosecutors elect her as president of their association	Prosecutors seek to capitalize on her lobbying clout
1984	Runs again for re-election	Miami Herald refuses to endorse her; Wins by a 2-1 margin
1988	Runs for re-election	In ugly race, her challenger accuses her of being easy on pornographers, and suggests it's because she's a lesbian
1992	Runs for re-election unopposed	Capitalizes on publicity of operation "Court Broom" which she headed
February 11, 1993	Nominated by President Clinton to Attorney General	Nomination comes after 2 failed attempts at nominating other women
March 11, 1993	Confirmed by Senate	Vote is 98-0
March 12, 1993	Sworn in as Attorney General	Nation's first female U.S. Attorney General