Born:  March 31, 1948

Died:  --

 

Famous For:  45th Vice President of the United States; environmental activist; former presidential candidate.  

 

Key Accomplishments:  Graduated cum laude from Harvard University; won an Oscar for his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth; author of best-selling book, Earth in the Balance: Healing the Global Environment.

 

Significant Quote:  "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." (this quote is often mistakenly reported as "...I took the initiative in inventing the Internet." )

 

Fun Quote: "The day I made that statement, about inventing the Internet, I was tired because I'd been up all night inventing the Camcorder."

 

 

See Also Links: 

 

 

Albert Arnold Gore, Jr was born March 31, 1948 in Washington, D.C. to Albert Gore, Sr. and Pauline Gore. His father was a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator, and his mother was one of the first women to graduate from Vanderbilt University Law School. Gore spent his early years in both Washington, D.C. and Carthage, Tennessee.

 

After graduating from a private high school in Washington D.C., Gore enrolled at Harvard University, where his roommate was actor Tommy Lee Jones. He graduated cum laude in June 1969 with a Bachelor of Arts in government. After graduating, Gore enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in Vietnam. When he returned to the states, he became an investigative reporter and attended Vanderbilt University Divinity School and Vanderbilt Law School. In 1970, he married Mary Elizabeth (Tipper) Aitcheson, whom he had first met at his high school prom. She later became a leading advocate against violent and explicit lyrics in popular music.

 

Gore's political career began in 1976 when he was elected to represent Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1984 he was elected to the U.S. Senate and then re-elected in 1990. Gore was also a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President in 1988 and was then chosen by Bill Clinton in 1992 to be his running mate. The two won the election and were re-elected in 1996. In 2000, Gore won the Democratic nomination for President and chose Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman as his running mate, running against Republicans George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Due to discrepancies and flawed voting procedures, votes had to be recounted after the election, which led to a month-long delay. On December 13, 2000, Gore conceded the election to Bush, even though he had received more popular votes than Bush (Bush led in electoral votes). Although he has publicly stated that he has no intention of running for President again, it has been widely speculated that he is a potential candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

 

In more recent years, Gore has dedicated himself to raising public awareness on global warming, which he calls "the climate crisis." His 2006 documentary on the subject, An Inconvenient Truth, earned an Oscar for Best Documentary and became the third highest-grossing documentary in U.S. history. He lectures widely on global warming and wrote a best-selling book on environmental issues titled Earth in the Balance: Healing the Global Environment (1992). His second book, The Assault on Reason, explores the decline of reasoned political thought. It was published in May, 2007. He is also the president of Current TV, chairman of Generation Investment Management, a director on the board of Apple, Inc., and an unofficial advisor to Google's senior management.

 

Gore and his wife Tipper have four children: Karenna (born in 1973), Kristin (born in 1977), Sarah (born in 1979) and Al Gore III (born in 1982). They live in Nashville, Tennessee and own a small farm near Carthage, Tennessee.