Bob Dole is a war hero, a failed presidential candidate, and one of the longest-serving Republican leaders in the U.S. Senate. He died on December 5 at the age of 98.
Here are some key moments in Dole’s life:
July 22, 1923: Born in Russell, Kansas.
May 26, 1941: Graduated from Russell High School in Kansas.
December 15, 1942: Joined the U.S. Army Reserve.
June 1, 1943: Enlisted in active duty and sent to a boot camp in Texas.
November 18, 1944: Appointed as a second lieutenant in the United States Army and began serving in Fort Benning, Georgia.
1944: Began as an associate at the 24th replacement station in Italy
1945: Entered the 85th Mountain Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division
March 1945: Wounded in battle in Italy and awarded the Purple Heart.
April 14, 1945: He was seriously injured in a battle in the mountains of Italy, trying to protect his troops from enemy fire. He was hit in the upper right back and severely injured his right arm. Won the second Purple Heart Medal.
May 18, 1945: Won the Bronze Star Award.
1945-48: Hospitalized due to war injuries and underwent extensive rehabilitation. Dor's right arm was paralyzed. Later, he would hold a pen with his right hand as a signal that he could not shake hands with that arm.
1948: Obtained a GI loan and studied at the University of Arizona.
1949: Entered Washburn Municipal College in Topeka.
November 1951: Elected to the Kansas State Legislature.
June 1, 1952: Graduated from Washburn Municipal College in Topeka with an undergraduate degree in history and a graduate degree in law.
November 1952: Elected as Russell County Attorney and served eight years.
October 18, 1954: Daughter Robin was born.
Appreciation: faith in hard work, loathing to talk and his Kansas roots that he has never lost: Bob Dole’s lasting legacy
November 1960: Elected to US House of Representatives and served eight years.
1962: Helped to create a modern public school lunch program by supporting a bill to lower the price of lunch for students in low-income communities
1964: Vote for the Civil Rights Act
1965: Vote for the Voting Rights Act
1967: Vote for the Age Discrimination Act, prohibiting discriminatory recruitment and dismissal practices based on age
November 1968: Elected to the US Senate.
April 14, 1969: Delivered his first speech in the U.S. Senate, and introduced his first bill in the U.S. Senate-housing for the disabled. This is the 24th anniversary of Dole's serious injury in World War II.
1971: Co-sponsored a balanced budget amendment to the constitution.
1971-73: Served as chairman of the Republican National Committee.
1974: Introduced his first campaign finance reform measures. Introduce a successful bill to prohibit members of Congress from using the "stamp duty" privilege to raise funds
December 6, 1975: Married his second wife Mary Elizabeth Alexander Hanford (also known as Liddy).
Last interview: Bob Dole faces cancer at the age of 98 and considers Trump’s legacy and thinks about the future of the Republican Party
1976: Elected as the vice presidential running mate of President Gerald Ford.
1977: Started a nine-year single veto (adopted in 1996)
1977: Republican author of the Food Stamp Act, which aims to help low-income Americans support their families in an affordable way.
1979: Proposed welfare reform measures transfer power to the states
1980: Unsuccessful in seeking the Republican presidential nomination.
1981: As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Dole introduced and led the formulation of President Ronald Reagan's Economic Recovery Tax Law, which is the largest tax cut in US history.
1983: Elizabeth Dole was appointed Secretary of Transportation for Reagan
April 20, 1983: Reagan signed the bipartisan legislation enacted by Dole and Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan to protect Social Security from bankruptcy.
November 1983: Reagan signs legislation to make Martin Luther King’s birthday a national holiday. Dole led the measure in the Senate, and he helped it get 78 vetoes.
1984: Elizabeth gave Bob a miniature schnauzer from the Humanitarian Society, named "Leader"
1985: Elected as US Senate majority leader.
1986: Contributed to the passage of the tax reform bill, reducing taxes by US$122 billion
1987: Elected as US Senate minority leader.
1988: Won the Iowa Republican presidential nomination conference, but withdrew from the Republican presidential nomination after losing to George HW Bush in several southern states. In an interview with NBC's Tom Brokaw before the New Hampshire primary election, Doll said when talking about Bush: "Stop lying to my record" in response to the Bush campaign advertisement about Doll's stance on tax issues.
1989: Elizabeth Dole is appointed Minister of Labor
July 26, 1990: Bush signed the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act, and Doll supported the bill in the Senate and helped pass it.
1991: Elizabeth Dole becomes president of the American Red Cross
1991: The "Women's Equal Opportunities Act" was introduced
1993: Initiated the Comprehensive Campaign Finance Reform Act. Leaders opposed Clinton’s $26 billion tax increase on social security benefits. Sponsorship of the Sexual Assault Prevention Act
1994: A health care reform bill was introduced to help low-income Americans purchase health insurance by focusing on insurance reforms and providing subsidies, using free market methods to carry out health care reforms. The plan does not include taxes, authorizations or price controls.
1994: Elected US Senate majority leader.
January 11, 1995: Pass the Senate to promote the Congressional Accountability Act, requiring members of Congress to live under the same laws as the American people.
February 21, 1995: The Snowe-Dole Child Support Enforcement Act was introduced to improve and expand existing child support enforcement measures
April 10, 1995: announced his intention to run for president.
July 25, 1995: Pass the Senate to promote the first comprehensive lobbying reform legislation in 45 years
July 27, 1995: Introduction of the Equal Opportunities Act
September 19, 1995: Leaders passed a comprehensive welfare reform plan rejected by Clinton
October 18, 1995: Written "Dole GI Bill"
December 22, 1995: The leading welfare reform plan was passed. It was rejected by Clinton.
December 22, 1995: Became the longest-serving Republican leader in the history of the U.S. Senate. His record will be surpassed by Senator Mitch McConnell in 2018.
March 27, 1996: Passed the engineering veto in the Senate, enabling future presidents to remove expensive pig-bucket spending measures from the bill
May 9, 1996: Advancing the Megan Act through the Senate to protect American children from sex offenders
May 15, 1996: Announcing his resignation from the Senate and running for president full-time
June 6, 1996: One vote passed the amendment to the balanced budget
June 11, 1996: Resigned from the Senate and ran for president full-time.
August 15, 1996: Became the Republican presidential candidate. Dole is the oldest of the first presidential candidates, at the age of 73 years and one month.
November 1996: Lost to Bill Clinton in the presidential election. Clinton won 49.2% of the vote, Dole won 40.7%, and Rose Perrot won 8.4%. Clinton won 379 votes and Dole 159 votes.
January 17, 1997: President Bill Clinton, his former rival and political opponent, awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom for Military Service and Political Career.
1999: Helped his wife Elizabeth to run for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination. Due to lack of fundraising, she dropped out of school before any primaries.
June 27, 2001: 77-year-old Dole underwent abdominal aortic aneurysm surgery at the Cleveland Clinic.
2002: Helped wife Elizabeth get elected to the US Senate from her home state of North Carolina. She lost to Democrat Kay Hagen in the 2008 re-election campaign.
July 2003: The Robert J. Dole School of Political Science was established at the University of Kansas, which coincided with Dole's 80th birthday.
May 29, 2004: Speech at the inauguration of the National World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington. Dole was the co-chair of the fundraising event and helped the project obtain more than $197 million in cash and pledges.
December 14, 2004: Hip replacement surgery was successfully performed at the Special Surgery Hospital of New York City.
January 2005: After hip surgery using blood thinners, he was hospitalized for part of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. A fall caused bleeding in his right eye and left arm and severe pain in his arm. Causes bleeding in one eye, bleeding and severe pain in the left or "good" arm.
April 12, 2005: Dole's autobiography "A Soldier's Story: Memoirs" is published. In this book, Dole wrote about his experience in World War II and the battles he fought to survive the war wounds.
March 6, 2007: Appointed by President George W. Bush as co-chair of a special committee responsible for investigating the disqualifications and other issues of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
July 13, 2009: Doctors performed a skin graft on Dole's left leg. He was hospitalized at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for several weeks with a rapid heart rate and leg ulcers.
February 22, 2010: Dole issued a statement stating that he was hospitalized in Walter Reed Hospital for several weeks with pneumonia after undergoing knee surgery.
August 30, 2010: US President Barack Obama visits Walter Reed.
July 19, 2016: Dole is the only former Republican presidential candidate to participate in the 2016 Republican Convention after supporting candidate Donald Trump.
September 13, 2017: Hospitalized at Walter Reed National Medical Center due to hypotension.
January 17, 2018: Received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor in Congress, in recognition of his contributions as a soldier, legislator, and politician.
December 4, 2018: With the help of his assistants, Dole stood on the floor of the rotunda of the Capitol and paid tribute to George HW Bush's coffin, his former competitor in the 1988 Republican presidential primaries.
March 2019: Legislators passed a resolution granting Dole an honorary promotion from Colonel to Colonel in the US Army.
February 18, 2021: Announced diagnosis of stage IV lung cancer.
December 5, 2021: Dole died in his sleep at the age of 98.
Source: Associated Press, CNN, Politico, Robert J. Dole Institute for Political Studies, Dole-Kemp 1996 Presidential Campaign, USA Today Research