United States Senator Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania United States Senator Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania United States Senator Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania United States Senator Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania
United States Senator Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania
United States Senator Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania United States Senator Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania United States Senator Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania United States Senator Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania
Today's Date: August 26, 2010
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About Arlen Specter
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Feb. 12, 1930

 

Born Wichita, Kansas to parents Harry and Lillian Specter Raised in Russell, Kansas
1934

 

Age 4, Named Deputy Sheriff of Sedgwick County, Kansas; documented in Ripley’s Believe It or Not as the youngest Deputy Sheriff in history.
1951

 

Graduated, University of Pennsylvania with a degree in International Relations
1951-1953
Served, Air Force Office of Special Investigations Second Lieutenant, Stateside, Korean War
1953

 

Marries Joan Lois Levy with whom he has two sons, Shanin and Stephen
1956
Graduates Yale University Law School
1956-Oct. 1959
Joins the law offices of Barnes, Dechert, Price, Myers, and Rhoads in Philadelphia, PA
1959
Joins the District Attorney’s office as an Assistant District Attorney
1963-1964

 

Serves on the Warren Commission as Assistant Counsel
Sept. 24, 1964
Submits report on the Assassination of John F. Kennedy
1964-1965
Investigates the corrupt Philadelphia City Magistrate system as Special Assistant State Attorney General
1965-1974

 

Elected to serve as District Attorney of Philadelphia
1974
Returns to be a law partner at Barnes, Dechert, Price, Myers, and Rhoads
1976
Runs for U.S. Senate and loses primary to Senator John Heinz
1978
Runs for Governor and loses primary to Richard Thornburgh
1980
Elected to U.S. Senate
January 5, 1981
Officially Sworn-In to U.S. Senate
1986
Re-elected to Senate
1992

 

Re-elected to Senate
1995
Seeks ‘96 Republican Nomination for President of the United States of America
2004

 

Re-elected to Senate
January, 2005

 

Elected Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee
2005

 

Diagnosed with stage IVB Hodgkin’s disease in February and receives the last round of chemotherapy and a clean bill of health in July 2005.
November 1, 2005

Becomes Pennsylvania's longest serving Senator, surpassing the record by Boise Penrose who served from 1897 to 1921.

 
   
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