Here’s a look at the life of Gabrielle Giffords, US Representative from Arizona 2007 to 2012.
Personal:
Birth date: June 8, 1970
Birth place: Tucson, Arizona
Birth name: Gabrielle Dee Giffords
Father: Spencer Giffords, El Campo Tire executive and a district school board member
Mother: Gloria Kay (Fraser) Giffords, an author and art conservator
Marriage: Mark Edward Kelly (November 10, 2007-present)
Education: Scripps College, B.A., 1993; Cornell University, Masters in Regional Planning, 1996
Other Facts:
Her husband, Mark Kelly, is a retired NASA astronaut and was the commander of the final flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour.
Studied abroad in Chihuahua, Mexico, on a Fulbright Scholarship.
Youngest woman elected to the Arizona State Senate.
Third woman from Arizona to serve in the US House of Representatives.
First Jewish congresswoman from Arizona.
Timeline:
2000 – Sells her family’s tire business, El Campo Tire Warehouses, to Goodyear Tire.
2000 – Is elected to the Arizona House of Representatives.
2002 – Is elected to the Arizona State Senate.
2004 – Wins re-election to the Arizona Senate.
December 2005 – Resigns from office to run for the US House of Representatives.
November 7, 2006 – Is elected to the US House of Representatives with 54% of the vote.
2007-January 25, 2012 – Democratic US Representative from Arizona’s 8th District.
2008 – Is elected for a second term in the US House of Representatives with 55% of the vote.
2010 – Is elected for a third term in the US House of Representatives in a close race, by about 4,000 votes.
January 8, 2011 – Giffords is shot in the head, one of 13 wounded by Jared Lee Loughner at a “Congress on Your Corner” event at a Tucson grocery store. Six people are killed during the shooting rampage. Authorities say Giffords was the main target.
January 16, 2011 – Her medical condition is changed from critical to serious following the removal of a breathing tube. A tracheotomy tube is put in its place.
January 21, 2011 – Is moved from the University Medical Center in Tucson to Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas.
January 26, 2011 – Is transferred to the nearby Texas Institute for Rehabilitation and Research Memorial Hermann (TIRR Memorial Hermann), the day after doctors upgrade her condition from serious to good.
April 25, 2011 – Doctors announce that Giffords has recovered enough to travel to Florida to attend the final lift-off April 29 of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, of which her husband, Capt. Mark Kelly, is the commander. She is able to use her left side, has limited use of her right arm and leg, and has begun walking a little.
May 16, 2011 – Giffords attends the rescheduled launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour at the Kennedy Space Center.
June 15, 2011 – Is discharged from Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center.
August 1, 2011 – Returns to the floor of the House of Representatives to vote in support of a plan to raise the US debt ceiling.
November 14, 2011 – Appears on ABC News in her first television interview since the shooting.
November 15, 2011 – The memoir Rep. Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly wrote together, “Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope,” is released. In the audio book version, Rep. Giffords reads aloud the final chapter.
January 8, 2012 – Giffords attends a vigil in Tucson, Arizona, marking the one-year anniversary of the shooting. She leads the crowd of thousands in the Pledge of Allegiance and later lights a memorial candle for the six people killed.
January 22, 2012 – Announces via her website, she will resign from the US House of Representatives to concentrate on her health and recuperation.
January 25, 2012 – Officially resigns from the US House of Representatives.
February 10, 2012 – Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announces that the next Independence variant littoral combat ship (LCS) will be named USS Gabrielle Giffords.
February 10, 2012 – Giffords’ final piece of legislation, the Ultralight Aircraft Smuggling Prevention Act of 2012, is signed into law by President Barack Obama.
February 21, 2012 – Named to the National Board of Advisors for the National Institute for Civil Discourse at the University of Arizona.
June 9, 2012 – Giffords appears at a get-out-the-vote rally at the Rialto Theater in Tucson, Arizona to campaign for Ron Barber, her former aide who is running for her congressional seat.
November 8, 2012 – Along with husband Mark Kelly, attends the sentencing hearing for Jared Lee Loughner, the man who shot her. Kelly testifies on Giffords’ behalf, “Mr. Loughner, you may have put a bullet through her head but you have not put a dent in her spirit and her ability to do good.”
January 8, 2013 – Giffords and her husband launch the website, Americans for Responsible Solutions, which addresses gun violence prevention and gun owner responsibility.
January 30, 2013 – Giffords and Kelly appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to make a statement about gun violence in the United States.
March 16, 2016 – The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, founded in 1993 after an assault weapons massacre in San Francisco, becomes part of the organization Americans for Responsible Solutions, created by Giffords and Kelly.
June 10, 2017 – The Navy’s newest combat ship, USS Gabrielle Giffords is commissioned into service at the Port of Galveston, Texas. Giffords becomes the first living woman to have a Navy warship bear her name since the Lady Washington was named after Martha Washington in 1776; and Giffords is only the third living woman in US history to see her name on a naval vessel.
