Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii to his mother Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Sr. Obama’s parents divorced in 1965 when he was 2 and his father returned to his native home in Kenya.
Obama’s mother remarried in that same year to Lolo Soetoro, and in 1966, the small family moved to Indonesia where Soetoro was from. However, Obama’s mother feared for his safety while living overseas and sent him back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents at the age of 10. Obama’s mother and his little sister Maya came to join him a few years later.
Obama was an excelling student at the esteemed Punahou Academy. He was involved in basketball and graduated an honors student in 1979.
Obama went onto college in Los Angeles at Occidental College for his first two years then transferred to Columbia University in New York, graduating in 1983 with his degree in political science.
Obama worked in the business sector for two years then transferred to Chicago in 1985 where he worked as a community organizer for low income residents.
He spent a few weeks before entering Harvard Law School in 1988 in Kenya visiting his relatives and his father’s gravesite. His father passed away when Obama was only 21 from a fatal car crash in Kenya.
Obama met his wife Michelle Robinson during a summer internship where she was assigned to be his advisor. He graduated in 1991, magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. Upon graduation he returned to Chicago and began to practice as a civil rights lawyer at the firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland. During this time he also took a part time job teaching at the University of Chicago Law School.
He and Michelle married October 3, 1992 and several years later created a family, with daughters Malia (born in 1998) and Sasha (born 2001).
Obama became involved in politics while living in Illinois where he ran for a seat in the Illinois State Senate and won the election in 1996. During his time in the Senate he expanded health care services and early childhood programs for those in the poor and working class according to www.barackobama.com. He also became the chairman for the Illinois Health and Human Services Committee.
In 2002 he lost the Democratic primary running for the U.S House of Representatives. He ran again in the 2004 Democratic primary and defeated Daniel Hayes by a 52 percent vote.
In Feb. 2007, Barack Obama announced that he was throwing in his name for the running for the 2008 presidential elections. He became the Democratic nominee over former first lady and U.S New York Senator Hillary Clinton. He defeated Republican nominee John McCain 52.9 to 45.7 percent, winning the 2008 election. President Obama not only became the fourty-fourth president, but the first African-American President of the United States.
President Obama is running for re-election along with Vice president Biden for the 2012 presidency.