August 4, 1961 Barack Hussein Obama II, the first African American President of the United States, was born in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Obama earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in political science with a specialty in international relations from Columbia University in 1983. From 1985 to 1988, he worked as a community organizer for the Developing Communities Project. In 1991, Obama earned his Doctor of Jurisprudence degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School where he was elected the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.

From 1992 to 2004, he taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School. In 1996, Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate where he served until 2004. In 2004, he was elected to the United States Senate where he served until he was elected President of the United States in 2008. Obama has authored two books, “Dreams from My Father” (1995) and “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream” (2006). In 2009, Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.