Historical Figure
Barack Obama
b. 1961
President of the United States from 2009 to 2017
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Key Dates
Birth
1961 August 4, 1961 →Biography
Barack Hussein Obama II is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president. Obama previously served as a U.S. senator representing Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and as an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004.
Timeline
Barack Obama becomes the first person of African-American descent to be elected President of the United States.
November 4 →The Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, is arrested by federal officials for crimes including attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama's election to the Presidency.
December 9 →Barack Obama, inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States of America, becomes the United States' first African-American president.
January 20 →U.S. President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in a joint TV appearance for a G-20 summit, accused Iran of building a secret nuclear enrichment facility.
September 25 →US President Barack Obama signs the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
October 28 →U.S. President Barack Obama signs an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp; congressional opposition will prevent it being implemented.
January 22 →Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is removed from office following his conviction of several corruption charges, including the alleged solicitation of personal benefit in exchange for an appointment to the United States Senate as a replacement for then-U.S. president-elect Barack Obama.
January 29 →U.S. President Barack Obama signs the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
July 21 →U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sign the New START Treaty.
April 8 →The repeal of the Don't ask, don't tell policy, the 17-year-old policy banning homosexuals serving openly in the United States military, is signed into law by President Barack Obama.
December 22 →More from the Postwar
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