Barack Obama

Barack Obama met Michelle Robinson in 1989 while employed as a summer associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin. The couple started dating and eventually married in 1992. They are blessed with two daughters, Malia and Natasha.

He was born as Barack Hussein Obama II on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Obama, Sr. and his wife, Stanley Ann Dunham. His mother was a white American, of mostly English ancestry while his father was a black Kenyan. His parents separated when Barack was just an infant.

His mother was still a student when she gave birth to Barack Obama and Obama lived with his maternal grandparents for a few years while his mother completed her education.

Barack Obama graduated from high school in 1979 and moved to Los Angeles to attend Occidental College. In 1981, he transferred to Columbia College, Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in political science with a specialty in international relations. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1983.

From June 1985 to May 1988, he worked as a community organizer for low-income residents in the Roseland and the Altgeld Gardens communities.

He entered Harvard Law School in the fall of 1988 and graduated with a J.D. magna cum laude in 1991. As a student, he served as the president of the Harvard Law Review, and his election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review gained national media attention.

He took up a part-time teaching position at the University of Chicago Law School in 1992 as a lecturer, eventually becoming a Senior Lecturer in 1996.

He joined the firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland to practice as a civil rights lawyer. He served as an associate for three years from 1993 to 1996, then as counsel from 1996 to 2004.

He ventured into politics and successfully ran as a Democrat for a seat in the Illinois State Senate in 1996. He sponsored a law that increased tax credits for low-income workers, negotiated welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for childcare. He was reelected in 1998 and then again in 2002.

He decided to run for the U.S. Senate in 2004 and won in an unexpected landslide in the primary election in March. He delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention following which he became very popular. He was sworn in as a senator on January 3, 2005

As the Senator, he cosponsored the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act and introduced the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006. He also sponsored the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act and an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act to add safeguards for personality-disorder military discharges.

In 2009 he signed the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in order to promote economic growth in the midst of the major global recession. Within months there was a surge in the number of jobs being created and unemployment claims began to subside. Over the period of one year, a total of nearly 3.7 million new private-sector jobs were created.

Obama doubled renewable power generation during his first term. In 2009, he issued orders to all federal agencies to cut down on their environmental impacts by 2020. A 30 percent reduction in fleet gasoline use, and 26 percent boost in water efficiency are some of the goals envisioned to achieve lower environmental impacts over the next few years.

As the president, his major focus was on revitalizing the American economy after the recession and he signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2010) in order to re-regulate the financial sector after its decline during the recession.

He authorized the operation, code-named Operation Neptune Spear, to go ahead with the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in May 2011. The operation resulted in the death of the infamous terrorist who had managed to evade capture so far.

He is also well known for his stance on same-sex marriages and LGBT rights. He called for full equality for gays during his second inaugural address on January 21, 2013—this was the first time that a president mentioned gay rights or the word gay in an inaugural address. He supports same sex couples adopting children.