Joe Biden

In 1975 Biden met Jill Tracy Jacobs who gave a new meaning to his life. The couple eventually fell in love and got married in 1977. The couple has one daughter.

Tragedy again struck Joe Biden on May 30, 2015, when his son Beau Biden died of brain cancer, at the age of 46.

Joe Biden was born on November 20, 1942, to Catherine Eugenia "Jean" and Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Sr. as the eldest of their four children. He was raised a Catholic. His father was a used car salesman who also cleaned furnaces for extra income.

He attended the Archmere Academy in Claymont and graduated in 1961. He was a mediocre student, but displayed exceptional leadership qualities from a young age and was elected the class president during his junior and senior years. He was also a talented football player.

He then went to the University of Delaware, where he studied history and political science and continued playing football. During his initial years in college he was more interested in socializing and having fun than he was in academics.

He fell in love with a girl while in college and this spurred him to become more serious about life. He started working hard and was accepted into the Syracuse University Law School upon his graduation from the University of Delaware in 1965. He got married the next year while still a student. He graduated from law school in 1968.

He moved to Delaware to embark on a legal career and began practicing at a law firm. During this time he also became active on the political scenario as a member of the Democratic Party and in 1970 he was elected to the New Castle County Council.

He ran for the United States Senate in 1972 as a representative of Delaware against the Republican incumbent J. Caleb Boggs and won the election. At 29, he was the fifth-youngest U.S. senator elected in the nation's history.

A devastating tragedy struck the young man when his wife and children became the victims of a terrible automobile accident. His wife and daughter died while his two sons were badly injured. Biden was grief-stricken, yet he took the oath of office on January 5, 1973.

The next few years were very difficult for him as he had to manage his political career along with his responsibilities as a single parent to his boys. In spite of his personal tragedies he fulfilled his political duties diligently and gained the respect of his colleagues.

Over the next few years he established himself as a hard working and ambitious politician. As the senator he formulated several foreign and domestic policies and served as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations for several years, gaining acclaim as one of the Senate’s leading experts on foreign policy.

Joe Biden served as the Senator from Delaware for 36 years during which he established himself as an expert in U.S. foreign policy. On the domestic front he is famous for his work on criminal justice issues, especially the 1994 Crime Law and the Violence Against Women Act.

Assuming office as the Vice President at the time when the nation was reeling under the effects of a global recession, Biden was entrusted with the responsibility of implementing and overseeing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which has helped to rebuild the U.S. economy.