Barack Hussein Obama II (IPA-enb??r??k hu??se?n o??b??m?Barack-Hussein-Obama-en-US-pronunciation.ogg; born August 4, 1961) is the 44th (List of Presidents of the United States) and current (Presidency of Barack Obama) President of the United States. He is the first (List of African-American firsts) African American to hold the office, as well as the first president born in Hawaii. Obama previously served as the junior (Seniority in the United States Senate) United States Senator (United States Senate) from Illinois from January 2005 until he resigned after his election (United States presidential election, 2008) to the presidency in November 2008. Obama is a graduate of Columbia University (Columbia College, Columbia University) and Harvard Law School, where he was the president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer (community organizing) in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights (civil and political rights) attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004.

Obama served three terms in the Illinois Senate (Illinois_Senate_career_of_Barack_Obama) from 1997 to 2004. Following an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives (United States House of Representatives) in 2000, Obama ran for United States Senate in 2004. During the campaign, several events brought him to national attention, such as his victory in the March 2004 Democratic primary (United States Senate election in Illinois, 2004#Democratic primary) election for the United States Senator from Illinois (List of United States Senators from Illinois) as well as his prime-time televised keynote address (2004 Democratic National Convention keynote address) at the Democratic National Convention (2004 Democratic National Convention) in July 2004. He won election to the U.S. Senate (United States Senate election in Illinois, 2004) in November 2004.

He began his run for the presidency in February 2007. After a close campaign (Barack Obama presidential primary campaign, 2008) in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries (Democratic Party (United States) presidential primaries, 2008) against Hillary Clinton, he won his partys nomination. In the 2008 general election, he defeated Republican (Republican Party (United States)) nominee John McCain and was inaugurated as president (Inauguration of Barack Obama) on January 20, 2009. On October 9, 2009, Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.