Barack Obama Aigul Baigazieva

Barack Hussein Obama II born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, running unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in 2000. Obama first received national attention for his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004, and his subsequent election to the United States Senate in November 2004. In 2008, he received the Democratic Party's presidential nomination after a close primary campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton. He then easily defeated Republican nominee John McCain in the general election, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months later, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He was re-elected president in 2012, defeating Republican nominee Mitt Romney by a slightly closer margin than his 2008 victory.