On this day 12 years ago, Illinois Senator Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States.
The Democratic candidate was the first African-American to be nominated by a major party, and the first to win election. He tallied 365 electoral votes to 173 for his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
Prior to his presidency, Obama was a 1983 Columbia University graduate. In 1990, he became the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review and subsequently graduated from Harvard, magna cum laude, in 1991.

In 1992, President Obama married his wife, Michelle Obama. They have two daughters, Natasha (Sasha) and Malia Ann.
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President Obama moved to Chicago where he worked as a civil lawyer and taught part time at the University of Chicago Law School until 2004. He was elected to the Illinois State Senate and served from 1997 to 2004.

Watch his 2008 victory speech below: