Barack Obama

Barack Obama, born August 4, 1961, is a member of the Democratic Party who served as the 44th president of the United States from January 20, 2009, to January 20, 2017, the first African American to hold the office. He responded to the 2008 financial crisis with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, enacted major health care reform legislation and the Dodd-Frank financial regulation act, and appointed Supreme Court justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. He was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for international diplomacy efforts, oversaw the end of the Iraq War, ordered the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, and ordered a 2011 military intervention in Libya. He won re-election in 2012 against Mitt Romney, and in his second term signed the Paris Agreement on climate change, negotiated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran, normalized relations with Cuba, and became the first sitting U.S. president to publicly support same-sex marriage.