Barack Obama was born in 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. He graduated from Columbia University and Harvard Law School. Obama was elected as the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review in 1990. He later served as a senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008. On November 4, 2008, Obama was elected as the first African American president of the United States, and was re-elected in 2012. Obama received the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation.