Happy birthday Barack Obama! 51 great moments from the president's past

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August 4th, 2012 is President Barack Obama’s 51st birthday. The 44th president of the United States, he is the first ever African-American elected to the highest office in the land. Born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii, his father Barack Obama, Sr., originally from Kenya and his mother Stanley Ann Dunham, mostly of English, descent were an interracial couple — which was uncommon at that time. Obama once said, “my father looked nothing like the people around me — that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk — barely registered in my mind.”

For his birthday the president is planning a campaign fundraiser at their house in Chicago’s Kenwood neighborhood – and grassroots donors can win a chance to be on the guest list. Supporters who contribute three dollars or more to Obama’s re-election campaign will automatically be entered into the contest to join the Obamas in their home.

He began his university career at Occidental College in Los Angeles, California, then transferred to Colombia University in New York City. Two years after graduating he began to hone his skills as a community organizer as the director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP) in Chicago.

Obama later attended Harvard Law School where he graduated magna cum laude, which was followed by a stint as a fellow at Chicago Law School, where he continued as a lecturer for 12 years. In 1992 he led a program called Project Vote. His group successfully registered 150,000 of the 400,000 unregistered African-Americans in the city to vote. In 1993 Crain’s Chicago Business named Obama to its list of “40 under Forty” folks most likely to achieve power.

Obama’s election to the presidency came in the midst of an economic collapse and multiple international crises. He is currently running for re-election against Republican Mitt Romney. His tenure has been one of great change, optimism and hope, according to many who have witnessed his historic rise.

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