116 Fun Facts About Barack Obama

In which city was Barack Obama born?

Honolulu: two local newspapers printed Obama's birth notice in August 1961, records later cited against claims that he was born abroad.

A 2002 Obama speech opposed only which kind of war?

Dumb: Obama spoke at an October 2002 Chicago rally against invading Iraq, and in 2008 he contrasted that stand with a rival's vote for the war.

His mother, Ann Dunham, was born in which state?

Kansas: Ann Dunham was born in Wichita and met Obama's father when both were students at the University of Hawaii.

His father was a citizen of which African country?

Kenya: Barack Obama Sr. departed for graduate study in 1962, then returned home to work as a government economist.

Barack Obama has said his father grew up herding which animals?

Goats: his father went from herding them as a village boy to a graduate degree and a career shaping his nation's economy.

At age six, Barack Obama went to live in which country, his stepfather's homeland?

Indonesia: Obama attended local schools in Jakarta from age six to ten, and his mother later returned there for anthropology fieldwork.

What nickname did Barack Obama go by as a boy?

Barry: Obama kept the nickname through high school, then dropped it and began using his given name, Barack.

In 1971, Barack Obama moved back to Hawaii to live with which relatives?

His maternal grandparents: Stanley and Madelyn Dunham raised him from age ten so he could attend school in Hawaii while his mother worked abroad.

Which private Hawaiian school did Barack Obama attend on a scholarship from fifth grade until graduating in 1979?

Punahou School: Obama later wrote that as a teenager there he used alcohol and drugs to push questions of who he was out of his mind.

Barack Obama began his undergraduate studies in 1979 at which Los Angeles school?

Occidental College: Obama spent his freshman and sophomore years there before transferring east to finish his degree.

His first public speech, in February 1981, called for his college to do what?

The anti-apartheid rally speech is recounted in his memoir; he was pulled offstage mid-sentence as a piece of theater.

Where did Barack Obama earn his bachelor's degree in political science in 1983?

Columbia University: Obama transferred there after two years at a Los Angeles college, and after graduating he moved to Chicago in 1985.

From 1985 to 1988, Barack Obama worked in Chicago in what job?

Community organizer: Obama worked for the church-funded Developing Communities Project, then went on to law school in 1988.

In July 2008, candidate Barack Obama drew a huge crowd to an outdoor speech in which European city?

Berlin: speaking to about 200,000 people at the Victory Column, Obama called for renewed ties between the United States and its allies.

Barack Obama gained national attention in 1990 as the first Black president of what?

The Harvard Law Review: the publicity from his election brought Obama a publishing contract for a book about race relations.

What subject did Barack Obama teach at the University of Chicago Law School?

Constitutional law: the school repeatedly invited Obama to join its full-time tenure-track faculty, but he declined.

Which voter-registration drive did Barack Obama direct in Illinois in 1992?

Project Vote: the 1992 drive was credited with helping elect Carol Moseley Braun to the US Senate that November.

Whose sermons prompted Obama's 2008 speech on race?

Jeremiah Wright: Obama denounced the remarks but refused to disown him, then resigned from Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ in May 2008.

What is the given first name of Barack Obama's younger daughter, known as Sasha?

Natasha: Sasha Obama was born in 2001, and the family stayed in Washington after 2017 so she could finish high school.

Barack Obama was first elected to public office in 1996, winning a seat in which body?

The Illinois State Senate: Obama's challenges to rival candidates' nominating petitions knocked them off the ballot, leaving him alone in the Democratic primary.

In 2000, Barack Obama lost a Democratic primary for the US House to which incumbent?

Bobby Rush: he cast Obama as an outsider to the district's Black neighborhoods and beat him by more than 2 to 1.

In which city did Barack Obama give the 2004 Democratic National Convention keynote that made his name?

Boston: Obama wrote the speech largely himself, and the Kerry campaign's edits kept most of his draft intact.

Which phrase from Barack Obama's 2004 convention keynote became the title of his 2006 book?

The Audacity of Hope: Obama borrowed the phrase from a sermon, and his 2006 book of that title became a national bestseller.

Who was Barack Obama's main rival in the 2008 Democratic primary?

Hillary Clinton: she battled Obama from February into June 2008, then served as his secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.

Whom did Barack Obama defeat in the November 2008 general election?

John McCain: Obama beat the Arizona senator 365 electoral votes to 173, after McCain chose Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Which park hosted Obama's 2008 victory speech?

Grant Park: forty years earlier, police had clashed there with protesters during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Who administered the oath of office at Barack Obama's first inauguration in January 2009?

Chief Justice John Roberts: he misplaced the word 'faithfully', so he gave Obama the oath again the next day in the White House Map Room.

What was the first bill Barack Obama signed into law, on January 29, 2009?

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act: it lets the 180-day deadline for pay-discrimination suits restart with each unfair paycheck, after Ledbetter lost at the Supreme Court.

Which stimulus law did Obama sign in 2009?

The Recovery Act: not one House Republican and only three Republican senators voted for the stimulus package.

In December 2009, in which city did Barack Obama accept the Nobel Peace Prize?

Oslo: Obama called his accomplishments slight beside laureates like King and Mandela, then argued that force is sometimes morally justified.

In which city did Barack Obama deliver 'A New Beginning', his June 2009 speech to the Muslim world?

Cairo: Obama quoted the Quran, the Talmud and the Bible in the speech, which Cairo University hosted with Al-Azhar University.

In 2012, the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare's individual mandate as what?

A tax: the 5-4 ruling rejected the argument that Congress could require people to buy insurance under its power to regulate commerce.

Which justice was Barack Obama's first Supreme Court appointee, confirmed in 2009?

Sonia Sotomayor: the Bronx housing project where she spent part of her childhood was renamed in her honor in 2010.

What breed was Bo, the Obama family's pet?

Portuguese Water Dog: Malia's allergies led the Obamas to a breed with a hypoallergenic reputation, and they added a second one, Sunny, in 2013.

Which senator gave the Obamas their dog Bo?

Ted Kennedy: the senator's gift made good on Obama's election-night promise to his daughters of a new puppy coming with them to the White House.

Bo was named partly after their cousins' cat and partly after which musician?

Bo Diddley: the name also nodded to Michelle Obama's father, who had gone by the nickname Diddley.

In which Pakistani city was Osama bin Laden killed in the May 2011 raid?

Abbottabad: US intelligence found bin Laden's compound there by tracking one of his trusted couriers.

What was the code name of the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden?

Operation Neptune Spear: the raid team's use of 'Geronimo' as a code word outraged some Native Americans.

In 2011, Barack Obama joined NATO allies in air strikes to protect civilians in which country?

Libya: the NATO-backed campaign helped rebels end Muammar Gaddafi's rule, and Gaddafi was killed in October 2011.

Who was Barack Obama's Republican opponent in the 2012 election?

Mitt Romney: the former Massachusetts governor picked Representative Paul Ryan as his running mate, and Obama won 332 electoral votes to 206.

Which program did Barack Obama announce in June 2012 to shield immigrants brought to the US as children from deportation?

DACA: Obama created it by executive action after Congress failed to pass legislation for young immigrants brought to the country as children.

Barack Obama's 2016 trip to Cuba was the first by a sitting US president since whose 1928 visit?

Calvin Coolidge: Obama's trip followed the restoration of full diplomatic relations, with embassies reopening in both capitals in July 2015.

In which city was the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) finalized in July 2015?

Vienna: the deal was announced there on July 14, 2015, and President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from it in May 2018.

Barack Obama's 2016 Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland was chosen to succeed which justice?

Antonin Scalia: Senate Republicans refused to hold hearings, and Garland's nomination expired in January 2017 after 293 days.

Barack Obama was the first sitting president to publicly support what?

Same-sex marriage: Obama affirmed his support in a May 2012 interview, and three years later the Supreme Court legalized it in all 50 states.

Where did Barack Obama deliver his January 2017 farewell address, rather than from the White House?

McCormick Place in Chicago: Obama called Michelle, a 'girl of the South Side', his best friend, and closed with 'Yes, we can. Yes, we did.'

What is the title of Barack Obama's 1995 memoir?

Dreams from My Father: first published in 1995, it was reissued after Obama's 2004 convention keynote and became a bestseller.

Barack Obama won Grammy Awards in 2006 and 2008 in which category?

Best Spoken Word Album: both wins were for narrating his own books, the second coming in the middle of his first presidential campaign.

He won a 2022 Primetime Emmy for narrating which Netflix series?

The award made him one of the few people to hold an Emmy, two Grammys and a Nobel Prize.

What is the name of the production company Barack and Michelle Obama founded in 2018?

Higher Ground: the company launched with a multi-year Netflix deal and went on to produce nature and work series that Obama himself narrates.

Which documentary won the Obamas' company an Academy Award in 2020?

American Factory: its directors had already filmed the same Ohio plant's closing in their 2009 short The Last Truck.

What was Barack Obama's Secret Service code name?

Renegade: family code names traditionally share a first letter, so Michelle's was Renaissance and Sasha's was Rosebud.

Which hand does Barack Obama write with?

Left: Obama joins Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton as a lefty president, though Ronald Reagan, naturally left-handed, wrote with his right hand.

Barack Obama played on his high school varsity team in which sport?

Basketball: when Michelle began dating Barack, she asked her brother Craig to play a game with him and report on his character.

In which South Side park did Barack Obama build his presidential center?

Jackson Park: a lawsuit to stop building on the parkland reached the Supreme Court, which refused to block construction in 2021.

Michelle Obama earned her undergraduate degree from which university?

Princeton: Michelle Robinson followed her brother there, majoring in sociology with a minor in African-American studies.

What was the name of Michelle Obama's initiative against childhood obesity?

Let's Move! championed the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which required more fruit, vegetables and whole grains in school meals.

What is the title of Michelle Obama's 2018 memoir?

Becoming launched with an arena tour that opened at Chicago's United Center, with Oprah Winfrey moderating the conversation.

Which Republican replaced Jack Ryan as Obama's opponent in the 2004 US Senate race in Illinois?

Ryan withdrew in June 2004 amid a scandal; Keyes, a Maryland resident, accepted the nomination six weeks later and lost in a landslide.

Which street artist created the famous 'Hope' poster of Barack Obama?

Shepard Fairey sold 350 prints and pasted 350 more on the streets, then used the sales to fund 4,000 posters for Obama rallies.

Which Major League Baseball team does Barack Obama support?

The Chicago White Sox have his loyalty, but Michelle is a lifelong Cubs fan, and in January 2017 he welcomed the champion Cubs to the White House.

Which retiring justice did Elena Kagan replace when Obama nominated her in May 2010?

John Paul Stevens was appointed by Republican president Gerald Ford, yet over time he emerged as a leader of the court's liberal wing.

Which comedian appeared beside Obama as Luther, his 'anger translator', at the 2015 White House Correspondents' Dinner?

Keegan-Michael Key's Luther, from Key & Peele, turns the president's calm words into furious rants, and Obama played along live on stage.

Which drink did Obama share with Henry Louis Gates Jr. and his arresting officer at a White House 'summit'?

Beer, eight days after Obama said police had acted 'stupidly' in arresting Gates, and Joe Biden joined in with a non-alcoholic Buckler.

In which city was the 2012 Democratic National Convention that renominated Obama and Biden held?

Charlotte, North Carolina hosted it, yet that November Obama lost North Carolina, a state he had carried in 2008 by about 14,000 votes.

Which Obama half-brother was Donald Trump's guest at the final 2016 debate?

Malik Obama had endorsed Trump in July 2016, and Trump said Malik 'gets it far better than his brother'.

Barack Obama's parents met in 1960 at the University of Hawaii in a class teaching which language?

Russian brought together Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Sr., a scholarship student who was the university's first African student. They married on Maui the following February.

Which soul legend sang at Barack Obama's 2009 swearing-in wearing a hat with a crystal-studded bow?

Aretha Franklin sang a patriotic standard right after the invocation, and the Swarovski crystals on her hat made a fashion statement of their own.

Whose Bible did Barack Obama place his hand on to take the oath of office in 2009?

Abraham Lincoln's Bible, first used at his 1861 inauguration, was held by Michelle Obama during the oath. The day's theme marked 200 years since Lincoln's birth.

Barack Obama's elder daughter, Malia, was born in 1998 on which American holiday?

Fourth of July, 1998, is Malia's birthday. She and her sister started at Sidwell Friends School in Washington just before the 2009 inauguration.

What name did the Obama family give the second dog, who joined Bo at the White House in August 2013?

Sunny, a female chosen from a breeder in the Great Lakes area, was introduced to the public through Michelle Obama's Twitter account.

With which rock star, a friend since the 2008 campaign, did Barack Obama host a 2021 podcast series?

Bruce Springsteen recorded the conversations with Obama at his own New Jersey home, and they were turned into a book later that year.

Barack Obama visited the village of Moneygall in 2011 to meet distant cousins in which European country?

Ireland is the country his mother's ancestor Falmouth Kearney emigrated from in 1850, bound for Ohio. A service station in the village was later named Barack Obama Plaza.

Barack Obama's mother, known as Ann Dunham, was given which traditionally male first name at birth?

Stanley was also her father's name, and she answered to it through childhood. One family account says her mother took it from a Bette Davis film role.

Which nickname was given to the 2009 Obama program that paid drivers to swap old cars for fuel-efficient ones?

Cash for Clunkers, officially the Car Allowance Rebate System, was a $3 billion scrappage scheme. An economist's 2008 newspaper column popularised the nickname.

On which comedy web series did Barack Obama spar with Zach Galifianakis in 2014 to promote health insurance sign-ups?

Between Two Ferns is filmed between two potted plants on a set built to look like amateur public-access television. It began as a short for a Fox sketch pilot that the network turned down.

Barack Obama surprised a 2012 crowd at New York's Apollo Theater by singing a line from a hit by which soul singer?

Al Green had been the opening act at the fundraiser, so Obama sang a brief phrase of Let's Stay Together in tribute.

With which survival-show host did Barack Obama hike to Alaska's Exit Glacier in 2015 to discuss climate change?

Bear Grylls filmed the trek for his NBC series Running Wild, whose other guests have included Kate Hudson, Channing Tatum and Ben Stiller.

What is the title of Barack Obama's 2020 presidential memoir, the first of a planned two volumes?

A Promised Land sold 887,000 copies in North America on its first day, breaking the record held by his wife Michelle's own memoir.

Which governor was the running mate on the Republican ticket that Barack Obama defeated in 2008?

Sarah Palin, then governor of Alaska, drew far more press attention than her Democratic counterpart; their one debate was held at a university in St. Louis.

In 2015 the Obama administration restored which Native name to Mount McKinley, North America's highest peak?

Denali became the official federal name days before Obama flew to Alaska, though critics in Congress called the change presidential overreach.

Barack Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, earned a PhD in which field after studying village blacksmiths and craftswomen?

Anthropology was Ann Dunham's life's work: she designed microcredit programs for poor rural villages and finished her doctorate in 1992, three years before her death.

What is the first name of Barack Obama's younger half-sister, the daughter of Ann Dunham and Lolo Soetoro?

Maya Soetoro-Ng, nine years his junior, was raised with him and became a specialist in peace and conflict resolution at the University of Hawaii.

Which NFL team did Barack Obama follow as a boy and cheer for in Super Bowl XLIII, days after taking office?

Pittsburgh Steelers games won him over as a boy, though as an adult he mainly follows Chicago's team. The Steelers won that Super Bowl 12 days into his presidency.

Family-tree research shows that Barack Obama shares distant ancestors with which Republican vice president?

Dick Cheney and the president he served, George W. Bush, both turn out to share distant ancestors with Obama.

Which Illinois governor was removed from office after trying to sell the Senate seat Barack Obama vacated in 2008?

Rod Blagojevich was impeached soon after his arrest and later sentenced to 14 years in federal prison, a term that was commuted in 2020.

Marvel put Barack Obama on a January 2009 comic cover after learning he collected which superhero's comics?

Spider-Man shared the cover of issue No. 583 of his own Marvel title with the president-elect, after an adviser revealed that he also collects Conan the Barbarian.

Which brand of phone did Barack Obama insist on keeping after his 2009 inauguration, despite security concerns?

BlackBerry gained what marketers called a celebrity endorsement worth $25 million to $50 million, and he kept using one until around the end of his presidency.

Barack Obama is one of the most famous former employees of which American ice cream chain?

Baskin-Robbins in Honolulu hired the 16-year-old Obama to scoop ice cream in the summer of 1978. He later wrote that the rock-hard tubs were brutal on his wrists.

Which 2010 children's book did Barack Obama write as a letter to his daughters, with art by Loren Long?

Of Thee I Sing profiles thirteen Americans from Sitting Bull to Georgia O'Keeffe, and its proceeds went to a scholarship fund for the children of fallen and disabled troops.

Which former newspaper reporter was chief strategist for both of Barack Obama's presidential campaigns?

David Axelrod first met Obama in the early 1990s and followed him into the White House as senior adviser during the first term.

Which chief of staff to Barack Obama resigned in October 2010 to run for mayor of Chicago?

Rahm Emanuel, a congressman when Obama hired him days after the 2008 election, won the race and led City Hall from 2011 to 2019.

A figurine of which Hindu deity sat among the lucky charms Barack Obama said he carried as president?

Hanuman shared the bowl of keepsakes with a Coptic cross from Ethiopia, a small Buddha given by a monk and a biker's lucky poker chip.

Barack Obama's win in which state's January 2008 caucuses made him a frontrunner for the Democratic nomination?

Iowa made him the first African American to win a caucus or primary state since Jesse Jackson in 1988, and was a first step toward the nomination.

Which attorney general, appointed by Barack Obama in 2009, was the first African American to hold the post?

Eric Holder, the 82nd attorney general, stayed in the job until 2015, well into Obama's second term.

Which initiative did Barack Obama launch in 2014 to support boys and young men of color?

My Brother's Keeper drew $200 million in pledges from nonprofits over five years, and its alliance became a core program of the Obama Foundation in 2017.

What is the official short name of the 2010 health insurance law better known by the nickname Obamacare?

Affordable Care Act is short for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed on March 23, 2010. It stops insurers dropping policyholders who fall ill.

Which 2010 law signed by Barack Obama, named for two members of Congress, rewrote the rules for Wall Street?

Dodd-Frank, named for Senator Chris Dodd and Representative Barney Frank, was the biggest financial overhaul since the New Deal and created a consumer protection bureau.

Which pope helped mediate the secret talks that led Barack Obama and Raúl Castro to restore US–Cuba ties?

Pope Francis was publicly thanked by Castro for his part in the talks, which Canada hosted and which produced a prisoner exchange in December 2014.

In which European capital did Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev sign the New START nuclear arms treaty in 2010?

Prague hosted the signing on 8 April 2010, and the treaty took effect the following February after Obama made its ratification a Senate priority.

Which proposed cross-border oil pipeline did the Obama administration reject in November 2015 after years of dispute?

Keystone XL was turned down over economic and environmental concerns, months after Obama vetoed a bill from Congress that would have approved it.

Which drilling rig's 2010 explosion in the Gulf of Mexico led Barack Obama to halt new offshore drilling leases?

Deepwater Horizon caused the worst oil spill in US history, weeks after Obama had moved to open much of the East Coast to oil and gas drilling.

Barack Obama was the first US president to make two visits while in office to which Asian country?

India was central to his push for closer ties across Asia, which also deepened military links with Vietnam, Australia and the Philippines.

Which global climate accord, adopted in 2015, did the United States join under Barack Obama?

Paris Agreement membership has swung with the White House ever since: the United States withdrew in 2020, rejoined in 2021 and withdrew again in 2026.

Barack Obama ordered the closure of which US military detention camp, only for it to outlast his presidency?

Guantanamo Bay was meant to shut within a year under an order from his first week in office, but Congress refused the funds and blocked detainee transfers.

After which December 2012 school shooting in Connecticut did Barack Obama announce 23 executive actions on guns?

Sandy Hook led Obama to urge Congress to revive an expired ban on military-style assault weapons and to require background checks for all gun sales.

In which city, at the National Constitution Center, did Barack Obama give his 2008 speech on race, A More Perfect Union?

Philadelphia heard a speech Obama dictated himself over a weekend, breaking his habit of editing drafts written by his speechwriter.

In which Alabama city did Barack Obama speak at the foot of a bridge in 2015, fifty years after Bloody Sunday?

Selma is the speech Obama later called the closest to his heart. Afterwards he led a march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge beside George W. Bush and John Lewis.

Barack Obama's January 2011 memorial speech in Tucson followed a shooting that wounded which Arizona congresswoman?

Gabby Giffords had opened her eyes for the first time since the attack earlier that day, news that drew the longest applause of Obama's speech.

Which congressman shouted an accusation of lying at Barack Obama during a 2009 address to Congress on health reform?

Joe Wilson apologised and Obama accepted, but the House of Representatives went on to pass a resolution of disapproval against him.

In his 2011 State of the Union, Barack Obama compared America's innovation challenge to which Soviet satellite's launch?

Sputnik was his shorthand for a rival's wake-up call: the speech asked for new investment in biomedical research, information technology and clean energy.

Which Supreme Court ruling on election spending did Barack Obama condemn in his 2010 State of the Union?

Citizens United had been decided only a week earlier, and Samuel Alito, seated in the chamber, was seen mouthing a denial as Obama spoke.

In which city did Barack Obama accept the 2008 Democratic nomination before 84,000 people in a football stadium?

Denver's Invesco Field was fitted with a stage of Doric columns meant to evoke the White House, the backdrop for a record convention crowd.

Which presidential nominee chose Barack Obama, then a Senate candidate, to give the 2004 Democratic convention keynote?

John Kerry picked him after the two made joint campaign appearances in Illinois, and Obama largely wrote the speech himself.

Which speechwriter met Barack Obama backstage at the 2004 convention and went on to run White House speechwriting?

Jon Favreau had soured on politics after his first campaign lost that year, but Obama hired him in 2005 and made him director of speechwriting in 2009.

Which hymn did Barack Obama break into during his 2015 eulogy for Reverend Clementa Pinckney in Charleston?

Amazing Grace was part of a eulogy delivered in a college sports arena, nine days after the pastor was shot dead in his own church.