Barack Obama Day in Illinois Date in the current year: August 4, 2024

Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu. Upon graduation from high school he attended Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years. In 1981, Obama transferred to Columbia University in New York City. Two years later, he graduated with a BA.

In 1985, Obama moved from New York to Chicago, where he worked as a community organizer for three years. In 1988, he enrolled at Harvard Law School and moved to Somerville, Massachusetts, but he spent his summers in Chicago, working as a summer associate at various law firms.

In 1991, Obama graduated with a JD degree and returned to Chicago. His political career began five years later when he was elected to the Illinois Senate. Obama was reelected twice, in 1998 and then again in 2002. In 2004, he won the US Senate election in Illinois with 70% of the vote. He served as a senator from 2005 and 2008 and resigned after winning the presidential election.

Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States on February 10, 2007. On June 7, 2008, he officially became the Democratic Party’s candidate for president. On November 4, he won the presidential election with 365 electoral votes to 173 received by the Republican Party’s candidate John McCain.

On January 20, 2009, Obama officially became the 44th President of the United States and the first African American president. He was re-elected for the second term in 2012, winning 332 electoral votes to 206 received by Mitt Romney and becoming the first Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win the majority of the popular vote twice.

In 2017, Illinois State Representatives Sonya Harper and Andre Thapedi introduced a bill to declare Barack Obama’s birthday a state holiday. However, the House rejected it, citing expense of introducing an additional state holiday and the lack of a day of recognition for other presidents from Illinois, for example, Ronald Reagan.

That same year, a State Senate bill was introduced by Emil Jones III and other State Senators to designate August 4 as Barack Obama Day without making it an official state holiday. It passed both houses of the state legislature and was signed into law on August 4, 2017. Since then, Barack Obama Day has been celebrated in Illinois every year to honor the 44th US President and recognize his contribution to building bridges across communities and protecting human rights.

In addition to Barack Obama Day observed in Illinois, there are other observances dedicated to Barack Obama. For example, in Perry County, Alabama, the second Monday of November has been celebrated as Barack Obama Day since 2009. Schools and county offices are closed for the occasion. In Kenya, November 6 was declared Obama Day in honor of Obama’s victory in the 2008 presidential election because Obama’s father was Kenyan.