- Just 9 months after his inauguration, Barack Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
- Barack Obama won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, "Dreams From My Father."
- Barack Obama was the first sitting U.S. president to visit a federal prison.
- In his first few days in office, Barack Obama ordered the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, but Congress prevented it.
- In 1961, Robert F Kennedy said the U.S. would have a black president within 40 years.
- Barack Obama was the first sitting President to publish an academic paper.
- Favorable views of the U.S. around the world rose from a median of 51% in George W. Bush's final year in office to 66% during Obama's final 2 years.