10 Things You Didn't Know About Barack Obama

Interesting facts about the first black president of the United States.

President Barack Obama

Jan. 16, 2007 | 2:54 p.m. EST+ More

1. Obama was born on Aug. 4, 1961, in Honolulu. His first name, Barack, means "blessed" in Swahili and was also his Kenyan father's name.

2. He says he hasn't liked ice cream since working at Baskin-Robbins as a teenager.

3. His childhood nickname was Barry.

4. Obama was the third African-American senator since Reconstruction.

5. He married Michelle Robinson, also a Harvard Law School graduate, who supervised him while he was working as a summer associate in a Chicago law firm. They have two daughters, Malia and Sasha.

6. As an Illinois state senator, he sponsored a bill to require the police to videotape interrogations in capital crime cases. Illinois was the first state to do this.

7. A school in his father's hometown near Lake Victoria in Kenya has been renamed the Senator Barack Obama Secondary School.

8. He loves playing Scrabble.

9. Obama and his wife bought a house on Chicago's South Side in June 2005 for $1.65 million. It has four fireplaces.

10. His heroes are Martin Luther King Jr., Mohandas Gandhi, Pablo Picasso, and John Coltrane.

Sources:

• Current Biography
• Chicago Sun-Times
• Chicago Tribune
• Associated Press
• Politics in America 2006