10 Interesting Facts About Barack Obama

Interesting Facts (9)

#001
Became the first sitting US president to cross into the Arctic Circle, visiting Kotzebue, Alaska, on September 3, 2015, to address global warming's harmful effects on the region.
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#002
Shares a birthday with Helen Thomas, the veteran White House correspondent and journalism legend. On her 89th birthday, which was also his 48th, the two blew out the candles on birthday cupcakes side by side in front of the press corps.
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#003
Became the first sitting US president to visit a federal prison, touring the El Reno Correctional Institution in Oklahoma on July 16, 2015.
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#004
Became the first sitting US president to visit Cuba in 88 years, since Calvin Coolidge in 1928. Coolidge reached the island aboard a battleship after a 3-day voyage; Obama landed in Havana on Air Force One after a 3-hour flight on March 20, 2016.
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#005
Received a Portuguese water dog as a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy and his wife, Victoria. The breed is said to be hypoallergenic, so the First Family and friends were highly unlikely to have allergic reactions around the pet.
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#006
Became the first US president to use social media, with a personal Facebook page and a Twitter account, and the first to hold Q&A sessions through those platforms and YouTube. He was also the first sitting president to own and use an iPod, a BlackBerry (custom-built for security) and an iPad.
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#007
By the end of his second term, he had granted clemency to more than 1,000 non-violent drug offenders, a higher total than the previous 11 presidents combined.
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#008
On his first date with Michelle Obama, the film they saw was Do the Right Thing (1989).
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#009
He is the first two-term President to take the Oath of Office four times. During his first, televised inauguration, Chief Justice John Roberts misread the oath, and Obama repeated it to spare him embarrassment. Days later, Obama summoned Roberts to his office for a second swearing-in, which went correctly. By law, the President is sworn in at noon on January 20. In 2013 that date fell on a Sunday, so to comply with blue laws barring work on Sunday, he took the oath privately in the Oval Office and then again publicly the following day. The two Presidents before him sworn in on Monday, January 21, were Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1957 and Ronald Reagan in 1985.
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Life & Family (1)

#010
While studying at Harvard, he tried modeling, submitting his photographs for consideration as one of "Harvard's hunks" in the university calendar, but was rejected.
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Reference databases

IMDb IMDb name page (biography and trivia)

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