WHEN BARACK Obama announced on 10 February, 2007, that he was running for president, he did so standing in front of the Old State Capital building in Springfield, Illinois. It was a symbolic choice. For it was here that Abraham Lincoln delivered his historic speech in 1858, predicting civil war and insisting a "House Divided" could not stand.
To many, the American Civil War finally came to a close on Tuesday night, when the state of Virginia, the first to break from the union in defence of their right to enslave a people on account of the colour of their skin, voted to elect a black man to the White House by judging the content of his character.
To Mr Obama, it was a childhood dream come true. As a young boy in third grade, he wrote an essay announcing his plan to be president, and he was already displaying signs of his formidable organisational skills by urging fellow pupils into straighter lines. As his teacher later explained: "He always wanted to be No 1…he wants to be in charge."
Yet first he had to gain control of himself and discover who he really was. Born on 4 August, 1961, in Hawaii, to a white mother, Ann Dunham, and a black father, Barack Obama snr, a Kenyan student at the University of Hawaii, young Barack never really knew his father, who would abandon his family two years later.
Instead, he was initially raised by his mother and her second husband, Lolo Soetoro, in Jakarta, Indonesia, where he spent three years and was taught to box by his stepfather.
His stepfather was also to teach him a valuable lesson in life. "Men take advantage of weakness in other men. They're just like countries in that way. The strong man takes the weak man's land," Mr Soetoro told young Barack, adding: "Which would you rather be?"
Barack later returned to live in Hawaii with his grandparents, Stanley Durham and his wife, Madelyn, whom Barack, who was known as Barry, always referred to as "Toot". He saw his father for the last time when he was 11 when Mr Obama snr returned to the island on a difficult visit during which he tried to re-exert his paternal rights by insisting his son turn off How the Grinch Stole Christmas and read a book instead. The son was glad when the father departed and would later write: "If my father hadn't exactly disappointed me, he remained something unknown, something volatile and vaguely threatening."
As a mixed-race child in a white home, the question of the colour of his skin barely entered his mind. Yet, as an exceptionally bright teenager, where exactly he fitted into society began to prey on his mind, and he started dabbling in drugs, using alcohol, marijuana and cocaine to, as he put it, "push questions of who I was out of my mind".
Stepping across educational establishments in Los Angeles and New York, his political conscience was finally ignited in Chicago, where he spend time as a community organiser charged with developing relations with black churches. After being raised in a religiously indifferent household, he also developed his spirituality, joining the Trinity United Church of Christ, whose pastor's inflammatory comments would later almost derail his presidential campaign.
His political star began to shine most brightly at Harvard Law School, which he entered in 1988. Within two years he was elected the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, which led to national press and a book deal. It also led to an offer to clerk on the Supreme Court, which he turned down, explaining that the law was not his true path, but politics.
While at law school, he worked as an associate at the legal firm Sidley & Austin, where he met his wife, Michelle, with whom he would have two daughters. It was appropriate that their first date was to go see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing, about a race riot in Brooklyn. A descendent of slaves, Michelle Robinson helped her future husband embrace his racial identity and nurtured his political ambitions, introducing him to the likes of Jesse Jackson.
Six years after his father died in a 1982 crash, Barack visited his Kenyan relations, and he would later write eloquently about his absent parent in Dreams of My Father, which was published in 1995, just a few months before his mother died of ovarian cancer.
After Harvard, Mr Obama returned to Chicago to practice civil rights law, representing victims of housing and job discrimination. He served in the Illinois state senate from 1996 to 2004.
His biggest break came when John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, invited him to speak at that year's party convention. Mr Obama electrified the audience with a speech about self reliance and high aspiration. He declared: "Through hard work and perseverance, my father got a scholarship to study in a magical place, America, which stood as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to so many who had come before," he said. In a chorus that would become worn with repetition over the next few years, he insisted there were not "Republican" or "Democratic" states, "only the United States of America".
After a landslide US Senate election victory in Illinois a few months later, Mr Obama became a media darling and one of the most visible figures in Washington, with two best-selling books to his name.
As a senator, he established a firmly liberal voting record, but also worked with Republican colleagues on issues such as HIV/Aids-education and prevention. An early critic of the Iraq war, he spoke out against the prospect of war several months before the 2003 invasion.
He eventually clinched the 2008 Democratic nomination after a long and gruelling battle with former first lady Hillary Clinton. In the course of campaigning, Senator Obama broke all fundraising records by harnessing the internet to collect huge numbers of small donations, as well as larger sums from corporate donors.
He has demonstrated the ability to generate crowds of 100,000 or more to his rallies, and to create a buzz seldom seen in American politics.
Now comes the hard part.
How family values brought home the world's biggest jobRUSSELL JACKSON BARACK Obama began his first full day as president-elect with the simple pleasure of having breakfast with his daughters, the type of everyday family activity he often had to sacrifice during a campaign that lasted almost two years.
While his victory will radically the change the life of his family, they have so far shown little worry about their new-found fame.
Mr Obama's daughters have already said life in the White House will be "cool" – and they think their father talks too much.
Malia, ten, and Sasha, seven, have followed their father at times on the campaign trail, bringing water pistols to keep themselves amused. Their appearances have entertained journalists and the public, and provided some of the highlights of the exhausting campaign to get their father elected.
The girls will be the youngest children in the White House since nine-year-old Amy Carter in 1977 and will face intense scrutiny as children of the first black American president.
Their importance was highlighted by Mr Obama as he promised them a puppy at the start of his victory speech.
"I love you both so much, and you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House," Mr Obama told the girls at the start of his speech.
His remarks were seen as a recognition of the huge electoral asset his family have been during the campaign to get him elected. Mr Obama's wife, 44-year-old Michelle, is believed by many to have been crucial in clinching his victory.
When he had to break off the campaign just days before the election to visit his dying grandmother, Mrs Obama stepped in for him at events he had to miss.
The couple were married 16 years ago after they met at a law firm in Chicago. She has described her husband as the "love of my life".
Mrs Obama, a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School, was brought up in a poor neighbourhood on the south side of Chicago.
Beyond the US, the election result has also been a cause for pride and rejoicing in Kenya.
Mr Obama's late father was Kenyan, and his 86-year-old step-grandmother, "Mama Sarah", still lives in Kogelo, a tiny village near the border with Uganda.
In addition to the many decisions he faces in getting his administration up and running, he has personal decisions to be make, too, such as when to move his family to Washington and where his daughters will go to school.
Mr Obama was also expected to take time to mourn his maternal grandmother, who died on Sunday before she could see the grandson she helped raise achieve his dream.
Mr Obama could be considering a return to his native Hawaii for the small private ceremony that she requested be held later.
• Obama inherits chaotic in-tray brimming with crisis and war
• Faith, hope and clarity: The secrets of Obama's success
• Hail to the chief – but not every nation is won over
• Analysis: Now the blame game begins for Republicans
• Black history: from slave plantation to president
• Quarantine over for 'foot-in-mouth' Joe
• The speech in full: Yes we can … the three little words that inspired a nation
• Michelle Obama: First among equals
