U.S. President Joe Biden: Timeline

Joe Biden: Fast Facts

Full name at birth: Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.

Birthday: November 20, 1942

Place of birth: Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.

Father: Joseph Robinette Biden Sr.

Mother: Catherine Eugenia Finnegan

Spouses: Neilia Hunter (1966-1972); Jill Jacobs (married in 1977)

Education: University of Delaware; Syracuse University

Political party: Democratic Party

Elected offices: 46th President of the United States (2021- ); 47th Vice President of the United States (2009-2017); U.S. Senator from Delaware (1973-2009)

Notable Accomplishments: Longest-serving senator from Delaware

Did you know that Joe Biden is the longest serving senator in the history of Delaware? In this article, worldhistoryedu.com takes an in-depth look at the life, history and political career of Joe Biden, America’s 47th vice president and the 46th President of the United States.

1942: Born in Scranton, northeast Pennsylvania (on November 20)

1955: Moves to Mayfield, Delaware

1961: Graduates from the prestigious Archmere Academy

1965: Graduates with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Delaware

August 27, 1966: Marries Neilia Hunter

1968: Graduates from law school at Syracuse University

1969: Gains admission to the Delaware bar in 1969 and proceeds to work as an attorney in Wilmington, Delaware

1969: The birth of his first child – Joseph Biden III

1970-1972: Serves on the New Castle County Council after winning in 1969

1970: Welcomes his second child – Hunter Biden

1971: His third child, Naomi, is born

1972: Enters into a race for a United States Senate seat; faces off with incumbent Republican Caleb Boggs

November, 1972: Defeats incumbent senator J. Caleb Boggs and secures seat in the U.S. Senate

December 18, 1972: His wife and three children are involved in an awful car accident, killing his wife and one-year-old daughter Naomi

1975: Meets with Jill Tracy Jacobs

June 17, 1977: Marries his second wife, Jill Biden at a ceremony in New York

1981: Biden welcomes the birth of his daughter Ashley

1984: Serves as a Democratic floor manager during the passage of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act

1987–1995: Serves as the chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary

September, 1988: Drops out from the Democratic primary owing to controversies surrounding a plagiarized report during his school days as well as his unsubstantiated claim that he marched during the civil rights movement

1988: Spends a great chunk of the year recovering from a surgery to fix life-threatening aneurysm in a brain artery (an intracranial berry aneurysm)

1990: Supports a bill that is intended to tackle violence of all sorts against women [the bill later becomes the Violence Against Women Act – VAWA]

1991: Refuses to support authorization for the Gulf War – a war that saw American lead a coalition against Iraq

1994: Throws his full support towards the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which came to be known as the Biden Crime Law

1996: Supported the Defense of Marriage Act, an act which meant that all same-sex marriages would not be recognized by the federal government [the act would later be ruled unconstitutional in Obergefell v. Hodges]

1999: Works with Republican Senator John McCain to support the McCain-Biden Kosovo Resolution

2001–2003: Serves as the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in Senate

2002: Bemoans the Bush Administration’s handling of the military invasion in Iraq to topple Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein

April, 2003: Introduces the Reducing Americans’ Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act

2006: Kicks against the introduction of additional troops in Iraq

2007–2009: Elected chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

2007: Discloses his intention to run for president; however, he is far behind leading candidates – Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton

August 1, 2007: Publishes his memoir titled “Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics”

August 23, 2008: Selected as Barack Obama’s running mate for the 2008 presidential election

November, 2008: The 2008 presidential election sees Biden and Obama defeat Republican candidate Senator John McCain and his running mate Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska

January 20, 2009: Sworn into office as the 47^th vice president of the United States

February 7, 2009: Attends a security conference in Germany

2010: Gets the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty passed in the Senate

2011: The Amtrak’s Wilmington Rail Station is named Joseph R. Biden Jr. Railroad Station

2012: Serves as the running mate for President Obama and wins a second term as vice president of the United States, defeating Republicans Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan

January 1, 2013: Successfully gets the fiscal cliff bill passed in Congress

January 20, 2013: Gets sworn in to serve a second time as vice president of the nation

May 30, 2015: His eldest son – Beau Biden, 46 – dies from cancer

2016: Announces he doesn’t intend running for president in 2016

January 12, 2017: Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the nation’s highest honor for a civilian

February 1, 2017: He and his wife Jill Biden establish the Biden Foundation to address a number of issues including stopping domestic violence against women and children

February 7, 2017: The University of Pennsylvania appoints Joe Biden as the Benjamin Franklin presidential practice professor

November 14, 2017: Publishes his second memoir – “Promise Me Dad: A year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose”

2017: Ramps up his criticism of newly-elected president Donald Trump

March 29, 2019: Lucy Flores accuses Joe Biden of making her feel “uneasy, gross and confused” at a 2014 campaign rally in Nevada

April 25, 2019: Declares his intention to run for president in 2020

September, 2019: It is revealed that President Donald Trump had piled up a significant amount of pressure on top Ukrainian officials to investigate Joe Biden’s son- Hunter Biden.

June 6, 2019: As part of his campaign for the 2020 presidential election, Biden flips flop on the Hyde Amendment

October, 2019: Supports the impeachment of President Trump

March 25, 2020: A former aide to Biden, Alexandra Reade, accuses Biden of sexually assaulting her in the early 1990s

August 11, 2020: Picks Senator Kamala Harris as his vice presidential running mate

August 18, 2020: In a virtual roll call, Democrats formally endorse Biden as the candidate to challenge incumbent president Donald Trump in the November, 2020 election

November, 2020: Defeats incumbent president Donald Trump to win the 2020 U.S. presidential election

January 20, 2021: Sworn into office as the 46th President of the United States

November 5, 2021: President Joe Biden approves $650m weapon sale to Saudi Arabia, one of the U.S. strongest allies in the region.