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This timeline is a work-in-progress that tracks the ascendancy of presidential candidate and Senator Barack Obama, D-Illinois.
- 1988 - Obama is a summer associate at the Chicago law firm Sidley & Austin
- 1992 - Obama graduates from Harvard and returns to Chicago
- 1992, Oct - Obama marries fellow attorney Michelle Robinson, whom he met at Sidley & Austin
- 1995, Jul - Obama, at 34, publishes his first memoir, "Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance"
- 1995, Aug - Obama files paperwork to run for Palmer's Illinois Senate seat
- 1996, Jan - Obama has his four competitor petitions invalidated; he emerges as the only candidate
- 1996, Nov - Obama is elected to Illinois Senate, which is controlled by Republicans
- 1999 - Obama begins running for Congress
- 2000 - Obama loses his challenge for Congressional seat held by Rep. Bobby Rush
- 2002, Nov - Democrats usurp Republican control of the Illinois Senate; Obama has not yet successfully sponsored legislation during his six years in the Illinois Senate
- 2003-2004 - Obama amasses his legislative record, serves as chair of the Health and Human Services Committee
- 2003 - Obama begins running for US Senate
- 2003 - David Axelrod, adviser to John Edwards in 2004, [begins having] camera crews [track] virtually everything Obama has done in public." He does this for at least four years and uses this footage to create a five-minute Internet video for the 16 Jan. 2007 announcement that Obama is running for president.
- 2004, Mar - Obama wins the primary with 52% of the vote
- 2004, Jun - Obama's Republican opponent withdraws
- 2004, Aug - Democratic National Convention address, "The Audacity of Hope," was based on a sermon delivered by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's spiritual advisor
- 2004, Nov - Obama is elected to US Senate with 70% of the vote
- 2005, Jan - Obama files paperwork for his leadership PAC, The Hope Fund (PAC website no longer active, points to Obama's presidential campaign website)
- 2005 - Obama purchases land from neighbor and now-indicted political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko
- 2006 - Obama publishes the book, The Audacity of Hope
- 2007, Jan - Obama begins running for US President, one year after setting foot in the Senate
- 2007, Mar - Obama endorses controversial Chicago alderman Dorothy "The Hat" Tillman, who reportedly "[deployed] city resources to hire her family and reward campaign contributors."
- 2007, Apr - Controversy over Obama's MySpace page
- 2007, May - Obama's campaign releases its sophisticated Facebook application, only hours "after the company launched the developer platform." TechPresident argues that Facebook gave the Obama camp an advantage: "the other campaigns found out about Platform's with the rest of us, on Friday, May 25" and reports that "Chris Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook, is working on the Obama campaign."
This article first appeared at US Politics @ About.com
