Barack Obama Biography

President of the United States. Born Barack Hussein Obama on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, grew up in Wichita, Kansas, where her father worked on oil rigs during the Depression. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dunham's father, Stanley, enlisted in the service and marched across Europe in Patton's army. Dunham's mother, Madelyn, went to work on a bomber assembly line. After the war, the couple studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through the Federal Housing Program and, after several moves, landed in Hawaii.

Obama's father, Barack Obama, Sr., was born of Luo ethnicity in Nyanza Province, Kenya. The elder Obama grew up herding goats in Africa, eventually earning a scholarship that allowed him to leave Kenya and pursue his dreams of college in Hawaii. While studying at the University of Hawaii in Manoa, Obama, Sr. met fellow student, Ann Dunham. They married on February 2, 1961. Barack was born six months later.
Obama's parents separated when he was two years old, later divorcing. Obama, Sr. went on to Harvard to pursue Ph.D. studies, and then returned to Kenya in 1965. In 1966, Dunham married Lolo Soetoro, another East–West Center student from Indonesia. A year later, the family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, where Obama's half-sister Maya Soetoro Ng was born. Several incidents in Indonesia left Dunham afraid for her son's safety and education so, at the age of 10, Barack was sent back to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents. His mother and sister later joined them.

While living with his grandparents, Obama enrolled in the esteemed Punahou Academy, excelling in basketball and graduating with academic honors in 1979. As one of only three black students at the school, Obama became conscious of racism and what it meant to be African-American. He later described how he struggled to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage with his own sense of self. "I began to notice there was nobody like me in the Sears, Roebuck Christmas catalog...and that Santa was a white man," he said. "I went to the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror with all my senses and limbs seemingly intact, looking the way I had always looked, and wondered if something was wrong with me."

Obama also struggled with the absence of his father, who he saw only once more after his parents divorced, in a brief 1971 visit. "[My father] had left paradise, and nothing that my mother or grandparents told me could obviate that single, unassailable fact," he later reflected. "They couldn't describe what it might have been like had he stayed." Obama, Sr. eventually lost his legs in an automobile accident, also losing his job as a result. In 1982, he died in yet another car accident while traveling in Nairobi. Obama, Jr. was 22 years old when he received the news of his father's passing. "At the time of his death, my father remained a myth to me," Obama said, "both more and less than a man."



Demi Lovato Biography

 

 

Singer, actress. Demi Lovato was born on August 20, 1992, in Dallas, Texas. Lovato's mother, Dianna Lovato, was a former country music recording artist and Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader. Lovato is the middle child of three sisters. Her older sister, Dallas, is also a singer and actress, and her younger sister, Madison, was born in 2002.
Growing up, Lovato won several talent contests and performed in famous venues, including the Eismann Center and the Dallas Cowboys' Thanksgiving Day Half Time Show with LeAnn Rimes. She started her show business career in earnest at the age of 10 when she became a series regular on the children's television show Barney — Friends. After her stint on Barney — Friends, Lovato also guest starred on television dramas Just Jordan (2007) and Prison Break (2006).
In 2007, Demi Lovato began working with the Disney Channel. First she got a part on a short television show called As The Bell Rings. Her role on that ended, however, when Lovato was cast as Mitchie Torres in the starring role of the Disney Channel movieCamp Rock. While filming Camp Rock, Demi Lovato began also recording three songs with the pop group the Jonas Brothers for the film's soundtrack.
On September 23, 2008, Lovato released her debut album, Don't Forget. Several of the songs on the album were co-written by the Jonas Brothers. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart. In promotion of this album, Lovato went on tour with the Jonas Brothers on their 2008 Burning Up Tour as the opening act.
In 2008, Lovato covered the Academy Award-nominated song, "That's How You Know" from Enchanted on the DisneyMania 6 album. Later on in 2008, Demi began filming her second Disney Channel Original Movie, Princess Protection Program. The filming is happening in Puerto Rico and Lovato is starring with her good friend Selena Gomez.
Outside of music, film and television, Lovato is also the national Hasbro "Hit Clips" spokesgirl. She has also done several successful voiceovers for radio and television for companies like Denny's, Radica and Hasbro.
Currently, Demi Lovato is the star of her own Disney Channel television show called Sonny with a Chance. She started this show in 2009, filming 16 episodes for the first season. On July 21, 2009, Demi Lovato released her second studio album, Here We Go Again. She joined American Idol reality star David Archuleta's tour in the summer of 2009.