This former U.S. Senator from Delaware is the 47th Vice President of the United States, serving under President Barack Obama. Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972 and was subsequently re-elected to this post six times.
Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on November 20, 1942 and moved to Delaware later in his childhood. He was the oldest child in a family of four siblings that sometimes struggled to make ends meet. Still, he was well educated, studying history and political science at the University of Delaware and went on to law school at Syracuse University. In 1966, Biden married Neilia Hunter, who had also attended Syracuse University, and together they had three children. In 1972, a few weeks after Biden was elected senator for the first time, his wife and daughter were killed in a car accident. He considered dropping out of politics as a result, but ended up sticking with it, and in 1977, he remarried, this time to Jill Tracy Jacobs - now known as Dr. Jill Biden. Together they have one daughter.
Biden is well known for his expertise in foreign policy, serving as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations. Experts say his experience in this area helped him secure the nod to Vice President in the 2008 election, after unsuccessfully seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. He is the first Roman Catholic to become Vice President of the United States.