Last Friday, November 30, George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st president of the United States, died in Houston at the age of 94. He served one term as president, from 1989 to 1993. He and his son George W. Bush, who became president in 2001, were the second father and son to serve as president. The only other father and son who both became president were John Adams and John Quincy Adams, who held office from 1797 to 1801 and from 1825 to 1829, respectively.

George H. W. Bush, 41st president of the United States, served from 1989 to 1993.
Credit: White House

As president, George H. W. Bush led the nation during the Persian Gulf War of 1991, in which the United States and its allies defeated Iraq, whose forces had invaded Kuwait. He also signed important arms-control agreements with the Soviet Union and, after it broke apart in 1991, with Russia and other former Soviet republics. Prior to his election as president, Bush had been a successful oil company executive and had served a long career in government service.

Bush was born on June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts. Bush served as a U.S. Navy pilot during World War II (1939-1945). On Sept. 2, 1944, Bush’s plane was shot down during an attack on a Japanese-held island. Before parachuting from his plane, Bush scored damaging hits on his target, a radio station. Bush was rescued from the ocean, but his two crew members did not survive. Bush received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his heroism in the incident. He returned to flying after being shot down.

George H. W. Bush and Barbara Bush.
Credit: Joyce N. Boghosian, White House Photo Office

On Jan. 6, 1945, Bush and Barbara Pierce were married. They were to become the longest-wedded couple in the history of the U.S. presidency, celebrating their 73rd wedding anniversary in January 2018. The couple had six children—George; Robin, who died of leukemia; John, called Jeb; Neil; Marvin; and Dorothy. Their son George was governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000 before serving as U.S. president from 2001 to 2009. Jeb Bush was governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007.

In 1945, Bush graduated from Yale University with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He then worked in the oil industry, becoming president of the Zapata Off-Shore Oil Company in 1954. Bush’s career as an independent oilman made him wealthy.

Bush became interested in politics in the late 1950’s. A Republican, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1966 and was reelected in 1968. In 1970, President Richard M. Nixon  appointed Bush U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (UN). He served until 1973. He was the U.S. envoy to Communist China in 1974 and 1975 and head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)  in 1976 and 1977.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan, the Republican Party candidate for president of the United States, chose Bush as his running mate. Reagan and Bush defeated their Democratic opponents, President Jimmy Carter and Vice President Walter Mondale. In the 1984 presidential election, Reagan and Bush won a landslide victory over their Democratic opponents, former Vice President Walter Mondale and Representative Geraldine Ferraro.

Bush won the Republican presidential nomination in 1988. He chose as his running mate Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana. In his acceptance speech at the Republican convention in August, Bush called on the United States to become a “kinder, gentler nation.” In November, Bush and Quayle defeated their Democratic opponents, Governor Mike Dukakis and Senator Lloyd Bentsen.

Bush and Quayle ran for reelection in 1992 but lost to their Democratic opponents, Governor Bill Clinton and Senator Al Gore.

After leaving the White House, Bush became active with charitable organizations and helped raise several million dollars for various causes. In 2005, President George W. Bush appointed his father and former President Bill Clinton to lead relief efforts for victims of natural disasters in the United States and other parts of the world.

In his later years, George H. W. Bush often used a wheelchair. Even so, in 2014 he celebrated his 90th birthday by skydiving!

November 7, 2012

Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States and the first African American elected to that office, secured a second term in the White House on November 6 after a costly, closely fought battle against challenger Mitt Romney. In winning both the popular vote and the Electoral College, President Obama, a Democrat, overcame charges by his Republican opponent that his policies were unlikely to restore economic prosperity after the severe economic crisis of 2008-2009. President Obama won a preliminary total of at least 59,600,000 popular votes and 303 electoral votes, 33 more than the 270 needed to capture the presidency. Florida remained too close to call as of Wednesday morning.

President Barack Obama was reelected president of the United States on November 6, 2012. (The White House)

Shortly taking office in January 2009, President Obama signed a bill allocating $787 billion for stimulus programs and tax cuts to revive the economy. President Obama also took steps to bail out troubled American automakers and to strengthen the financial industry. In addition, he promoted and signed legislation that boosted government support for pay equality for women. His signature achievement was the passage of a historic health care reform bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which included provisions extending health care coverage to about 30 million uninsured Americans. In December 2010, Congress passed, and President Obama signed, a law ending the ban on openly homosexual soldiers in the armed forces.

In 2009, President Obama filled a campaign pledge and withdrew all U.S. combat troops from Iraqi cities. The Iraq War was declared officially over on December 15, 2011. He also set a timetable of 2014 for the withdrawal of all U.S. combat forces from Afghanistan. In May 2011, President Obama announced that a team of Navy SEALs had shot and killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qa`ida, the group responsible for the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001.

In November 2010, voters gave Republicans control of the House of Representatives. For the remainder of President Obama’s first term, passing legislation became exceedingly difficult. The president also came under significant criticism by a loose collection of conservative political activist groups called the Tea party movement.

Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., was born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father was Kenyan and his mother was American. He graduated from Columbia University in New York City in 1983. In 1985, he worked in Chicago for a church group that helped poor neighborhoods in the city. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991. While there, he became the first African American to serve as president of the Harvard Law Review, an important monthly law journal (magazine). Obama then practiced law in Chicago. He worked especially on civil rights issues. He also taught law at the University of Chicago.

Beginning in 1997, Obama served in the Illinois Senate. In 2004, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. That election and his stirring keynote address to the Democratic National Convention earlier that year gave him significant national exposure. Obama declared his intention to run for president in February 2007. He won the Democratic nomination against a wide field of competitors, including Senator Joe Biden and Hillary Rodham Clinton, the wife of former President Bill Clinton. Obama then chose Biden as his vice-presidential running mate and, after taking office as president, tapped Mrs. Clinton to be his secretary of state.

Additional World Book articles:

• Economic Crisis: The Banking Meltdown (a special report)
• Economic Crises, Then and Now (a special report)
• Economic Crisis: The Government Jumps In (a special report)
• Economics, United States (2011) (a Back in Time article)
• Economics, United States (2010) (a Back in Time article)
• Economics, United States (2009) (a Back in Time article)
• Economics, United States (2008) (a Back in Time article)

September 7, 2012

Barack Obama officially accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for a second term as president of the United States on September 6 in a speech arguing that the 2012 presidential election presents American voters with a “choice between two different paths for America.” President Obama received the nomination on September 5 during a roll-call vote of state delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.

President Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party's nomination for a second term as president on September 6. (The White House)

In his acceptance speech, President Obama sought to rally his supporters, saying, “If you turn away now, if you buy into the cynicism that the change we fought for isn’t possible, well, change will not happen. If you give up on the idea that your voice can make a difference, then other voices will fill the void.” He also addressed disappointment over the pace of the economic recovery.  “Our challenges can be met. The path we offer may be harder, but it leads to a better place. And I’m asking you to choose that future.” He argued that he had put in place the foundation for a revived economy but that more time was needed to address economic problems that had developed over several decades.

Political experts note that the president is faced with the political fight of his life against the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney. At the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, on August 30, former Massachusetts Governor Romney contended that continuing high unemployment had led many Americans to give up on President Obama. He argued that the president had failed to create enough jobs, cut the deficit, or increase incomes.  In his acceptance speech, President Obama responded by linking Romney and his running mate, Paul D. Ryan, to what he described as the failed trickle-down economic policies that favor the rich, noting: “all they have to offer is the same prescription they’ve had for the last 30 years.”

Additional World Book articles:

• Economic Crisis: The Banking Meltdown (a special report)
• Economic Crisis: The Government Jumps In (a special report)
• Economic Crisis – Then and Now (a special report)