Well, I finished reading "The Audacity of Hope" - just rushed through
it yesterday, partly because I just wanted to be done with it, and
partly because it turned out to be more interesting to read than I
expected.
I ended up finding more event info than I thought was there, though
not a huge amount. I'm guessing Obama's first book, "Dreams from My
Father", probably has a lot more autobiographical stuff in it.
-----------
Source: "The Audacity of Hope", 2006, hardcover first edition.
P. 99. Obama decided not to be a part of the "Gang of Fourteen",
which was 7 Democratic Senators and 7 Republican Senators who were
negotiating something related to George W. Bush's nominees to the
federal court of appeals. The Democrats wanted to filibuster while
the Republicans wanted to permanently eliminate the filibuster. I
don't know much about politics, so I don't know if this was anything
really important or not. Not sure of the date either, maybe 2005?
Don't know. I didn't insert this in the main list.
P. 106. Oct. 1999, Obama heard a news flash on the radio that his
opponent Congressman Rush's adult son having been shot and killed by
drug dealers outside his house. Shocked, Obama "effectively
suspended" his campaign for a month.
P. 106. During the Christmas holidays, when daughter Malia was 18
months old (so I guess this was Dec. 1999), Obama went to Hawaii for 5
days to be with his wife, grandmother, and Malia. The state
legislature was called into special session to vote on some gun
control legislation. Malia was sick so Obama stayed in Hawaii and
missed the vote. Two days later, he returned from his trip, and saw a
front-page story in the Chicago Tribune which pointed out that the
bill failed by only a few votes and said that Obama had "decided to
remain on vacation" in Hawaii.
P. 122. In April 2005, he gave a speech to dedicate the new Lincoln
Presidential Library in Springfield.
P. 122-123. A few months later, Time magazine, which was doing a
special issue on Lincoln, asked him if he wanted to write an essay.
He used a slightly modified version of his speech. Soon after it
appeared, Peggy Noonan, columnist for the Wall Street Journal, harshly
criticized Obama's Lincoln essay in an article titled "Conceit of
Government".
P. 165. He attended the 2006 Northwestern University commencement.
P. 170. In the summer of 2005, Obama and Senator Dick Lugar visited
Ukraine and met with Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine's newly elected
president. P. 311 mentions that this was August 2005, and Obama's
first trip to Russia and Ukraine. P. 229, "I had been out of the
country when the hurricane first hit the Gulf, on my way back from a
trip to Russia."
P. 186. When daughter Sasha was three months old, she got
meningitis. Obama and Michelle spent 3 days with Sasha in the
hospital while she was treated.
P. 224. In 2004, he visited the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in
Birmingham, Alabama before delivering a speech at the city's Civil
Rights Institute.
P. 228-229. One week after the initial Hurricane Katrina tragedy,
Obama joined Bill and Hillary Clinton ad George H. W. Bush and Barbara
Bush in Houston to announce fundraising efforts. He visited some of
the evacuees at the Houston Astrodome and adjoining Reliant Center.
P. 227-230. He attended the funeral of Rosa Parks. (11/2/2005) I
found out the date here:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-11-02-rosa-parks_x.htm
P. 273. In 1967, arrived in Jakarta with his mother.
P. 290. "In January 2006, I boarded a C-130 military cargo plane and
took off for my first trip into Iraq." Went with Senator Evan Bayh of
Indiana and Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. of Tennessee. According to
page 296, he only spent a day and a half in Iraq, most of it in the
Green Zone, a 10 mile wide area of central Baghdad. P. 322, he
mentions that on this same trip he "spent a week traveling through
both Israel and the West Bank, meeting with officials from both
sides".
P. 293. Here, unusually, he named a complete date. "And on October
11, 2002, twenty-eight of the Senate's fifty Democrats joined all but
one Republican in handing to Bush the power he wanted." The
Republicans had pushed for a vote authorizing the use of force against
Saddam Hussein. I assume Obama voted against that.
P. 293-294. Mentions that by fall of 2002, Obama had already decided
to run for the Senate.
P. 294-295, he wrote a bit about the anti-war speech he gave in
October 2002 before about 2,000 people at Chicago's Federal Plaza.
P. 327. Met Michelle in summer of 1988. Both were working at "Sidley
& Austin, a large corporate law firm based in Chicago".
P. 332. 6 months after Obama met Michelle, Michelle's father died.
Obama and Michelle attended the funeral in Chicago.
P. 354. He gave a speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston,
and called this "the point at which I first gained national
attention." P. 357, he mentioned he made his first appearance on Tim
Russert's show Meet the Press when he went to Boston.
P. 354. He had been to one previous Democratic convention, the 2000
Democratic Convention in Los Angeles. He had just been defeated in
the Democratic primary for the Illinois First Congressional District
seat.
Shorter summaries inserted below.
1967.00.00 - Arrived in Jakarta with his mother.
>1967.00.00 - Mother, Step Fr and Obama to Indonesia
>1970.08.15 - Sister born in Indonesia
>1970.00.00 - Grandmother made V.Pres of bank in Hawaii
>1970.10.04 - Maternal Great GFather died
>1971.00.00 - Mother sent him to Mat GMo in Hawaii
>1972.00.00 - Mother returned to Hawaii from Indonesia
>1977.00.00 - Mother got PHd in anthroplogy in Hawaii
>1977.00.00 - Mother left Hawaii when he was 16 for career
>1979.00.00 - Graduated from high school
>1979.00.00 - Paternal Grandfather died
>1982.00.00 - Father died in auto accident Nairobi
>1983.00.00 - Graduated from Columbia
>1984.00.00 - First saw the WhiteHouse
>1987.00.00 - Indonesian step-father died
1988.00.00 - Summer of 1988, met future wife Michelle while both were
working at "Sidley & Austin, a large corporate law firm based in
Chicago".
>1988.00.00 - Travelled to Europe and Kenya.
>1990.02.00 - First Black President of Harvard Law Rev.
>1991.12.17 - Admitted as lawyer in Illinois
>1992.02.08 - Maternal G'randfather died in Honololu
>1992.10.18 - Married
>1995.07.18 - Book published
>1995.11.07 - Mother died of ovarian cancer, Hawaii
>1996.00.00 - Elected to Illinois Senate
>1997.00.00 - Arrived in Springfield
>1997.00.00 - "I first traveled through southern Illinois in 1997"
>1998.07.04 - Birth of his daughter Malia
1999.10.00 - After hearing about the death of opponent Congressman
Rush's son, Obama "effectively suspended" his campaign for a month.
1999.12.27? (just guessing the day) - Obama was criticized in a front
page news story in the Chicago Tribune for being in Hawaii and missing
out on a special session vote at the state legislature where a bill
failed by only a few votes.
>2000.00.00 - Lost to incumbent Dem Congr'man Bobby Rush
2000.00.00 - After his defeat in the Democratic primary for the
Illinois First Congressional seat, he went to the 2000 Democratic
Convention in Los Angeles.
>2001.06.07 - Birth of his daughter Sasha
2001.09.00 - Daughter Sasha had meningitis, and Obama and wife
Michelle spent 3 days with Sasha in the hospital while she was
treated.
>2001.09.00 - Obama had lunch with a media consultant
>2002.10.02 - Obama's 2002 speech against war
2002.10.11 - 28 out of 50 Democrats in the Senate (but probably not
Obama) voted to authorize the use of force against Saddam Hussein.
2004.00.00 - Visited the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in
Birmingham, Alabama, before delivering a speech at the city's Civil
Rights Institute.
2004.00.00 - Speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston. In
his book, he called this "the point at which I first gained national
attention." Around this time, he also made his first appearance on
Tim Russert's show Meet the Press.
>2004.07.27 - Keynote Address DNC
>2004.11.02 - Elected to U.S. Senate
2004?.00.00 - Received congratulatory call from George Bush sometime
after winning the election.
2004 or 2005 - Met Bush at a small White House breakfast with other
incoming senators.
>2005.01.03 - He met and talked to George and Laura Bush.
>2005.01.04 - Sworn in is member of Congress
>2005.02.01 - Met with Hillary to learn about politics
>2005.03.00 - In early March 2005 - Terri Schiavo request
2005.04.00 - Gave a speech to dedicate the new Lincoln Presidential
Library in Springfield.
>2005.06.27 - Speech to Library Association
2005.07?.00 - Time magazine asked Obama to write an essay for a
special issue on Lincoln.
2005.07?.00 - Peggy Noonan harshly criticized Obama's Lincoln essay in
an article called "Conceit of Government".
2005.08.00 - Obama and Senator Dick Lugar visited Ukraine and met with
Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine's newly elected president. Obama's first
trip to Russia and Ukraine. Was on his way back from this trip when
Hurricane Katrina happened.
2005.08 or 09?.00 - Joined Bill and Hillary Clinton ad George H. W.
Bush and Barbara Bush in Houston to announce fundraising efforts to
help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Visited some of the evacuees
at the Houston Astrodome and adjoining Reliant Center.
>2005.09.00 - He sent a letter to "the left-leaning blog Daily Kos".
2005.11.02 - Attended funeral of Rosa Parks.
2006.00.00 - Attended the 2006 Northwestern University commencement.
2006.01.00 - "In January 2006, I boarded a C-130 military cargo plane
and took off for my first trip into Iraq." Spent a day and a half in
Baghdad, mostly in the Green Zone. On the same trip, he "spent a week
traveling through both Israel and the West Bank, meeting with
officials from both sides".
>2006.01.00 - Visited Jordan, Israel & Palestinian terr.
>2006.08.00 - Off. visit S.Afr,Kenya etc. Took family.
>2006.10.17 - Book published
>2007.01.16 - Announced 1st step for possible candidacy
>2007.02.10 - Announced nomination for Presidential race
>2007.05.01 - Oprah backs Obama on Larry King show
>2007.06.06 - Birth record prepared for him in Hawaii
>2007.12.10 - With Oprah on campaign trail
>2008.02.18 - Wife Michelle said she was proud to be Amer.
>2008.00.00 - Media storm about Trinity minister' comments
>2008.05.30 - He and Michelle resigned from Trinity church.
>2008.06.03 - Enough votes to be Presumptive Nominee
>2008.06.12 - Put birth record online to stop the smears
>
>If anyone finds any other events or corrections, slot them into this
>list.
>Later we can put them all in an Excel document with extra details
>and sources plus internet links.
>
>Ray