Barack Obama, the 47-year-old senator from Illinois, made history by becoming the first African-American president of the United States. The Democrat won today’s presidential election against Republican candidate John McCain.

Obama’s major election wins include Ohio, a key state in President Bush’s previous two election wins. He also won Colorado, home of the religious right. And he won Virginia, reversing 40 years of Republican victories there. Surveys of voters also showed the historic nature of Obama’s win, the son of a Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas. As expected, he won overwhelmingly among African-American voters, but he also won among women and Latino voters, reversing a longstanding Republican trend. And he won by more than 2-to-1 among voters of all races 30 years old and younger. More about the election win here.

President-elect Barack Obama will be inaugurated on 20th January 2009 in what promises to be one of the biggest swearing-in ceremonies ever in the United States.