50 Fun Facts About Joe Biden

Joe Biden was which number president of the United States?

He served from 2021 to 2025, after two terms as the 47th vice president under Barack Obama.

Biden represented which state in the U.S. Senate from 1973 to 2009?

He was the first president ever elected from the state.

Biden was born in 1942 in which Pennsylvania city?

The family lived with his mother's parents there before moving to Claymont when he was ten.

To overcome a childhood stutter, Biden memorised lines from which two writers?

He was a standout halfback at Archmere Academy and class president despite being, by his own account, a poor student.

Biden's father eventually found success in what line of work?

Earlier business setbacks had sent the family from Garden City, Long Island, back to his wife's parents.

Biden earned his law degree in 1968 from which university?

He graduated 76th in a class of 85, and had earlier been failed in a course for plagiarising a law review article.

Biden's first elected office, won in 1970, was a seat on what?

He ran on a platform including public housing in the suburbs and opposed big highway projects.

Which Republican incumbent did Biden upset to win his Senate seat in 1972?

He trailed by almost thirty points months out and won with 50.5 percent, thanks to a campaign staffed by his family.

How old was Biden when he was first elected to the Senate?

He turned 30, the constitutional minimum, two weeks after the election, making him the seventh-youngest senator ever.

Weeks after his 1972 election, Biden's first wife Neilia and their daughter Naomi died how?

Their two young sons survived; Majority Leader Mike Mansfield talked him out of resigning.

Biden's nickname "Amtrak Joe" came from commuting daily by train between Washington and which city?

He kept it up for 36 years, partly so he could be home for his sons each night.

Biden married Jill Jacobs in 1977 in a chapel belonging to which institution?

They met on a blind date in 1975 and honeymooned at Lake Balaton in communist Hungary.

Where did Joe and Jill Biden spend their 1977 honeymoon?

An unusual choice at the height of the Cold War.

Biden's son Beau died in 2015 of what?

He had been the state's attorney general and an Army judge advocate in Iraq; his death shaped Biden's decision not to run in 2016.

Biden's daughter Ashley, born in 1981, works in which fields?

Jill Biden also helped raise her two stepsons, who were seven and eight when she married their father.

Biden's 1988 campaign collapsed over alleged plagiarism of which British politician's speech?

He had credited the Labour leader before but failed to on two occasions in August 1987.

In 1988 Biden underwent surgery for what life-threatening condition?

He suffered a pulmonary embolism recovering from the first and needed a second operation in May, missing seven months of the Senate.

Biden chaired which Senate committee from 1987 to 1995, presiding over the Bork and Thomas hearings?

He later chaired Foreign Relations, where he backed the 2002 Iraq War Resolution.

Which 1994 law on domestic abuse did Biden draft and shepherd through Congress?

It was reauthorised again in 2013 while he was vice president.

Biden voted against which 1991 war but for the 2002 resolution authorising the Iraq War?

He later called the Iraq vote a mistake.

From 1991 to 2008 Biden co-taught a constitutional law seminar at which university's law school?

He did it as an adjunct professor while serving in the Senate.

Who did Barack Obama pick as his running mate in 2008?

Biden's own 2008 presidential bid had never risen above single digits in national polls.

Biden's official residence as vice president was at what address?

He took his second oath there in 2013 with Justice Sonia Sotomayor presiding.

Biden's 2017 memoir about the year of Beau's illness is titled what?

He and Jill reported earning more than $15 million from speaking and books between 2017 and 2019.

After finishing fourth in Iowa and fifth in New Hampshire in 2020, Biden's campaign was revived by which state?

He won by more than 28 points after strong appeals to Black voters, then swept most of Super Tuesday.

Kamala Harris in 2020 was the first major-ticket vice-presidential nominee to be what?

Biden, then 77, called himself "a transition candidate."

At 78, Biden was inaugurated as the second Catholic U.S. president after whom?

He was also the only president from the Silent Generation and the first since George H. W. Bush to have been vice president too.

Biden's first major law, a COVID relief package signed in March 2021, was called what?

Bipartisan infrastructure and CHIPS bills followed in the same Congress.

Whom did Biden appoint to the Supreme Court in 2022, fulfilling a campaign pledge?

She succeeded Stephen Breyer as the first Black woman on the court.

How many federal judges did Biden appoint, the most in a single term for 50 years?

Sixty-three percent were women and 60 percent non-white.

The August 2021 Kabul airport bombing killed how many American service members?

About 169 Afghans also died; the Taliban had already retaken the country.

In 2022 Biden formally approved the NATO membership of Finland and which other country?

He signed the ratification instruments on August 9, 2022, months after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Congress approved roughly how much aid to Ukraine in 2022?

Biden requested a further $61.4 billion in October 2023, which stalled in the House.

In February 2023 a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down off which state's coast?

Beijing insisted it was a civilian weather craft blown off course.

Biden's 2022 climate and health law, introduced by Manchin and Schumer, was titled what?

It authorised $370 billion for energy and climate and let Medicare negotiate drug prices.

Biden protected how many acres of land and ocean from resource exploitation, more than any president?

Most came from a ban on offshore drilling across 625 million acres of ocean.

Classified documents from Biden's vice presidency were found in November 2022 at which think tank?

Attorney General Garland appointed Robert Hur as special counsel that January.

Which birthday did Biden celebrate in office, the first president ever to reach it?

When he left office in January 2025 at 82, he was the oldest person ever to have served as president.

On what date in 2024 did Biden withdraw from the presidential race?

It came 24 days after the debate; he immediately endorsed Kamala Harris.

Which congressman ran against Biden in the 2024 Democratic primaries as a younger alternative?

Biden won the primaries anyway before withdrawing after the June debate.

Whom did Biden pardon in December 2024 despite repeated promises not to?

Hunter had been convicted on gun and tax charges.

In May 2025 Biden's office announced he had been diagnosed with which illness?

It had spread to the bone; he began treatment at the end of the month.

Who first played Biden on Saturday Night Live, in 1991?

Sudeikis took over in 2008; Jim Carrey, John Mulaney and Woody Harrelson all had turns in 2020, and Carvey in 2024.

Which actor played Biden in the 2016 HBO film Confirmation, about the Clarence Thomas hearings?

Kerry Washington starred as Anita Hill.

Biden's Gallup approval averaged what in his first year in office, before falling every year after?

It slid to 41, 40 and finally 39 percent in 2024, with inflation and immigration the main drags.

Biden's third memoir, announced in July 2026 and covering his presidency, is titled what?

The July 2026 announcement set its release for November 17, 2026.

At Archmere Academy, Biden was a standout in which sport, playing halfback and wide receiver?

He was also class president in his junior and senior years despite being a poor student.

Which senior Delaware senator did Biden serve alongside as junior senator until 2000?

Biden was reelected six times, regularly winning about 60% of the vote.

How many executive orders did Biden sign in his first two days as president?

Early orders included rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement and revoking Keystone XL pipeline permits.

Which holiday did Biden make a federal holiday by signing an act on June 17, 2021?

It was the first new federal holiday created since Martin Luther King Jr. Day.