Meet Joe Biden, the Next President of the United States

Joe Biden was born on 20 November 1942, to Catherine Eugenia Biden (nee Finnegan) and Joseph Robinette Biden Sr. The oldest child in a Catholic family, he earned a BA at the University of Delaware in 1965, before earning a Juris Doctor from Syracuse University College of Law in 1968.

Joe Biden's first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden, died in a car crash in 1972; he married his second wife, Jill, in 1977.

In 1972, Biden was elected to the US Senate from the State of Delaware.

Joe Biden got reelected to the Senate six times, and also got reelected as senator following the end of his tenure as vice president during the Obama administration.

In January 2007 Biden announced his intent to run for president, though he ultimately failed to obtain the Democratic Party's nomination.

While his 2008 presidential campaign ended in failure, Biden was picked as running mate by the Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, and became vice president of the United States when they won the election.

In 2002, Biden voted in favour of the Iraq War, though he eventually said it was a mistake and later opposed the surge of US troops in 2007.

Biden launched his presidential campaign in April 2019, naming Kamala Harris as his running mate and securing the Democratic Party's nomination in August 2020.

Biden's electoral victory makes him the first candidate to defeat a sitting president since 1992.

Having turned 78 in 2020, Biden will become the oldest US president in history.

Villagers laugh as US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden (R) proclaims nine-year-old Gao Shan (3rd L-in the striped shirt) as the future president of China, during a visit to the village of Yanzikou, north of Beijing on 10 August, 2001. After meeting Chinese leaders for two days, Biden and his delegation left Beijing to look at life in the countryside, where 70 percent of China's population lives.

US Senator Joe Biden whispers to Irish President Mary McAleese after a meeting on Capitol Hill on 16 May, 2000.

A strong supporter of the 2001 war in Afghanistan, Biden told Afghan President Hamid Karzai after talks in Kabul in 2011: "We're not leaving if you (Afghans) don't want us to leave".

Biden did not enter the 2016 presidential election, opting instead to endorse Hillary Clinton.

US Vice President Joe Biden talks on an employee's cellphone during a visit to a Costco store on a shopping trip in Washington DC on 29 November, 2012.

Democratic vice presidential candidate, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., is seen on stage with his grandson Hunter, left, and grand daughter Natalie at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Wednesday, 27 August, 2008.

A close friend of the late US senator and former presidential hopeful John McCain, Biden delivered an eulogy at his funeral in 2018.

Then-Vice President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko meet with residents of Kiev, Ukraine.

In 2017, Biden was awarded the the Presidential Medal of Freedom by US President Barack Obama.

During the 2016 presidential election, Biden strongly criticised the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, who ended up becoming president.

With 302 ballots cast for him by the US Electoral College on 14 December, Biden finally emerged as victor of the 2020 presidential election in the United States.