Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, making him the 46th President of the United States. He rose from humble beginnings and, after decades of hard work, claimed America's highest political prize.

He was born on Nov. 20, 1942, in Scranton, Pa. His father, Joseph Biden, Sr., cleaned furnaces and sold used cars. His mother, Catherine, tended the family home. They struggled during the uncertain years of World War II.

Young Joe went to St. Paul's Elementary School in Scranton. He was 13 when his family moved to Mayfield, Del. He attended St. Helena School and then Archmere Academy, the tuition for which he worked to help provide. One of his prime achievements as a child was overcoming a stutter, primarily by memorizing long poems and speaking them while watching himself in a mirror. He sometimes still has this condition.

Biden starred in the classroom and on the football field at Archmere, graduating from there in 1961. He continued his studies and his football playing at the University of Delaware. He graduated from that university in 1965, earning a Bachelor of Arts in history and political science, and won acceptance to the Syracuse University Law School. Part of the impetus for his choosing Syracuse was that he met a student there named Neilia Hunter. The two married in 1966.

Biden graduated from law school in 1968 and set up his own law firm in Wilmington, Del. He and Neilia had three children: Beau, Hunter, and Naomi.

In his first foray into politics, Biden won election to the New Castle County Council in 1970. He joined the Democratic Party and ran in 1972 for the U.S. Senate. He was 29 in that year, when he unseated the popular incumbent Republican J. Caleb Boggs. In the process, he became the fifth-youngest Senator ever.

Just a few years after he won that election, he suffered great personal tragedy. His wife and daughter, out Christmas shopping, died in a car accident. The two sons were also in the car and survived. Biden had himself swore in as a Senator from his sons' hospital room and lived in the family home rather than in Washington, D.C.

From 1973 to 2009, Biden represented Delaware in the U.S. Senate. He worked his way up to a number of leadership positions, including Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations and Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He took a leading role in arms control negotiations with the Soviet Union and then later with Russia.

He married his current wife, Jill, in 1977. Their daughter, Ashley, was born in 1981.

Biden ran for President in 1987 but left the race the following year amid allegations of plagiarism. In that same year, he suffered two brain aneurysms and had two dangerous brain surgeries. After a seven-month recovery, he continued to serve in the Senate.

Running for President again in 2007, Biden found little support in a race dominated by former First Lady Hillary Clinton and then-Senator Barack Obama. Biden left the race soon after the Iowa Caucuses. Obama emerged as the Democratic nominee and named Biden as his running mate. The two won the election and Biden served as Vice-president, a post he held for eight years in all, as he and Obama won re-election four years later.

Biden, during his time as Vice-president, oversaw several high-profile negotiations with Congressional leaders and was instrumental in securing a deal during the 2012 fiscal cliff crisis. The next year, he also was head of a task force to find solutions for reducing gun violence after a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

In 2015, Beau Biden, a war veteran, died of brain cancer; he was 46.

Just before Joe Biden left the office of Vice-president, President Obama presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction. It is the nation's highest civilian honor.

He decided to run again for President, announcing his candidacy in April 2019. In a campaign conducted under the shadow of the deadly effects of the COVID-19 virus, he came from behind and won enough primaries and caucuses to secure the Democratic Party nomination for President. After a bruising campaign punctuated by in-person and virtual campaign events, he won the White House, unseating the incumbent, Donald Trump, and fulfilling his political lifelong dream at age 77. Biden named as his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.). With the victory, she, a woman of African-American and Asian origin, became the country's first nonwhite, nonmale Vice-president.