Backgrounder: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden

Source: Xinhua | 01-21-2009 11:01

WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Following is a brief introduction of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who was sworn into office on Tuesday:

Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill walk along Pennsylvania Avenue Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009, in Washington, during the inaugural parade.(AP Photo/Clarissa M. Rucker)

EARLY LIFE

Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania on Nov. 20, 1942. His father had been very well-off earlier in his life, but had suffered several business reverses by the time Biden was born. In 1953, the Biden family moved to Claymont, Delaware, where they lived for a few years before moving to a house in Wilmington, Delaware.

Biden attended the University of Delaware in Newark and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree with a double major in history and political science in 1965.

He went on to receive his Juris Doctor from Syracuse University College of Law in 1968 and was admitted to the Delaware Bar in 1969.

POLITICAL CAREER

Biden was elected to the New Castle County Council in 1970 and served until 1972, when he was first elected to the Senate. Biden was only 29 when elected to the U.S. Senate, but reached the constitutionally required age of 30 by the time he was sworn in two months later. With his sixth term up in 2008, Biden became Delaware's longest-serving senator.

Biden unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 and 2008, both times dropping out early in the process. Barack Obama selected Biden to be the Democratic Party nominee for vice president in the 2008 U.S. election.

On Nov. 4, Biden and Obama beat their Republican rivals in the general election.

FAMILY

Shortly after Biden won his Senate seat in 1972, his first wife and daughter were killed in a car accident. Biden's two sons, Beauand Hunter, sustained severe injuries but later fully recovered.

Biden met Jill Tracy Jacobs, an American educator, in 1975 and the two married two years later. They have one daughter named Ashley Blazer, who was born in 1981.

Editor:Zhang Pengfei