Flash Back to 2009 When Former POTUS Barack Obama Received the Nobel Peace Prize

After spending three years as a Democratic Illinois senator from 2005 until 2008, Barack Obama was officially inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States on Jan. 20, 2009, after defeating Republican candidate John McCain in the 2008 presidential election.

During his eight years in office, former President Barack Obama earned many achievements and recognitions, and one of the earliest was just a year into his first presidential term when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. Let’s take a look back at what the 44th president did to receive the honor.

On Oct. 9, 2009, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that Obama was the recipient of the award due to his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples” and for his support for the vision of a world free from nuclear weapons.

Chairman of the committee, Thorbjørn Jagland, explained the reasoning behind Obama receiving the honor just eight months into his term. "We have not given the prize for what may happen in the future. We are awarding Obama for what he has done in the past year. And we are hoping this may contribute a little bit for what he is trying to do," he said per The Washington Post.

Jagland also said at the time that by awarding Obama the Nobel Peace Prize, he hoped it would help Obama's foreign policy efforts. The chairman also said that Obama’s June 2009 speech regarding Islam while in Cairo, Egypt, was also an influential part of the decision.

Obama became the first president in U.S. history to be the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize during his first year in office, and only the fourth U.S president to receive the honor in total, following Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, Woodrow Wilson in 1919, and Jimmy Carter in 2002.

“I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel Committee,” Obama’s statement began on the morning of the announcement. “Let me be clear: I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.”

“To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored by this prize — men and women who've inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace,” he continued.

“But I also know that this prize reflects the kind of world that those men and women, and all Americans, want to build — a world that gives life to the promise of our founding documents,” Obama said.

“And I know that throughout history, the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes. And that is why I will accept this award as a call to action — a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century,” the former president said.