"This is my one small contribution to the history of our times: To tell the history of our times in the language of our times." - The Rev. James B. Simpson.

Attempted Christmas day terrorists attack

We will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable. We will continue to use every element of our national power to disrupt, to dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us, whether they are from Afghanistan or Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia, or anywhere where they are plotting attacks against the U.S. homeland.

— Dec. 28: Obama, on vacation in Hawaii, comments on the Christmas Day attempted terrorist bombing aboard a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Officials attributed the thwarted attack to a Nigerian said to be trained inYemen.

Senate passes health care legislation

We are now finally poised to deliver on the promise of real, meaningful health insurance reform that will bring additional security and stability to the American people.

These are not small reforms; these are big reforms. If passed, this will be the most important piece of social legislation since the Social Security Act passed in the 1930s and the most important reform of our health care system since Medicare passed in the 1960s.

— Obama remarks on the Senate passage of the health care legislation he has trumpeted for months, clearing the way for compromise talks with the House. Dec. 24, 2009.

Obama travels to Copenhagen

We come together here in Copenhagen because climate change poses a grave and growing danger to our people…. This is not fiction, this is science. Unchecked, climate change will pose unacceptable risks to our security, our economies, and our planet. This much we know.

I think our ability to take collective action is in doubt right now, and it hangs in the balance. I believe we can act boldly, and decisively, in the face of a common threat. That’s why I come here today – not to talk, but to act.

— Obama gives a speech during a 15-hour trip to an international climate summit in Copenhagen, where he brokers a limited deal to fight global warming. Dec. 18, 2009.

Obama heads to Copenhagen

We come together here in Copenhagen because climate change poses a grave and growing danger to our people…. This is not fiction, this is science. Unchecked, climate change will pose unacceptable risks to our security, our economies, and our planet. This much we know.

I think our ability to take collective action is in doubt right now, and it hangs in the balance. I believe we can act boldly, and decisively, in the face of a common threat. That’s why I come here today – not to talk, but to act.

— Obama gives a speech during a 15-hour trip to an international climate summit in Copenhagen, where he brokers a limited deal to fight global warming. Dec. 18, 2009.

Obama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the considerable controversy that your generous decision has generated. In part, this is because I am at the beginning, and not the end, of my labors on the world stage. Compared to some of the giants of history who have received this prize - Schweitzer and King; Marshall and Mandela - my accomplishments are slight.

We are at war, and I am responsible for the deployment of thousands of young Americans to battle in a distant land. Some will kill. Some will be killed. And so I come here with an acute sense of the cost of armed conflict - filled with difficult questions about the relationship between war and peace, and our effort to replace one with the other.

We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth: We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations – acting individually or in concert – will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified.

— Obama gives the Nobel Lecture upon being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway. Dec. 10, 2009

Syndicate content