His Birth – President Barack Hussein Obama

Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. His mother was from Kansas and his father was from Kenya.

During his presidential campaign in 2008, rumors about Obama’s birthplace arose. The BBC attributes the initial questions to “disgruntled Clinton supporters” who wanted Hillary Clinton to receive the Democratic nomination. In 2011, Donald Trump began to question the legitimacy of Obama’s US birth certificate.

Some have said Obama was ineligible to hold the office of President of the United States of America based on conspiracy theories that he was born not in Hawaii but in Kenya.

To better understand whether President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii or in a foreign country, in early 2012 we contacted the Hawaii State Public Library System and requested copies of newspapers for the dates they published [if they did] the birth announcement of Barack Hussein Obama.

In response to our question, we received copies of the following from the Hawaii State Public Library System:

1. Hawaii newspaper front pages and birth announcement of a son for Mr. and Mrs. Barack H. Obama:
   
   • The Honolulu Advertiser – The Sunday Advertiser dated August 13, 1961:
     
     Page B-6 – Under Health Bureau Statistics “Births, Marriages, Deaths” – “Births” section:
     
     “Mr. and Mrs. Barack H. Obama
     6085 Kalanianaole Hwy, son, Aug 4”
     
   • The Honolulu Star-Bulletin dated Monday, August 14, 1961:
     
     Page 24 – Under “Marriage Applications Births — Deaths” in “Births” section:
     
     “Mr. and Mrs. Barack H. Obama,
     6085 Kalanianaole Highway, son, August 4.”
     
2. The Hawaii State Public Library System letter dated 2/28/12 signed acknowledging copies were made by the library system
3. The “Bill For Collection” dated 2/28/12 in the amount of $15
4. The envelope from “Hawaii State Library” to the A-Mark Foundation CEO’s assistant at the time

On September 16, 2016, Donald Trump (then a candidate for President of the United States) said, “President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period.”

Additional source documentation to the above:

1. Anthony Zurcher, “The birth of the Obama ‘birther’ conspiracy,” bbc.com, September 16, 2016

2. Lily Rothman, “This Is How the Whole Birther Thing Actually Started,” time.com, September 16, 2016