Vice President Joe Biden has turned 70. He was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania on November 20th of 1942 — just 11 months after Pearl Harbor.
1942 was a banner year. Others born that year: boxer Muhammad Ali, film critic Roger Ebert and physicist Stephen Hawking. (And guitarist Jimi Hendrix, who would still only be 69 today.)
Some say that Joe Biden wants to run for president in 2016. (Biden has been hinting at it himself.) He’d be 73 during the run, and 74 if he won and took office in 2017.
Older men have run for president, but no U.S. president has been over 70 when he first took office.
Ronald Reagan was 69 when he took the oath in 1981, and 73 when he ran against Walter Mondale for a second term in 1984. He won handily, cracking old-age jokes along the way.
William Henry Harrison was next-oldest when inaugurated, at 68, and we know how that turned out.
Joe Biden was only 29 when he was first elected to the Senate in 1972, so if he really did win two terms as president he’d pass 50 years in high office during his second term. He’d be 82 when his second term ended in January of 2025.
Biden still seems young and vigorous — maybe a little too vigorous — so we’ll see. In the meantime, happy birthday to him!
See our full biography of Joe Biden »