BREAKING NEWS
By Alex Johnson
Reporter
msnbc.com
updated 11:01 p.m. ET Nov. 4, 2008
Barack Obama, a 47-year-old first-term senator from Illinois, shattered more than 200 years of history Tuesday night by winning election as the first African-American president in the history of the United States, according to projections by NBC News.
Obama reached the 270 electoral votes he needed for election at 11 p.m. ET, when NBC News projected that he would win California, Washington and Oregon.
Campaigning as a technocratic agent of change in Washington, not as a pathbreaking civil rights figure, Obama swept to victory over Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, whose running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, was seeking to become the nation’s first female vice president.