Barack Obama with his family after addressing the country for the first time as the president-elect. Photo by BGNES
232 years after the Declaration of Independence, Barack Obama, a 47-year-old first-term senator from Illinois won the Presidential election to become the first African-American president in the history of the United States, according to projections by CNN and NBC News.
As polls closed on the West coast, the Illinois Senator was projected to receive enough electoral votes to pass the 270-vote threshold.
Obama is projected to win California, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii.
He also is projected to win Virginia, a state that hasn't voted for a Democratic president since 1964.
CNN currently projects that Obama will win 338 electoral votes.
Barack Obama told supporters that "change has come to America," as he addressed the country for the first time as the president-elect.
"It's been a long time coming, but tonight... change has come to America," the president-elect told a jubilant crowd at a park in Chicago Illinois.
"The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America -- I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you -- we as a people will get there," Obama told his supporters.
Obama said he was looking forward to working with Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin "to renew this nation's promise in the months ahead."
Police estimated that 125,000 people gathered in Grant Park to hear Obama claim victory.