--- title: Barack Obama Birthday: How Past Presidents Spent Age 55 description: As President Obama celebrates his last birthday in office, see how past presidents spent their 55th years canonical: https://time.com/4438020/obama-birthday-presidents-55/ author: Priyanka Aribindi article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-04T14:27:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T23:45:35.730Z article:section: Politics og:title: How Obama's 55th Year Stacks Up Against 5 Famous Presidents og:description: President Obama will spend his 55th year finishing up his second term. og:url: https://time.com/4438020/obama-birthday-presidents-55/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt282779d257efc143/6988a11cab6d7753c36aacb7/wax-museum.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Peninah Pechenik (C), from Buffalo, New York, leans around to take a closer look of wax figures of (L-R) U.S. first lady Michelle Obama, President Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey while visiting Madame Tussauds Wax Museum on Obama's 50th birthday August 4, og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Obama's 55th Year Stacks Up Against 5 Famous Presidents twitter:description: President Obama will spend his 55th year finishing up his second term. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt282779d257efc143/6988a11cab6d7753c36aacb7/wax-museum.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Obama's 55th Year Will Stack Up Against 5 Famous Presidents by [Priyanka Aribindi](https://time.com/author/priyanka-aribindi/) ## Priyanka Aribindi Aug 4, 2016 2:27 PM UTC  Peninah Pechenik (C), from Buffalo, New York, leans around to take a closer look of wax figures of (L-R) U.S. first lady Michelle Obama, President Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey while visiting Madame Tussauds Wax Museum on Obama's 50th birthday August 4, 2011 in Washington, DC. Peninah Pechenik (C), from Buffalo, New York, leans around to take a closer look of wax figures of (L-R) U.S. first lady Michelle Obama, President Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey while visiting Madame Tussauds Wax Museum on Obama's 50th birthday August 4, 2011 in Washington, DC.Win McNamee—Getty Images by [Priyanka Aribindi](https://time.com/author/priyanka-aribindi/) ## Priyanka Aribindi Aug 4, 2016 2:27 PM UTC President Obama will spend his 55th year finishing up his second term and easing into his new life. Obama, who turns 55 Thursday, was one of the youngest presidents to take office, so he has a lot more retirement ahead of him than some of his predecessors. Here’s a look at what some other presidents were up to when they were 55. **George Washington** Washington had not yet become America’s first president, but he had just as important a role at age 55 when he was unanimously chosen to head the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. **Thomas Jefferson** Jefferson spent his 55th year as vice president in the John Adams Administration. In that role, he worked to undermine Adams’ controversial [Alien and Sedition Acts,](http://www.ushistory.org/us/19e.asp) designed to halt immigration and suppress “harmful speech,” by drafting the [Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions](http://billofrightsinstitute.org/founding-documents/primary-source-documents/virginia-and-kentucky-resolutions/) with James Madison. **Abraham Lincoln** Lincoln, who turned 55 in 1864, spent the year running for re-election while trying to save the Union as the Civil War raged on. In November, he won the presidential election by a landslide. **Theodore Roosevelt** Stung by the loss of his Bull Moose Party campaign for president, Roosevelt spent 1913 and 1914 leading the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition in Brazil, exploring the 1000+ mile long “Rio Roosevelt” and bringing back specimens for the American Museum of Natural History. **Ronald Reagan** Reagan’s political career took off in 1966, the year he turned 55, as he successfully campaign to become Governor of California, defeating two-term governor Pat Brown, whose son, Jerry, is the current Governor. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4438020/obama-birthday-presidents-55/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4438020/obama-birthday-presidents-55/"},"headline":"How Obama's 55th Year Will Stack Up Against 5 Famous Presidents","datePublished":"2016-08-04T14:27:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:45:35.730Z","description":"As President Obama celebrates his last birthday in office, see how past presidents spent their 55th years","url":"https://time.com/4438020/obama-birthday-presidents-55/","keywords":["Barack Obama","White House","Abraham Lincoln","Thomas Jefferson","Ronald Reagan"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt282779d257efc143/6988a11cab6d7753c36aacb7/wax-museum.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Priyanka Aribindi","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/priyanka-aribindi/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt282779d257efc143/6988a11cab6d7753c36aacb7/wax-museum.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Peninah Pechenik (C), from Buffalo, New York, leans around to take a closer look of wax figures of (L-R) U.S. first lady Michelle Obama, President Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey while visiting Madame Tussauds Wax Museum on Obama's 50th birthday August 4,","caption":"Peninah Pechenik (C), from Buffalo, New York, leans around to take a closer look of wax figures of (L-R) U.S. first lady Michelle Obama, President Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey while visiting Madame Tussauds Wax Museum on Obama's 50th birthday August 4,","creditText":"Win McNamee—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4438020/obama-birthday-presidents-55/","name":"How Obama's 55th Year Will Stack Up Against 5 Famous Presidents"}}]}] ```