Barack Obama campaigned as the ideological and temperamental opposite of his White House predecessor George W. Bush. He promised to be thoughtful where Bush was decisive, and to apply diplomacy with friendly countries (particularly Israel) and unfriendly ones (particularly Iran), where the past administration followed an established pattern of unquestioning policies to resolve conflicts. Obama reached out to the Muslim world with a Christmastime message, which likely helped the image of America at war with two Muslim-majority nations. For his efforts the Nobel Prize Committee in a stunning decision unanimously decided to award him their Peace Prize.

On this day, October 9, in 2009 President Barack Obama, less than a year into his term, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Obama accepted the prize reluctantly, saying he felt he did not “deserve to be in the company” of other past winners, and there was good reason to be skeptical of the decision: Obama was still overseeing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He noted his position as the “commander in chief of a country that is responsible for ending a war and working in another theater to confront a ruthless adversary that directly threatens the American people.” And he gave credit for the prize to all people around the world who spent their lives striving for “justice and dignity.”