NPR:
Biden was born in Scranton, Pa., to a working-class family — his father was a car salesman — and was raised in the suburbs of Wilmington, Del. He attended Syracuse Law School.
In 1972, at age 29, he became one of the youngest people elected to the Senate. A month later, he faced personal tragedy when his wife and daughter were killed in an automobile accident with a drunk driver, leaving Biden a single father of two young sons. Biden remarried five years later.
Biden is unarguably a Washington insider, yet he's never actually moved to the city, instead commuting home to Delaware by train every night. He is Roman Catholic, yet favors abortion rights.
Biden has twice run for president himself, first in 1988, when he dropped out after being accused of plagiarizing British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock. Soon after he suffered an aneurysm, but he fully recovered. more
