11 facts you may not know about US President-elect Joe Biden

Democrat Joe Biden has defeated Donald Trump in the race to become the 46th US President.

Joe Biden, former vice president of the United States, has been in the public eye for around half a century. Born in Pennsylavania in 1942, the 77-year-old was elected to the Senate for the first time in 1972. He was re-elected six times after that, overall spending 36 years in the US Senate.

Biden first ran for president in 1988, and then again in 2008. He served as vice president in the Obama administration, for which he is remembered not just for the work he did but also for the viral Obama-Biden bromance memes that took over the Internet at the time.

Here are 11 things you may not know about the US President-elect.

IMAGE: Joe Biden, born in Pennsylavania in 1942, has been in the public eye for around half a century. Photograph: Joe Biden/Instagram

>> He played on his high school football team. Biden played both wide receiver and halfback on the team. In 1960 they went undefeated.

>> He has two German shepherds, named Champ and Major.

>> A huge car enthusiast, he still has the '67 Corvette Stingray he got from his father.

IMAGE: After losing his wife Neilia in a road accident, Joe Biden married Jill. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images

>> Joe Biden wrote and championed the Violence Against Women Act.

>> In December 1972, Biden's wife Neilia and their one-year-old daughter Amy were killed in a road accident. His sons Beau and Hunter also suffered injuries in the crash. Biden had been elected to the Senate for the first time, but rather than move to Washington DC, he decided to commute by train every day from Wilmington so he could spend more time with his sons.

>> After losing his wife and daughter in the car accident, Joe Biden was sworn into the Senate at his sons' hospital bedsides.

IMAGE: Biden's love for ice cream is unmatched. His favourite flavour -- chocolate chip. Photograph: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

>> He grew up with a stutter and would recite Yeats and Emerson to work on his public speaking.

>> At 29, he was one of the youngest people ever elected to the United States Senate. He met the constitutional age requirement of 30 by the time he was sworn in.

IMAGE: US President-elect wears his love for dogs on his socks featuring images of pooches. Photograph: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

>> He is the second Catholic president in US history. John F Kennedy was the first.

>> During their eight years in the White House, Joe Biden and Barack Obama were busy, of course, but made sure to spend time together at their weekly lunches.

>> Joe Biden loves ice cream, and his favourite flavour is chocolate chip.

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