Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Jr.

John F. Kennedy was sworn into office.

Roger Maris was hitting 61 home runs.

The Berlin wall was erected.

Much was happening in the first six months of 1961. But an extensive WND investigation into events leading up to the birth of Barack Obama, who would become America's first black president 47 years later, leaves many unanswered questions about the whereabouts and activities of the woman he claims as his mother.

The timeline for Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, reveals an approximately six-and-a-half month interval in which there is no documentation for her whereabouts, from Jan. 31, 1961, when she concluded the fall term at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, until Aug. 19, 1961, when the University of Washington at Seattle documents she was enrolled for extension courses.

Where was Dunham when she was pregnant with Obama, and what did she do?

Her pregnancy apparently was the one time in her life she withdrew from academic pursuits.

Assuming Barack Obama Jr. was born Aug. 4, 1961, and the baby was full-term, Dunham quit the University of Hawaii when she was two months pregnant while her husband-to-be continued his studies at the same school without interruption.

One explanation is that Dunham simply left to focus her energy and time on the coming baby, even though that seems inconsistent with the rapidity with which she returned to university studies, in a distant city, after the birth.

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That Dunham dropped out to be a housewife and mother would have represented a very traditional adaptation to what was in reality anything but a traditional marriage or subsequent career and motherhood.

There are no travel or passport records available for Dunham, Barack Obama Sr. or President Obama, so determining whether Dunham remained in Hawaii during these undocumented months is difficult.

Dunham quits University of Hawaii

According to records provided WND by Stuart Lau, the registrar at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Dunham dropped out of the university at the end of the fall term 1960:

Lau further documented that this term ended Jan. 31, 1961.

From the documentary record, Barack Obama Sr. continued his studies at the university, even though Dunham dropped out at the end of the term in which they met, her first.

Questions over wedding date

The only documentation for Dunham's marriage to Barack Obama Sr. comes from divorce documents that list the marriage date as Feb. 2, 1961.

No wedding certificate for the couple has ever been found or published.

In his autobiography "Dreams from My Father," Obama wrote of his parents wedding: "There's no record of a real wedding, a cake, a ring, a giving away of the bride. No families were in attendance; it's not even clear that people back in Kansas were fully informed. Just a small civil ceremony, a justice of the peace. The whole thing seems so fragile in retrospect, so haphazard."

The documentation for Barack Obama's birthday comes from the two different versions of the short-form Certification of Live Birth, or COLB, produced by the Obama campaign and separately by FactCheck.org., as well as from birth announcements published at the time by the Honolulu Advertiser and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin newspapers.

WND has previously reported that in response to a direct question, the Hawaii Department of Health refused to authenticate either of the two versions of the short-form COLB or to tell WND which of the variations more resembled COLB documents typically issued by the department.

WND has also reported that the birth notices printed by the two Honolulu newspapers in 1961 do not provide solid proof of a birth in Hawaii because of uncertainties over the policies and procedures that apparently were in use at the time.

Even assuming the newspapers reported what they received from the vital records division of the Hawaii DOH, Hawaii law in 1961 specifically allowed "an adult or the legal parents of a minor child" to apply to the health department and, upon unspecified proof, be given a short-form COLB.

WND has documented that until state policies were changed after the report was published, the website of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands stated clearly the COLB touted by the Obama campaign, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and a host of other Obama defenders, was not acceptable as a form of identification to qualify under this program.

Even determining the hospital of his birth has become a controversy, with the Obama family and supporters claiming two different facilities – and neither of those facilities willing to confirm.

Websites supportive of Obama scrubbed references he was born in Queens Memorial Hospital after WND published a report documenting the White House had changed the story to claim he was born at Kapi'olani Medical Center.

WND has also reported Obama may be using his political action committee funds to pay more than $1.35 million to lawyers to stamp out eligibility lawsuits brought by Americans seeking the public release of his long-form birth certificate.

The facts remain that while Obama and his supporters have made many photographs available from his childhood, key photographs are missing:

• No photographs of Dunham's marriage to Barack Obama Sr. have ever been published.
  
  
• No photographs have yet surfaced showing Dunham pregnant in 1961.
  
  
• No photographs have yet surfaced of the parents with Barack Obama Jr. at the hospital where he was born.
  
  
• No photographs have yet surfaced of the parents after the newly born infant was taken home.

Problems with Obama's story

Until a long-form original birth certificate specifying important details, including the hospital where he was born and the attending physician, is made public and authenticated, Obama's place and date of birth must be considered as yet undocumented.

The official story of his birth, as presented in "Dreams from My Father" and in various accounts in newspapers and supportive websites conveys a very different timeline than a careful analysis of the available documentary evidence.

• The documentary evidence establishes that Dunham left Hawaii when she moved to Seattle in August 1961 to begin her studies at the University of Washington, only 15 days after the birth of Barack Obama Jr. In contrast, the official story is that Dunham did not relocate to Seattle until late 1962.
  
  
• The documentary evidence also establishes Dunham abandoned her husband when she left to begin school at the University of Washington in August 1961, never again to live with Barack Obama Sr. as husband and wife. In contrast, the official story is that Dunham and Barack Obama Sr. lived together as a married couple in Hawaii until Barack Obama Sr. departed for Harvard to begin the fall term in September 1962.
  

The repositioning of Dunham's attendance at the University of Washington and the date she left a matrimonial home with Barack Obama Sr. appears to have been designed to mask a secret that lies at the heart of the Obama birth certificate controversy.

Obama's mother resurfaces in Seattle

Dunham's transcript from the University of Washington documents she was enrolled for two extension courses beginning Aug. 19, 1961:

The University of Washington has documented to WND that the summer quarter 1961 ended Aug. 18.

Fall quarter classes on campus began Sept. 25, 1961, with the university communicating to WND that Dunham's transcript reveals extension courses that appeared to involve a combination of independent study and night courses.

As WND has also reported, the evidence that Dunham was in Seattle in August 1961 comes from three sources: 

• The public records division of the University of Washington has e-mailed WND that: "Ms. Stanley Ann Dunham was enrolled at the University of Washington for: Autumn 1961, Winter 1962, Spring 1962."


• Mary Toutonghi, the babysitter for Barack Obama Jr., told WND she babysat for Obama when he was 7 months old (around February/March 1962) and Dunham was attending night classes at the University of Washington that started around 4:30 in the afternoon.


• The Polk 1961-1962 directory listed Dunham at a Capitol Hill address in Seattle.

The Obama "mama" timeline

A timeline based on the documented evidence shows the six-month gap between Dunham's departure from the University of Hawaii Jan. 31, 1961, and her commencement of studies at the University of Washington Aug. 19, 1961.

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Previous stories:

Evidence challenges claim over Obama's birth address

Gibbs: 10,000 more important issues than eligibility

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AOL poll: 82% want Obama to release it

'Shut up Lou Dobbs' campaign hits stride

Hawaiian newspapers don't prove birthplace

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Bombshell: Orders revoked for soldier challenging prez

Now White House joins 'birth hospital' cover-up

Soldier won't serve without proof Obama eligible

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Obama's birth letter: Is this thing for real?

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Obama birth mystery: More than 1 hospital

Hospital won't back Obama birth claim

Gibbs gets 2nd shot at eligibility question

THE FULL STORY: See listing of more than 200 exclusive WND reports on the eligibility issue