U.S. President Facts That Will Make You See Them Differently

Before he was president, Barack Obama once punched a classmate in the face and broke the kid’s nose during a pickup basketball game — all because the classmate called him a racial slur. Obama later said the punch “came without thinking,” like pure instinct kicking in.

It’s a side of Obama people don’t usually picture: the calm, composed guy actually throwing hands on the court. But it shows his grounding in real-life, everyday moments — heated games, bad tempers, teenage stupidity. It’s kind of wild imagining a future president delivering a reflex punch that would become one of his most surprising early-life stories.