Barack Obama, capping an unprecedented rise, has been voted the 44^th President of the United States, according to projections by broadcast and cable news networks.

Obama, the Democratic Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican nominee Arizona Senator John McCain to become the first African-American to hold the highest office in the land.

Although the final electoral count was still being determined, broadcast and cable news networks at 11 p.m. declared Obama the winner. In Chicago's Grant Park, Obama supporters celebrated to the sounds of Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours."

McCain began his concession speech in Phoenix around 11:20 p.m. (ET).

With Obama putting Virginia and its 13 electoral votes – the first time the Old Dominion went Democratic in a presidential contest since 1964 with Lyndon Johnson – in his column after 10 p.m., the Democrat had some 220 electoral votes and vaulted into position to claim the election, when the West Coast states of California (55 electoral votes), Washington (11) and Oregon (seven) closed their polling.