On Oct. 9, the Nobel Committee shocked the world by awarding President Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize. Not only is Obama just the fourth president in U.S. history to win a Nobel Prize, but at the time of his nomination in February, he had only been in office for 12 days. Obama expressed his own astonishment saying that he was "surprised and deeply humbled by the decision." He added to this saying, "I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who’ve been honored by this prize." The committee cited Obama’s "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples” and his creation of “a new climate in international politics” as reasons for his win. They also “attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons,” as well as stated, “Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future.”