America, we cannot turn back, not with so much work to be done...

Adding to the historical resonance, Obama noted his speech came on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s ‘I Have a Dream’ address.

“Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!” King said that day; Obama’s triumph, standing in the shadow of those mountains, suggested the country was closer to the colourblind society King saw from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

For the most important speech of his political career, Obama chose a setting as audacious as his candidacy itself: a raised blue-carpeted platform at the center the coliseum, with a backdrop of Greco-Tuscan columns and more than a dozen American flags.

When he finished, the sky filled with a blaze of fireworks. His wife, Michelle, and their daughters, Malia and Sasha, joined him on stage along with Biden and Biden’s wife, Jill. The girls danced amid a rain of red, white and blue confetti as flashbulbs winked throughout the stadium.