President-Elect Barack Obama is on the cover of the upcoming issue of People magazine which hits newsstands Friday, November 7, 2008, in celebration of his historic election as the 44th President of the United States.  See the cover and watch video of celebrity reaction to Obama’s victory.

Sitting on a sofa beside his 71-year-old mother-in-law, Marian Robinson, at the Hyatt Regency Chicago just after 10 p.m., with his family having broken away from the bigger returns-watching party downstairs, Barack Obama already started to hear from campaign aides that news organizations were close to calling the election for Obama, PEOPLE reports in its latest cover story, on sale Friday.

But his uncle, Steve Robinson, beat them to it. “He said, ‘I told you,’ ” Marian Robinson tells PEOPLE. “We all had our little laugh, our little enjoyment when he said it. It was like, OK, that means it’s true.”

By the time CNN made it official, Robinson adds, “Everybody was quiet. I can’t tell you how subdued it was. We weren’t like the people in the stands – you know, yelling and screaming.”

Barack Obama with his wife Michelle Obama and daughters Sasha and Malia (Photo credit: Getty Images)

People had been anticipating the moment for weeks and months, if not generations. And yet when it came, there was still an instant of shock. The second that news organizations declared Barack Obama the next President of the United States, the crowd of more than 200,000 that had gathered in and around Chicago’s Grant Park erupted in shrieks and cries of “My God!” People trembled, wept, hugged each other.

Source: Inside Obama’s Family Election Celebration  cover image via Mark Pasetsky’s CoverAwards

Here is video of interviews with Oprah Winfrey, and Former Secretary of State General Colin Powell, reacting to Obama’s historic victory.

The BBC interviewed Oprah Winfrey, Rev Jesse Jackson, Lewis Hamilton, Spike Lee, Ricky Gervais and Eddie Izzard. Click here to watch the interview video on YouTube.

People magazine also reports Oprah’s reaction and other celebrity reaction.

“It feels like hope won,” the TV icon told Britain’s BBC. “It feels like there’s a shift in consciousness. It feels like something really big and bold has happened here, like nothing ever in our lifetimes did we expect this to happen.”

• Actor George Clooney: “I congratulate President-elect Obama on his historic victory, and now it’s time to begin unifying the country so we can take on the extraordinary challenges that this generation faces.”

• Singer Usher: “This will go down in history, in black history, for all of the sacrifices that the great Joseph Lowery and Martin Luther King made, this actually pays off for their sacrifice. … I’m speechless. I don’t even know what to say.”

• Music mogul Diddy: “I felt like my vote was the vote that put him into office. … And that may not be true but that’s how much power it felt like I had.”

• Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz to PEOPLE: “My parents met working for [Obama’s running mate on one of his early campaigns]. If it weren’t for Joe Biden, I would not exist as a human being. … I am proud to be a part of history in the making.”

• Former Secretary of State Colin Powell: “We’re very, very proud to have a new American President who also happens to be African-American … As I watched [the news anchors call the election] – pretty moving moment. Everybody cried … I am overjoyed.”

Source: Oprah on Obama’s Election: ‘It Feels Like Hope Won’

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People Magazine Cover: Barack Obama Makes History