It started off quietly but it became, reports Denis Stauntonfrom Chicago, a night of great triumph and emotion
AS WE STREAMED into Chicago's Grant Park on Tuesday evening in our tens of thousands, we knew we could be on the verge of a history-changing moment, but when it came on the stroke of 9 pm local time, nobody seemed to be prepared for it.
"I think I'm still in shock," said Ann Marty, a 25-year-old architecture student, after Barack Obama's victory was announced.
"I've been working for this and waiting for it and thinking about it for two years. Now I just can't believe it."
It was a crystal clear, unseasonably mild night in Chicago, the city's magnificent skyline curving around the park where, 40 years earlier, baton-wielding police and armed national guardsmen had staged a bloody battle with anti-war protesters.
Many of those who came to Obama's election night party had been waiting for hours and some had camped out all night on the edge of the park. As the election results came in on giant screens, however, the crowd was strangely subdued, watching in silence as the numbers crawled upwards, the outcome remaining unclear.
The first big cheer went up when Pennsylvania was called for Barack Obama after 7pm, cutting off John McCain's best route to the White House. When Obama claimed Ohio at 8.30pm, we knew the election was over but the crowd at Grant Park remained muted, cheering briefly but waiting until CNN called the entire race for the Democrat when it errupted into wild jubilation, hugging one another, weeping or calling friends and family.
Tino Barber, a short, stocky African-American in his mid-30s, was sobbing as he hung up the phone after a call with his mother in South Carolina.
"I said I wasn't going to get excited until it happened because I thought Karl Rove was going to orchestrate something in the background and screw things up in Florida again," he said
"My mom is 70 years old. She's been out working for Obama every day but she said she didn't expect to see this in her lifetime."
One of the biggest cheers went up in Grant Park when Virginia , which last backed a Democratic presidential election in 1964, fell into Obama's column. There was little trace of triumphalism, however, and the crowd cheered when McCain's concession speech was broadcast on the giant screens and applauded each mention of the defeated candidate's name in Obama's victory speech. McCain's supporters in Phoenix, by contrast, booed every time the Republican mentioned the new president-elect.
MADELEINE MOLYNEAUX, who had travelled to Chicago from upstate New York, put the subdued atmosphere in the crowd down to Obama's own cool temperament.
"He's like a Zen master," she said.
"He just commands that sense of calm." The moment the reality sank in for me was when the announcer introduced "America's next first family" and four African-Americans - Obama, his wife Michelle and their two daughters - walked out onstage.
This family which, half a century ago, could not have eaten at the same lunch counter as their white neighbours in parts of the US, was about to move into the most prestigious address in the country - and their success seemed to elevate all of us.
The moment he started speaking, standing before 25 American flags and looking out over the vast crowd and the city lights beyond it, Obama identified the significance of the moment for all Americans, regardless of their race.
"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer," he declared.
"It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled - Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America."
The new president-elect paid tribute to his late grandmother, who died in Hawaii hours before the polls opened, thanked his wife Michelle and offered a special word to his two daughters.
"Sasha and Malia, I love you both so much," he said.
"And you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House."
As celebrations broke out everywhere from Dublin to Berlin and from South Africa to Sydney, Obama addressed directly the world beyond the US.
"To all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world - our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand," he said.
"To those who would tear this world down - we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security - we support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright - tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope."