On February 22, 1732, on a tobacco plantation in colonial Virginia, a baby named George Washington was born to a wealthy farming family. His father died when George was just 11, and the boy was raised mostly by his mother and his older brother Lawrence. He never went to college. Instead, he learned to ride horses, survey land with chains and compasses, and lead men through tough Virginia wilderness. By age 22 he was already a soldier in the French and Indian War.
More than 20 years later, when American colonists decided they were sick of being ruled by Britain, the leaders picked Washington to command the new Continental Army. He had hardly any money, his soldiers had hardly any boots, and they were going up against the most powerful army in the world. Through brutal winters at Valley Forge, surprise crossings of the icy Delaware River, and battles he often lost, Washington kept his ragtag troops together. After six long years, the Americans won the Revolutionary War and freed themselves from British rule.
In 1789 he was unanimously elected the very first president of the United States, the only president ever chosen with every single electoral vote. He could have made himself king. Instead, after two terms, he stepped down and went back to his farm, setting a powerful example that American leaders would let go of power. There's a city named after him, a state, a giant marble monument, and his face on the one-dollar bill and the quarter. Not bad for a kid who never finished school.
