Fort Necessity, July 3, 1754; aide-de-camp to Braddock,
1755; commanded on the frontier, 1755-57; led the advance-guard for the
reduction of Fort Duquesne, 1758; married Martha Custis, January 9,
1759; delegate to Continental Congress, 1774-75; appointed
commander-in-chief of the continental forces, June 15, 1775; assumed
command of the army, July 3, 1775; compelled evacuation of Boston, March
17, 1776; defeated at battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776; defeated
at White Plains, October 28, 1776; surprised the British at Trenton,
December 26, 1776; won the battle of Princeton, January, 1777; defeated
at Brandywine and Germantown in 1777; at Valley Forge, during the winter
of 1777-78; won the battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778; captured
Yorktown and the army of Cornwallis, October 19, 1781; resigned his
commission as commander-in-chief, December 23, 1783; president of the
Constitutional Convention, 1787; unanimously elected President of the
United States, January, 1789; inaugurated at New York, April 30, 1789;
unanimously re-elected, 1793; issued farewell address to the people,
September, 1796; retired to Mount Vernon, March, 1797; died there,
December 14, 1799.

ADAMS, JOHN. Born at Braintree, now Quincy, Massachusetts, October 30,
1735; graduated at Harvard, 1755; studied law, took a leading part in
opposing Stamp Act, was counsel for the British soldiers charged with
murder in connection with the "Boston massacre" in 1770, and became a
leader of the patriot party; member of Revolutionary Congress of
Massachusetts, 1774; delegate to first and second Continental Congress,
1774-75; commissioner to France, 1777; negotiated treaties with the
Netherlands, Great Britain and Prussia, 1782-83; minister to London,
1785-88; Federal Vice-President, 1789-97; President, 1797-1801; defeated
for re-election and retired to Quincy, 1801; died there, July 4, 1886.

JEFFERSON, THOMAS. Born at Shadwell, Albemarle County, Virginia, April
2, 1743; member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, 1769-75, and
1776-78, and of the Continental Congress, 1775-76; drafted Declaration
of Independence, 1776; governor of Virginia, 1779-81; member of
Congress, 1783-84; minister to France, 1784-89; secretary of state,
1789-93; Vice-President, 1797-1801; President, 1801-09; died at
Monticello, Albemarle County, Virginia, July 4, 1826.

MADISON, JAMES. Born at Port Conway, Virginia, March 16, 1751;
graduated at Princeton, 1771; delegate to Congress, 1780-83