…(1732–99), 1st president of the US 1789–97. Commander in chief of the Continental Army, he helped to win the American Revolution by keeping his army together through the winter of 1777–78 at Valley Forge and by winning a decisive battle at Yorktown in 1781. In 1787, he chaired the convention at Philadelphia that drew up the US Constitution. In his two terms as president, he followed a policy of neutrality in international affairs and of expansion on the domestic front…
…(circa 1864–1943), US botanist. Born into slavery, he became the director of agricultural research at Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute in 1896 and developed many products from soybeans, sweet potatoes, and peanuts…
…(1858–1928), US army officer and engineer. As chief engineer and chairman of the Panama Canal Commission 1907, he oversaw construction of the Panama Canal, which was completed in 1914, and then served as the Canal Zone’s governor 1914–17…
