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George Washington was born on 22 February 1732 in Westmoreland County, Virginia, into a family of prosperous farmers. At 16 he became a surveyor and a year later he was appointed surveyor of Culpeper County, Virginia, his first public office. In 1752, he joined the colonial militia. During the French and Indian War (known in Europe as the Seven Years War) Washington won a reputation for bravery.

. By 1774, Washington was one of the leading Virginian figures supporting the colonial cause. He was sent by Virginia to both the first and second Continental Congresses in 1774 and When the Second Continental Congress took place In Philadelphia in May 1775, Washington was elected Commander –in- Chief of the Continental Army. On October 19, 1781 the war against British influence was over, but the Nation was not functioning well. So Washington became the prime mover in the steps leading to the Constitutional Congress in Philadelphia in 1787.

. In 1789, he was elected the first president of the United States. When elected he was the only president to receive every vote. He was the head of the country for 8 years. In honour of the first president the newly-built capital of the country was named Washington

. «Where annual elections end, there slavery begins.»

. Adams was a leading figure in the American fight for independence and second president of the United States. During his presidency, Washington became the American capital. John Adams was born on 19 October 1735 in Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts, the son of a farmer. Adams graduated from Harvard College in 1755 and became a lawyer. At the First and Second Continental Congresses, where he represented Massachusetts, Adams used his considerable writing and speaking skills to persuade other colonists firstly of the need for opposition to Britain, and then of the cause for independence.

. He served on the committee which drafted the Declaration of Independence. During the Revolutionary War, he ran the Board of War, raising and equipping the American army and creating a navy. In 1778 Adams was sent Paris on a diplomatic mission. He returned there in 1780 and, in 1783, was one of the three Americans to sign the Treaty of Paris, ending the American War of Independence. Between 1785 and 1788, Adams served as the first American ambassador to Britain.

. On his return to America, he was elected the first vice- president under George Washington and served for two terms. In 1796 Adams was elected president. During Adams term a Navy Department was first established. Adams s sometimes called the Father of the United States Navy

. Jefferson was a man of many talents. He was the author of the Declaration of American Independence, a founding father of the United States and the country's third president. «Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.»

. Thomas Jefferson was born in Shadwell, Virginia, on 13 April 1743 into a wealthy landowning family. He studied law and practiced until the early 1770s. He served as a magistrate and was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1769 to By 1774, he was actively involved in organizing opposition to British rule, and in his pamphlet 'A Summary View of the Rights of British America' Jefferson articulated the colonial position for independence. As a member of the second Continental Congress, he was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. He returned to Virginia and served as governor from 1779 to 1781.

. In 1784, Jefferson went to France where he served first as trade commissioner and then as American ambassador. He was in France for four years and witnessed the beginning of the French Revolution. In 1790, he became the first secretary of state, a position he held until 1793, when he resigned after a quarrel with secretary of the treasury, Alexander Hamilton. Out of the diverging views of Jefferson and Hamilton were forming two separate political parties, the Democrat-Republicans and the Federalists. In 1796, Jefferson reluctantly stood as the Republican candidate for president, losing by three votes to Federalist John Adams. He served as Adams' vice president between 1797 and Jefferson also drew up the constitution for his state, Virginia, and served as its governor.

. In 1801, Jefferson became the third president of the United States, serving for two terms. This well known man was also a self-taught architect. He introduced the simple classical design to America when he designed the Virginia State Capital Building. He also designed his own home, he remained the most influential architect of his time. Thomas Jefferson was a self taught architect, a scientist, an inventor, and a fine musician. Thomas Jefferson did many useful things during his life time and he always thought of how to help ordinary people. Jefferson's best traditions have been kept up by American progressive people in their struggle for peace and democracy.

. «As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.»

. Abraham Lincoln is the most famous example of the "American dream". Many Americans think that in their country a man may rise from the lowest to the highest position in their land. That was exactly what Lincoln did. He was born in 1809 in a small farm in Kentucky. When Abraham was quite young, the family moved to the wild forest land of Indiana. He hardly had any education; he only learned to read and write and do simple arithmetic. When A. Lincoln grew up, he studied hard and became a lawyer. He entered politics, too, and in 1834 became a candidate to the Parliament of Illinois. IN 1847 he went as a Congressman to the National Assembly (National Parliament).

. In 1860 Lincoln was elected President of the USA. In 1861 seven states left the Union and elected their own President, Jefferson Davis. The Confederacy was formed. Lincoln was strongly against slavery and even more strongly against the break-up of the Union. In 1862 the American Civil War between the Norm and the South began. At first the war went badly for the North. The Southerners headed by General Robert Lee and Colonel Jackson won some brilliant victories. But Lincoln did not lose courage. On April, 9 General Lee surrendered. The Civil War was over. Lincoln tried to convince former enemies mat they should live in peace.

. On April, 14 the President and his wife visited a theatre in Washington. During the performance Lincoln was shot by an actor who supported Confederacy. Abraham Lincoln died next morning. People admire Lincoln for political moderation. They admire him because he tried to preserve the nation. He is a symbol of American democracy. To commemorate the name of the 16 th president of the USA Abraham Lincoln Americans erected a memorial. It has 36 columns. Each of them represents the state in the Union at the time of the Lincolns death.

. «Nobody should go into politics unless he has a hide like a rhinoceros.»

. Roosevelt was the only US president elected to office four times and led his country through two of the greatest crises of the 20th century - the Great Depression and World War Two. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on 30 January 1882 at his family's estate in New York State. His father was a businessman. He attended Harvard and Columbia University Law School, but had little enthusiasm for the legal profession. In 1905, he married Eleanor Roosevelt, a distant cousin and niece of President Theodore Roosevelt.

. Five years later, Roosevelt was elected to the New York Senate, where he quickly came to national attention as a rising Democratic politician. From 1913 to which included the years of World War One - Roosevelt was assistant secretary of the navy, where he achieved a reputation as a capable young administrator. In 1921, Roosevelt suddenly fell ill with polio and was left unable to walk without braces or a cane. It seemed to signal the end of his career, but through his determination and the support of his wife, who often acted as his substitute at political meetings, he returned to work. In 1928, Roosevelt was elected governor of New York and in 1932 became the Democratic nominee for president, winning by a landslide. He came to power when the Great Depression was at its worst. He ushered in the 'New Deal' programme ( ) to provide relief for the unemployed, and then jobs, as well as attempting to reform and strengthen the American economy.

. Roosevelt won a second term in 1936 and an unprecedented third term in While initially keeping America out of World War Two, he provided financial assistance and equipment to Britain and its allies. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour brought America into the war and Roosevelt took the lead in establishing a grand alliance among the countries fighting the Axis powers. He also devoted time to the planning of the post-war workload, particularly the establishment of the United Nations. Full economic recovery, which had not responded to Roosevelt's efforts throughout the 1930s, was achieved as a consequence of massive government spending on war production. Roosevelt died in office on 12 April 1945, less than a month before Germany's unconditional surrender.

. «Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.»

. Kennedy was the 35th president of the United States, an immensely popular leader who was assassinated before he completed his third year in office. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on 29 May 1917 in Massachusetts, into a wealthy and political Irish-American family. Educated at Harvard University, he graduated in Following naval service in the Pacific in World War Two, he entered politics in 1946, spurred on by his ambitious father Joseph, and won election as a Democrat to the US House of Representatives. In 1952, he was elected to the senate.

. In 1960, Kennedy won the party's presidential nomination and defeated Richard Nixon in the subsequent election. At 43, he was the country's youngest president as well as its first Catholic head of state. He presented himself as a youthful president for a new generation.

Kennedy's years in power were marked by Cold War tension in foreign affairs, together with a rhetorical commitment to introducing domestic reforms, and most of all to expanding the civil rights of African Americans. He inherited the Eisenhower administration's plan to use anti-communist Cubans to invade Cuba in order to overthrow Fidel Castro's government. In April 1961, Kennedy forced the Soviet Union to withdraw its missiles from Cuba, which were located only 90 miles from the coast of Florida. This action did much to restore Kennedy's reputation. Domestically, Kennedy oversaw the desegregation of the University of Mississippi in 1962, and of the University of Alabama the following year.

. Kennedy was assassinated on 22 November 1963 in Dallas, Texas. According to the Warren Commission established to investigate the assassination, a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, killed the president, but there has been consistent speculation ever since that Kennedy's death was the result of a conspiracy.

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. Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 4, He is full name is Barack Hussein Obama II. He is named after his father, Barack Obama, Senior. Obama is the 44th President of the United States. Barack Obama, Jr. is the current President of the United States. He is the first African American to become a U.S. President. His father was black and was born in Kenya, Africa, and his mother was white and was born in Kansas, U.S.A. Obama's parents divorced when he was a toddler and his mother, step- father, and maternal grandparents raised him.

. Obama attended grade school in Jakarta, Indonesia after his mother married an Indonesian man. Obama graduated from Columbia University in New York City in 1983 with a BA in political science. He worked several jobs after graduating college. One of those jobs was as a community organizer in Chicago, Illinois. For twelve years, he taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School. In 1988, Obama enrolled in Harvard Law School. He graduated in While at Harvard Law School, Obama became the first African American President of the prestigious Harvard Law Review.

. He married Michelle Robinson in Barack Obama is married to Michelle Obama, and they have two daughters. Their oldest daughter is Malia and their youngest daughter is Sasha.

. After working as a lawyer for several years, Obama entered politics. He served in the Illinois State Senate from Obama was the junior U.S. Illinois Senator from 2005 until he won the U.S. Presidential election. He took the Presidential Oath of Office on January 20, Obama is a Democrat, and his Vice President is Joe Biden.

Literature: Internet: BBC - History: Historic Figures