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George Washington was born on February 22, 1732 on the banks of the Potomac River in the farm 's Creek Bridge in the old Westmoreland County, in the state of Virginia. He belonged to a distinguished English family , originally from Northampton-shire , who had come to America in the mid- seventeenth century and had managed to amass a considerable fortune .
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Thanks to the patronage of his brother's friend, Thomas Fairfax, Washington begins working as a surveyor in the Shenandoah Valley.
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Washington accompanies his tubercular brother Lawrence to Barbados on a rest cure. While there, he is exposed to smallpox. The experience leaves him immune to the disease but probably contributes to making him unable to have children.
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The death of Washington's beloved half brother Lawrence creates a vacancy in the Virginia militia, to which Washington is appointed.
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The royal governor of Virginia, Robert Dinwiddie, sends Washington on a daring mission into the Virginia wilderness to contest French claims in the Ohio Country.
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En route to defending a strategic point, Washington and his forces encounter and slaughter a small detachment of French forces, including their commander, the noble Monsieur Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville. The Battle of Jumonville Glen, as it came to be known, is generally considered the first encounter of the French and Indian War.
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After a disastrous defeat at the Monongahela River that will cost Braddock his life, Washington rallies the British troops for an organized and protected retreat. Washington will emerge from the "Massacre at Monongahela" with a reputation for bravery under fire.
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Washington leads several hundred colonial troops as part of a victorious British attack on Fort Duquesne. The victory effectively marks the cessation of hostilities around Virginia for the remainder of the French & Indian War.
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Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis and becomes, overnight, one of the richest men in the colonies. He will assume the care of Martha's two children, John Parke, known as Jacky (dies in 1781), and Martha, known as Patsy.
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The British government rejects a proposal by Washington and other Virginia gentry for a land grant to settle parts of the Ohio Country. Five years later, they will accept an almost identical proposal, submitted this time by a group of British noblemen.
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Washington attends the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia as a delegate from Virginia. He provisions himself with military supplies from the great port city before returning home in October.
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The Second Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia. Washington attends in full military uniform.
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Washington takes command of colonial forces resisting the British occupation of Boston on the banks of the Charles River, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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Washington, now in New York, orders that the newly published Declaration of Independence be read aloud to the troops.
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After a series of defeats around New York, Washington scores a surprise victory against the British in a daring attack at Trenton. He will follow it up with another spectacular victory at Princeton a week later.
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Washington famously sets up winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Due to lack of funding and poor organization, the Continental army is in tatters.
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Washington leads a joint Continental—French force to victory over British general Charles Cornwallis's forces at Yorktown, Virginia. It is the last major battle of the Revolutionary War.
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Washington tenders his resignation as commander in chief to the Congress of the Confederation, meeting in Annapolis.
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Frustrated by the weakness of the Articles of Confederation, Washington chairs the Constitutional Convention to revise them. His signature on the final document guarantees it will be taken seriously.
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Secretary of the Congress Charles Thomson informs Washington that he has just been elected president of the United States.
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Washington is inaugurated the nation's first president in the temporary capital of New York City.
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Congress instructs Washington to select the location of the permanent capital on the banks of the Potomac River, all but within sight of Washington's Mount Vernon estate. He will spend the next years of his life planning the city that will bear his name.
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Convinced that the new division between Federalists and Republicans demands he stay on, Washington stands for a second term. He is reelected unanimously.
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Washington signs Jay's Treaty with England, negotiated over the course of the previous year. It avoids war with Britain and protects American commercial interests, but is incredibly unpopular among Republicans.
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Worsening relations with France convince Washington to accept nominal command of American military forces. He is commissioned lieutenant general, the rank he will officially hold until his death.
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Sick with a throat infection he acquired riding in the rain (and made worse by medical treatment), Washington dies at Mount Vernon. His wife and personal slave are by his side.
