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On February 22, 1732 in the British Commonwealth of Virginia, Mary Ball Washington gave birth to her first son. Although she could not have possibly understood the importance of his birth at the time, his name, George Washington, would someday become synonymous with the founding of the United States of America. Washington's childhood offered few omens of greatness. He was one of ten children (six by Mary Ball and four by George Washington's father's first wife) in …

…brought him the duty of presiding over the Constitutional Convention in 1789. By the time the Constitution was enacted, Washington was elected president, a position he took with reluctance. He served two terms, managing the affairs of a nation in the debt of war, and refused a third term in 1796. Three years later, he died at Mount Vernon of what physicians today say may have been strep throat. The country mourned as it never had before.