Dwight D. Eisenhower was born in Denison, TX, on October 14, 1890. The Eisenhower family returned to Kansas when he was less than two years old. Young Ike grew up in Abilene, KS, where his boyhood home stands today. Eisenhower entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY, in June 1911 and graduated with the Class of 1915. Second Lieutenant Eisenhower's first assignment was at Fort Sam Houston, TX. In the years that followed Eisenhower's duties included the Army's 1919 Transcontinental Motor Convoy, the Tank Corps, the American Battle Monuments Commission, and training recruits for World War I. In 1916, he married Mamie Geneva Doud in Denver CO. His Panama service (1922-24) introduced him to General Fox Conner who took him under his wing and encouraged him to read widely in history, military science, and philosophy and was instrumental in Eisenhower's acceptance by the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, KS. Eisenhower graduated first in the 1926 class of 245 officers. After assignments in the War Department (1929-35), he accompanied Gen. Douglas MacArthur to the Philippines as an assistant military advisor; his principal duty was training the Filipino Army. After returning to the U.S. in 1940, Ike made his reputation as a great tactician in the U.S. Army's Louisiana Maneuvers of September 1941. Following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Brig. General Eisenhower was placed in charge of plans for the Pacific Theater by Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall. Two months later, Marshall promoted him to chief of the War Plans Division where he received his second star. In June 1942, Marshall sent Eisenhower to England on a special mission to build cooperation among the Allies as Commanding General, U.S. Army, European Theater. Eisenhower arrived in England on June 24, 1942, and except for a brief stateside visit in January 1944, he was separated from his family until June 1945, following the end of the war in Europe. He served as Commanding General of Allied Forces Europe and planned and oversaw the Normandy Invasion on D-Day, June 6th, 1944. Eisenhower was promoted to 5-star rank in December 1944. He accepted the surrender of the Nazi Germany on V-E Day, May 7, 1945. General Eisenhower served as Chief of Staff of the United States Army from November 1945 until February 1948. He resigned from the Army on February 7, 1948 to serve as president of Columbia University in New York City. In 1950, at President Truman's request, Eisenhower took a leave of absence from Columbia to serve in Paris, France, as the first commanding general of the newly formed North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). On June 1, 1952, Eisenhower returned to the United States to announce his candidacy President of the United States. Dwight D. Eisenhower served as our 34th President from January 1953-January 1961. Eisenhower died on March 28, 1969 and is buried in the Place of Meditation on the grounds of the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene KS.