July 12, 1864 - George Washington Carver, hall of fame scientist, botanist, educator and inventor, was born enslaved in Diamond, Missouri. Carver and his family were freed after slavery was abolished. He earned his Bac...helor of Science degree in 1894 and his Master of Science degree in 1896 from Iowa State Agricultural College where he was the first Black student and later the first Black faculty member. In 1896, he accepted the position to lead the Agricultural Department at Tuskegee University and remained there for 47 years. During that time, Carver devoted himself to the research and promotion of alternative crops to cotton, including peanuts and sweet potatoes. He also created approximately 100 products made from peanuts that were useful for the house. In 1923, Carver received the NAACP Spingarn Medal. Carver died January 5, 1943. On his grave is written, “He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world.” On July 14, 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the George Washington Carver National Monument near Diamond, Missouri, the first national monument dedicated to an African American and also the first to a non-president. The United States Postal Service issued commemorative postage stamps in honor of Carver in 1948 and 1998. In 1977, Carver was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, in 1990 was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and in 2000 was a charter inductee in the United States Department of Agriculture Hall of Heroes as the “Father of Chemurgy”. Biographies of Carver include “George Washington Carver: Man’s Slave, God’s Scientist” (1981) and “George Washington Carver: His Life & Faith in His Own Words” (2003). Dozens of schools around the country are named in his honor and his name is enshrined in the Ring of Genealogy at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, Michigan.