Claim: Leslie Groves enlisted in the United States army on August 17, 1896.
Evidence: Lieutenant General Leslie Richard Groves Jr. -LRB- 17 August 1896 -- 13 July 1970 -RRB- was a United States Army Corps of Engineers officer who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project , a top secret research project that developed the atomic bomb during World War II.