Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was one of the most important and influential Founding Fathers of the United States. He was a leading author, political theorist, politician, printer, scientist, inventor, civic activist, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As a political writer and activist, he essentially invented the idea of an American nation. And as a diplomat during the American Revolution, he secured the French military and financial aid that made victory over Britain possible. Franklin's many inventions include the lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove, and the harmonica.

Franklin was born in what was then the British colony of Boston, Massachusetts, on January 17, 1706. The fifteenth of seventeen children, he received only two years of formal education. He started working in his father's candlemaking shop at the age of ten and later became an apprentice printer, working for his brother James. As a printer he developed a love for books, from which he educated himself. He spent two years in London, where he learned more about printing, and returned to Philadelphia in 1726. There he established the Pennsylvania Gazette and Poor Richard's Almanack.

Franklin established service organizations, was postmaster of Philadelphia, and founded a college that eventually became the University of Pennsylvania. He returned to London in 1757 as an agent of the Pennsylvania Assembly and remained there nearly eighteen years. In 1775, Franklin returned to the colonies and joined the committee that was drafting the Declaration of Independence.

Franklin died in Philadelphia on April 17, 1790.