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Benjamin Franklin. Benjamin Franklin FRS FRSA FRSE (January 17, 1706 [ O.S. January 6, 1705] [Note 1] – April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a leading writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. [1] Among the most influential intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the Founding ...
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Learn how Franklin, one of the US Founding Fathers, educated himself through reading and experience despite his early schooling interruption. Discover his views on education and his contributions to science, politics, and literature.
- Benjamin Franklin’s Early Years
- Benjamin Franklin: Printer and Publisher
- Benjamin Franklin and Philadelphia
- Benjamin Franklin's Inventions
- Benjamin Franklin and The American Revolution
- Benjamin Franklin’s Later Years
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Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in colonial Boston. His father, Josiah Franklin (1657-1745), a native of England, was a candle and soap maker who married twice and had 17 children. Franklin’s mother was Abiah Folger (1667-1752) of Nantucket, Massachusetts, Josiah’s second wife. Franklin was the eighth of Abiah and Josiah’s 10 offspr...
Benjamin Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1726, and two years later opened a printing shop. The business became highly successful producing a range of materials, including government pamphlets, books and currency. In 1729, Franklin became the owner and publisher of a colonial newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, which proved popular—and to whic...
As Franklin’s printing business prospered, he became increasingly involved in civic affairs. Starting in the 1730s, he helped establish a number of community organizations in Philadelphia, including a lending library (it was founded in 1731, a time when books weren’t widely available in the colonies, and remained the largest U.S. public library unt...
In 1748, Franklin, then 42 years old, had expanded his printing business throughout the colonies and become successful enough to stop working. Retirement allowed him to concentrate on public service and also pursue more fully his longtime interest in science. In the 1740s, he conducted experiments that contributed to the understanding of electricit...
In 1754, at a meeting of colonial representatives in Albany, New York, Franklin proposed a plan for uniting the colonies under a national congress. Although his Albany Plan was rejected, it helped lay the groundwork for the Articles of Confederation, which became the first constitution of the United States when ratified in 1781. In 1757, Franklin t...
In 1785, Franklin left France and returned once again to Philadelphia. In 1787, he was a Pennsylvania delegate to the Constitutional Convention. (The 81-year-old Franklin was the convention’s oldest delegate.) At the end of the convention, in September 1787, he urged his fellow delegates to support the heavily debated new document. The U.S. Constit...
Learn about the life and achievements of Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was a statesman, author, publisher, scientist, inventor and diplomat who had little formal education.
- Missy Sullivan
- 2 min
- He only had two years of formal education. The man considered the most brilliant American of his age rarely saw the inside of a classroom. Franklin spent just two years attending Boston Latin School and a private academy before joining the family candle and soap-making business.
- Franklin became a hit writer as a teenager. Ben Franklin's Pen Name. After his brother James founded a weekly newspaper called the New England Courant in the 1720s, a 16-year-old Franklin began secretly submitting essays and commentary as “Silence Dogood,” a fictitious widow who offered homespun musings on everything from fashion and marriage to women’s rights and religion.
- He spent half his life in unofficial retirement. Franklin arrived in Philadelphia in 1723 practically penniless, but over the next two decades he became enormously wealthy as a print shop owner, land speculator and publisher of the popular “Poor Richard’s Almanack.”
- Franklin designed a musical instrument used by Mozart and Beethoven. Ben Franklin Sparks Electricity. Among Franklin’s more unusual inventions is his “glass armonica,” an instrument designed to replicate the otherworldly sound that a wet finger makes when rubbed along the rim of a glass.
Dec 10, 2020 · Learn about Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers and a polymath who invented bifocal glasses, studied electricity and helped draft the U.S. Constitution. Explore his early life, scientific pursuits, political career and legacy.
- editor@biography.com
- Staff Editorial Team And Contributors
About Benjamin Franklin. An investment in knowledge pays the best interest. Benjamin Franklin was born in January of 1706 to a modest family in Boston, Massachusetts. Although he is most often celebrated as a Founding Father of the United States, Franklin’s accomplishments are diverse, including civic, scientific, and cultural projects which ...
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Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 17, 1706. Growing up, Franklin came from a modest family and was one of seventeen children. He began his formal education at eight when his father enrolled him in the Boston Latin School. While in school, Franklin showed strong leadership skills and was an avid reader and writer.
