Benjamin Franklin's Birthday
Next: January 17, 2027
Printer, postmaster, inventor, kite-flyer.
The story
Where it comes from
Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on 17 January 1706, and this Story marks his birthday. He left school at 10, was apprenticed to his brother, a printer, and at 17 ran away to Philadelphia, where he soon had his own print shop and newspaper, and a best-seller in Poor Richard's Almanack. His experiments showed that lightning is electricity, and he invented the lightning rod, bifocals and the Franklin stove. He was also a postal pioneer: in 1775 he became the first postmaster general of the United States.
How it's celebrated
There is no formal observance, but his birthday is a good day for a small experiment, a trip to a public library (he helped found one) or a letter sent by post. The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, a science museum named after him, explains his inventions and his famous kite experiment, and his birthplace on Milk Street in Boston is marked with a bust and the words 'Birthplace of Franklin'.
Did you know
- Franklin made the first bifocals by having the lenses of his reading and distance glasses cut in half and set into a single frame.
- He was the youngest son in a family of 17 children.
- His list of inventions also includes the glass armonica, a musical instrument, and swim fins.
Coming up next
- A. A. Milne's Birthday · January 18, 2027
- Martin Luther King Jr. Day · January 18, 2027
- James Watt's Birthday · January 19, 2027
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