Been Franklin:

🎂 Sunday January 17: Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston. His parents were Josiah Franklin and Abiah Folger.

📚 Attended South Grammar School (Boston Latin).

📚 Attended George Brownell’s English School.

⚙️ Briefly indentured as a cutler.

🏊‍♂️ Invented swim fins for his hands.

👦 At age 12, started apprenticeship as a printer in his brother James’ shop.

🏡 Moved out into a boarding house.

🗞️ Brother James started publishing The New England Courant.

💌 Published his first letter under the pen name “Silence Dogood”.

🥗 Became a vegetarian.

⚖️ Took over the printing business when his brother James was jailed.

🚶‍♂️ Moved from Boston to New York, then to Philadelphia (married Deborah Read in 1730).

🏪 Returned to Boston for a printing shop (no loan), then to Philadelphia.

✈️ Traveled to London; employed by Samuel Palmer and John Watts.

📄 Published “A Dissertation on Liberty & Necessity, Pleasure and Pain”.

🔙 Returned to Philadelphia with a loan; worked various jobs and returned to printing.

🤒 Suffered his first pleurisy attack.

💬 Founded the Junto Club (active until 1765).

🖨️ Opened a printing shop with Hugh Meredith.

🗞️ Purchased the Pennsylvania Gazette from Samuel Keimer.

🖨️ Became the official government printer for Pennsylvania and bought out Meredith’s share.

💍 Entered a common-law marriage with Deborah Read (William Franklin born out of wedlock).

🔗 Joined the Freemasons.

📝 Published “Apology for Printers”.

🤝 Entered a partnership with Thomas Whitmarsh in South Carolina.

👶 First child, Francis Folger Franklin, born.

📚 Published the first edition of Poor Richard’s Almanack.

🏅 Elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Masons of Pennsylvania.

😢 Brother James died in Newport, Rhode Island.

🏛️ Appointed clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly.

💔 His son, Francis Folger, died of smallpox at age 4.

🚒 Helped organize the Union Fire Company of Philadelphia.

📬 Appointed Postmaster of Philadelphia (served until 1753).

🧼 Launched a campaign to clean Philadelphia’s docks and slaughterhouses.

🏢 Became the official printer for New Jersey.

🔥 Advertised his first model of the Pennsylvania fireplace (Franklin Stove) and declined a patent.

👶 Had a daughter, Sarah (nicknamed “Sally”).

😢 Father Josiah Franklin died at age 87.

⚡ Began electrical experiments with an electric tube from Peter Collision.

⚔️ Helped organize a volunteer militia.

🤝 Took David Hall as partner and retired from daily printing operations.

📝 Published “Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania”.

🏫 Helped organize the Academy of Philadelphia (later University of Pennsylvania).

😖 Experienced his first gout attack.

🏥 Founded Pennsylvania Hospital with Dr. Thomas Bond.

💔 Mother Abiah Folger died in Boston at 84.

⚡️ Conducted kite experiments in a thunderstorm, proving lightning is electrical.

🚑 Designed a flexible catheter for his brother.

✉️ Appointed joint Deputy Postmaster General of the Colonies.

🐍 Printed the famous “Join, or Die” cartoon.

🏛️ Attended the Albany Congress proposing common colonial defense.

✈️ Elected as a colonial agent to England.

🎓 Received an honorary degree from Oxford.

💡 Invented the glass armonica.

🗺️ Mapped postal routes in the colonies.

📉 Lost his seat in the Pennsylvania Assembly.

🇬🇧 Returned to London as a colonial agent.

🏛️ The Stamp Act passed; Charted the Gulf Stream.

🏭 Sold his printing business to David Hall.

💍 Daughter Sarah married Richard Bache.

👑 Elected president of the American Philosophical Society (served until his death).

📚 Began writing his autobiography.

⚖️ Hutchinson Affair.

💔 Deborah Read died in Philadelphia.

🗳️ Elected as Pennsylvania delegate to the Second Continental Congress.

📮 Elected Postmaster General of the Colonies.

⚔️ King George III declared rebellion.

✒️ Part of the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence.

🇫🇷 Served as a commissioner at the French Court.

🤝 Negotiated the Treaty of Alliance with France.

✍️ Signed the Treaty of Paris ending the war with Great Britain.

💡 Wrote “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light” proposing Daylight Savings Time.

👓 Described his invention of bifocals.

🏠 Returned to the United States; elected President of the Pennsylvania Executive Council.

📚 Invented an instrument for taking books down from a library shelf.

🖊️ Signed the United States Constitution.

📜 Wrote his will, leaving most of his estate to his daughter Sarah.

✊ Elected president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery.

📝 Submitted the first antislavery petition to Congress.

☠️ April 17 – Died at age 84; buried in Christ Church, Philadelphia. Cause: pleurisy.