Benjamin Franklin Facts

Benjamin Franklin was many things including an entrepreneur and an inventor, and although he is mostly known as a man who was instrumental in creating the U.S. government as we know it today, he was also a hero of the American Revolution. Many people know he was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, and that he help draft and that he signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. What many do not know is that his success in obtaining aid from the French helped the U.S. win the Revolutionary War. 


Ben Franklin’s famous quote, “We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”

Benjamin Franklin Early Life

• Born on January 17, 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin was the 15th child and last son born to his father, Josiah Franklin.
• At the age of 10, he was removed from the school he attended, Boston Latin School, to learn his father's candle-making business. The rest of his education was self-taught.
• When it was clear that Ben Franklin was not cut out for candle-making, his father sent him to work with his older brother, James, to learn the print business at The New England Currant.
• Franklin's lifelong passion for reading and writing emerged during the time he worked at his brother's newspaper. At the age of 16, he secretly published controversial letters under the name of Silence Dogwood; they were a hit with readers.
• Ben Franklin owned his own printing company where he published the Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper at just twenty-two years old.

Benjamin Franklin Revolutionary War Facts

• Benjamin Franklin spent about 10 years living and working in Paris, France, where he was well respected for both his intellect and his political standing.
• In 1778, Ben Franklin and two other American's became American diplomats in France. Franklin met with many French diplomats, policy makers and even King Louis XVI who were all impressed with his thoughts, talents and writings.
• Because of Benjamin Franklin's extreme popularity in France during his ten years there, the country that said they were officially neutral, took great measures to help the United States during the Revolutionary War.
• During the Revolutionary War, France agreed to lend the United States millions of dollars in aid, allowed U.S. warships in its harbors and even let volunteers enlist to fight against the British. This was in large part due to the influence of Benjamin Franklin.
• Franklin was one of five members of the Continental Congress to be put in charge of negotiating a treaty between the U.S. and Great Britain. The 1783 Treaty of Paris was the result of their negotiations which officially ended the Revolutionary War.

Benjamin Franklin List of Interesting Facts

• The concept of borrowing books from a library was first introduced by Benjamin Franklin who is responsible for establishing the first library of this kind in the U.S., called the Library Company of Philadelphia, in 1731.
• Benjamin Franklin's face appeared on the very first U.S. stamp.
• In addition to his long list of talents and accomplishments, he is also credited with organizing the United States first volunteer fire department, called the Union Fire Company in 1736. He was himself, a volunteer fire-fighter.
• In 1914 the first United States $100 bills featuring Benjamin Franklin's face were printed.
• The extent of Benjamin Franklin's successes was broad and impressive. He experimented with electricity, mathematics and science. He worked as shopkeeper, bookkeeper and currency printer among other things. He is also credited with several inventions including the Franklin stove, glass harmonica and swim fins.
• The first pamphlet Franklin ever published was titled, "A Dissertation upon Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain".
• Benjamin Franklin died at his daughter's home on April 17, 1790, in Philadelphia, PA. His funeral drew an estimated crowd of 20,000 mourners.