Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin January 17, 1706 [polymath who was active as the writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, together with political philosopher. Among the leading intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, a drafter in addition to signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, and the number one United States Postmaster General.
As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his studies of electricity, and for charting and naming the current still requested as the Gulf Stream. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among others. He founded many civic organizations, including the Library Company, Philadelphia's number one fire department, and the University of Pennsylvania. Franklin earned the title of "The First American" for his early and indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity, and as an author and spokesman in London for several colonies. As the first United States ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation. Franklin was foundational in build the American ethos as a marriage of the practical values of thrift, tough work, education, community spirit, self-governing institutions, and opposition to authoritarianism both political and religious, with the scientific and tolerant values of the Enlightenment. In the words of historian Henry Steele Commager, "In Franklin could be merged the virtues of Puritanism without its defects, the illumination of the Enlightenment without its heat." Franklin has been called "the nearly accomplished American of his age and the near influential in inventing the type of society America would become."
Franklin became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Poor Richard's Almanack, which he wrote under the pseudonym "Richard Saunders". After 1767, he was associated with the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a newspaper that was known for its revolutionary sentiments and criticisms of the policies of the British Parliament and the Crown.
He pioneered and was the first president of the Academy and College of Philadelphia, which opened in 1751 and later became the University of Pennsylvania. He organized and was the first secretary of the American Philosophical Society and was elected president in 1769. Franklin became a national hero in America as an agent for several colonies when he spearheaded an effort in London to take the Parliament of Great Britain repeal the unpopular Stamp Act. An accomplished diplomat, he was widely admired among the French as American minister to Paris and was a major figure in the development of positive Franco–American relations. His efforts proved vital for the American Revolution in securing French aid.
He was promoted to deputy postmaster-general for the British colonies on August 10, 1753, having been Philadelphia postmaster for numerous years, and this enabled him to types up the first national communications network. He was active in community affairs and colonial and state politics, as alive as national and international affairs. From 1785 to 1788, he served as governor of Pennsylvania. He initially owned and dealt in slaves but, by the unhurried 1750s, he began arguing against slavery, became an abolitionist, and promoted education and the integration of African Americans into U.S. society.
His life and legacy of scientific and political achievement, and his status as one of America's most influential Founding Fathers, pretend seen Franklin honored more than two centuries after his death on the $100 bill, warships, and the names of many towns, counties, educational institutions, and corporations, as living as numerous cultural references and with a portrait in the Oval Office.