(b. January 17, 1706; d. April 17, 1790) Printer and publisher, scientist and inventor, ambassador and statesman, politician.

Benjamin Franklin's impact on America's independence movement and its aftermath cannot be overstated. Franklin fled Boston, the city of his birth, at age seventeen. In Philadelphia, after many false starts, he set up a flourishing printer's shop on Market Street and married Deborah Read, retiring at age forty-two. With his son William, he conducted his famous kite experiment demonstrating the connection between lightning and electricity, which immediately garnered him international fame as a scientist. He also began his political career by winning a seat as Philadelphia's representative to the Pennsylvania legislature. He organized the colony's militia at the beginning of King George's War, presented his abortive "Plan of Union" to the Albany Conference in 1754, and spearheaded the drive for Pennsylvania to become a royal colony. The effort to throw off the proprietary...