Josiah Franklin, the father of Benjamin Franklin, was born in 1657, the son of a blacksmith family in Northamptonshire, England. Mother Abia folger was born in a teacher's family in Boston, Massachusetts on 1667. Josiah Franklin got married for the first time in England on 1677. After having several children, her family left England on 1683 and moved to Boston to live in selling groceries. Later, his first wife died, and his second wife Abby gave birth to Benjamin Franklin in Boston.
[Editor] Early years
Benjamin Franklin is the youngest son of his father 17 children. He went to school until he was ten years old. At the age of twelve, he was an apprentice in his brother's publishing house. /kloc-when I was 0/7 years old, I went to Philadelphia. A few months later, I went to London and worked in a printing factory. Later, with the help of a businessman, he returned to Philadelphia, set up his own printing company, published newspapers and published his own articles, which gained considerable respect in the local society. Then he published a collection of proverbs, which made him very popular.
173 1 year, Benjamin Franklin and others jointly established the first public library in Philadelphia. The books in the library include theology, history, literature and science. Later, cities in North America followed suit. It has played a lot of roles in inspiring people all over North America.
1736, Benjamin Franklin set up the first volunteer fire brigade in North America.
1730, Benjamin Franklin and Deborah Reid got married in a common law marriage. Franklin and Deborah Reid were engaged at 1724, but they failed to achieve it because of the opposition of the woman's parents. Reed married someone else. Later, Deborah Reed was abandoned by her husband, whose whereabouts were unknown. According to the law at that time, Reid could not remarry freely for life. Therefore, Benjamin Franklin and Deborah Reed cannot legally marry for life.
However, Benjamin Franklin also had an illegitimate child, William Franklin, who existed before he married Reed, and his mother was unknown. Later, Deborah went to school and Benjamin Franklin raised him.
[Editor] Middle-aged people
Benjamin Franklin began to build the college in 1743, and the college was established eight years later, which was the predecessor of the University of Pennsylvania. At the same time, he began to study electricity and other scientific topics.
Illustrations in Benjamin Franklin's paper on tornadoes.
1748, Benjamin Franklin quit his printing business, but he still made considerable profits from his partners, so he had time to make various inventions and research, including his research on electricity. He found that the charge is divided into "positive" and "negative", and the quantities of the two are conserved. 1752, Franklin made a famous experiment: flying a kite in a thunderstorm, which proved that "lightning" was caused by electricity. This is a very dangerous experiment. In fact, other scientists were electrocuted while conducting similar experiments at the same time. Up to now, many people still have doubts about whether Benjamin Franklin really conducted such an experiment and how it was carried out. But there is no doubt that Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod; In order to praise Franklin's research in electricity, the Royal Society elected him as an academician in 1753.
Besides studying electricity, Benjamin Franklin also contributed to meteorology. In order to find news for his newspaper, he often goes to the farmer's market to collect news. He found that storms often appear in one place, and then there are storms in other places. He thought that the two might actually be the same storm, so he proposed that the storm would move, and finally derived the weather analysis and weather map in the future, which changed the method of relying solely on one place for forecasting.
Benjamin Franklin established a hospital in Pennsylvania on 175 1. This hospital will be the first hospital in America in the future.
Benjamin Franklin was also an outstanding government official. But he also used his power to seek promotion for his relatives and defiled his official career. His most important achievements include reforming the postal system in North America, taking up diplomatic posts, dealing with the suzerain Britain on behalf of the North American colonies, and then going to France.
1754, he led the representatives of Pennsylvania to attend the colonial congress held in Albany, new york, and put forward the plan of colonial union. Although the plan was not accepted at that time, many of its contents were later written into the US Constitution. 1757, he made a statement to the king of England on behalf of the Pennsylvania people in England, and lived for five years, during which he expounded the colonial situation and opinions to the British people and government officials. Because of his achievements in science, Oxford University awarded him an honorary doctorate during this period. It was also during this period that he participated in the election of William Franklin and appointed him as the governor of New Jersey.
[editor] old age
The portrait of Benjamin Franklin was created by david martin in 1767.
1764, Benjamin Franklin once again represented Pennsylvania, England. In London, he opposed the Indian donation bill of 1765. However, Benjamin Franklin also obtained the position of American Indian donation agent for his personal friend, which greatly damaged his integrity and public support. It is generally believed that this conflict of interest prevented Benjamin Franklin from becoming a higher elected office in the future. Even if he succeeds in repealing the bill, public support for him will not come back. But he still worked for the American colonies and made representations to Britain for the colonies before the American Revolution. This also led to the break between Benjamin Franklin and William Franklin, who was loyal to the king of England.
1767, Benjamin Franklin went to France and was warmly welcomed by the French. /kloc-0 returned to the United States from London, England in March, 775. After returning to Philadelphia, he was elected as a member of the Continental Congress to help draft the American Declaration of Independence. From 1776, Franklin was sent to France as the Commissioner representing the United States until 1785. During this period, he was very popular with all walks of life in France, and some wealthy French families even decorated galleries with his portrait. Benjamin Franklin's trip to France was very successful. He won the French-American military alliance, which is very important to the new United States, and negotiated and signed the Paris Treaty of 1783. When Benjamin Franklin returned to the United States in 1785, his contribution to American independence was second only to Washington.
Benjamin Franklin was also a pioneer in opposing slavery. Shortly after his return from France, he became the chairman of an organization that opposed slavery and sought to release blacks who were illegally imprisoned.
1787, retired Benjamin Franklin attended the meeting to amend the American Constitution, becoming the only founder who signed the three most important American bills at the same time. These three documents are: Declaration of Independence, Paris Treaty 1783, and American Constitution 1787. In this year, Franklin donated money to establish Franklin Marshall University named after him.
What few people know is that although Benjamin Franklin was a famous father of the United States, before the American revolution, he was mainly a diplomat and once strongly opposed the revolution. Only when Britain could not maintain its rule in the American colonies did it become an enthusiastic supporter of the independence movement. Until 1780, he still thought that he was willing to allow Britain to maintain its sovereignty over America in exchange for a high degree of colonial autonomy.
Franklin died on April 1790 and was buried with his wife in the cemetery of Philadelphia Christian Church.
Since 1928, the portrait of Benjamin Franklin has been printed on every hundred-dollar bill. The importance of the dollar as the world's major currency has led to the appearance of Benjamin Franklin, which is widely known by many people all over the world.
Benjamin Franklin is a vegetarian in most cases, but sometimes he still eats a few fish products, so he can't be considered a vegan. His reasons for being a vegetarian are: first, he opposes using animals as food raw materials; Secondly, he wants to save money to buy books, because vegetables were cheaper than fish at that time. Franklin was a great inventor. He has many works, such as lightning rod, glass harmonica (a glass instrument, not to be confused with metal harmonica), Franklin stove (a new type of stove), bifocal glasses and urinary catheter. Franklin never applied for his invention patent. In his autobiography, he wrote ... because we enjoy great advantages from other people's inventions, we should be glad to have the opportunity to serve others. At this point, we should be free and generous. His inventions also include social innovations, such as paying in advance. Franklin's charm and innovation can be said to be selfless. He said that his scientific inventions should be used to improve efficiency and human progress. For example, his invention of the printing press accelerated the spread of news services.