“Goodbye” Benjamin Franklin – Died 17 April 1790

Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Franklin was a leading author, printer, political  theorist, politician,  scientist, musician, inventor, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he is noted for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. He invented the lightning rod ,bifocal reading glasses, the Franklin stove, a carriage odometer, and the glass ‘armonica’

Franklin earned the title of “The First American” for his campaigning for colonial unity. He was an author and spokesman in London for several colonies and  then served as the first United States Ambassador to France.

In the words of historian Henry Steele Commager, “In a Franklin could be merged the virtues of Puritanism without its defects, the illumination of the Enlightenment without its heat.” Walter Isaacson commented on Franklin, “the most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become.”