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Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, the son of Josiah Franklin and Abiah Folger Franklin.
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Franklin only attended school through age ten due to his family's financial status, but he continued on self-educated through his insatiable appetite for learning.
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After working for his father, he was apprenticed to his brother, James, a printer.
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While Benjamin was an apprentice, James founded the first independent newspaper in the US colonies, imparting in Benjamin the importance of having unrestricted access to truthful news.
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Franklin was not allowed to publish a letter he'd written to the paper, so published the letter under the pseudonym "Mrs. Silence Dogood." The letter and those that followed it were very popular with readers.
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Franklin ran away from his apprenticeship without permission and became a fugitive, fleeing to Philadelphia where he worked for several printers before taking a position in London with a printer.
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He returned to the US and to Philadelphia as the clerk and bookkeeper for an area merchant, then founded a discussion group of artisans called Junto.
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Franklin invented the first-ever subscription-based library through contributions of the Junto members, and the Library Company of Philadelphia was formed in 1731.
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The library still exists today and now holds more than 500,000 rare books and writings, more than 160,000 early manuscripts, and other important documents.
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Franklin went on to found The Pennsylvania Gazette and the first US-based German-language newspaper, Die Philadelphische Zeitung, and even after he became a world-renowned statesman and inventor, he continued to sign his name as "B. Franklin, Printer."
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Aside from Franklin's important work in printing and securing freedom of the press, he was a noted inventor whose scientific discoveries were tremendously important.
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He is known for inventing the lightning rod, the bifocals, and a flexible urinary catheter, among several other useful and life-changing inventions.
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Perhaps his greatest invention was a social innovation, the concept of paying it forward through good works for others as a means of repaying the good that was done to the individual.
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Franklin is remembered for the creation of the Poor Richard Almanac.
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