Benjamin Franklin was a polymath who was a diplomat, inventor, printer, freemason, and politician. He helped draft the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and he also negotiated the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War. Among his other scientific interests were investigations into mapmaking and electricity. He was a renowned writer whose work included the Poor Richard’s Almanack and the creation of bifocal glasses.

On January 17, 1706, Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His father, Josiah, was an English candlemaker and soap maker. He had seven children with Anne Child, and ten more with Abiah Folger, his second wife.

He had 15 children, including Benjamin Franklin, his youngest son. At a young age, he began learning to read, though he stopped going to the Boston Latin School because he was working full-time at his father's candle shop.

He was 12 years old when Josiah apprenticed him at the print shop operated by his brother, James. Although James often beat his brother, Benjamin learned a lot about publishing through the printer's guidance. He also adopted a similar style of politics.

In 1724, Franklin left his home in Pennsylvania to purchase supplies in London, where he was urged by Governor William Keith to establish a print shop. However, he was disappointed when his letters from Keith didn’t arrive. He was forced to find work in the city's print shops, and he enjoyed the city's many pleasures.

Self-taught swimmer Franklin performed various long-distance swims, such as those on the Thames River. In 1968, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of International Swimming. In 1725, he published his first book, which argued that humans are incapable of free will and that their actions are not morally responsible.

After he repudiated this notion, Franklin destroyed all but one copy of his pamphlet.

When he moved to Philadelphia in 1723, he stayed at the home of the Read family, where he met Deborah, the daughter of his landlord, John. After he returned in 1726, Franklin learned that Deborah had already married, but her husband left shortly after the wedding. The future founding father then took her as his wife in 1730.

During this period, Franklin had a son, William, who was not married to the couple. His first child, Francis, died in 1732, and four years later, he succumbed to smallpox. The couple's only child, Sarah, was born in 1743. Franklin twice moved to London, but Deborah did not leave Philadelphia.

The last time they saw each other was during Franklin's second stay with Deborah. He never returned home before she died in 1774. In 1762, his son, William, became the governor of New Jersey. This position was arranged through his father's political connections.

His support for the patriot cause caused him to have a conflict with his son, William. When the militia of New Jersey removed William Franklin from his position as the royal governor in 1776, his father did not intervene.

In March 1765, the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act, which imposed a heavy tax on all printed materials in the colonies. Some colonists thought that Benjamin Franklin supported the new tax because he had purchased stamps from a friend in Pennsylvania and nominated him as the distributor. In Philadelphia, rioters threatened his house. Franklin's passionate opposition to the tax contributed to its repeal in 1766.

Franklin was elected as a delegate to the second congress of the colonies in 1775. He then became the colony's postmaster general. He was also a commissioner to Canada in 1776. He was one of the five individuals who helped draft the Declaration on Independence.