Benjamin Franklin died on April 17, 1790, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America. Born an Englishman, died an American!

Benjamin Franklin's father wanted Ben to be the son who became a preacher and so he sent him to grammar school when he was 8 years old. After less than a year, for financial reasons, Ben transferred to Mr. George Brownell's school for writing and arithmetic. He stayed at the new school until he was ten, doing well in writing and badly in arithmetic. He then left school to work with his father in their candle shop.

Benjamin Franklin married Deborah Read Rogers in 1730. She died in 1774. While Ben operated his printing shop, Deborah ran a general store in the same building.

Benjamin Franklin had two sons: William who remained loyal to the British crown and became Royal Governor of New Jersey, and Francis Folger who died from smallpox at the age of four. His daughter, Sarah, was known as Sally.

Benjamin Franklin had eight grandchildren: William Temple, who was the son of William Franklin, and the seven children of Sally (Franklin) Bache, named: Benjamin, William, Betsy, Louis, Deborah, Richard, and Sarah.

Ben's son William apparently owned a Newfoundland dog, name unknown. There are two references in the Papers of Benjamin Franklin to William's dog. The first appears in a footnote on page 435 of Volume 26. Someone writing to Franklin adds the comment that "nothing shall tempt me to forget your newfoundland Dog." The second reference, three years later and to the same dog, is on page 179 of Volume 36.

Ben decided to become a vegetarian when he was 16 years old. He prepared his own meals, and mentions eating boiled potatoes, rice, hasty pudding, bread, raisins, and water. Quickly finishing his simple meals gave Ben more time for reading.

There are a couple of versions of a religious creed that appears both in Ben's autobiography and, later in his life, in a letter to Ezra Stiles. Below are the words from his autobiography: [I believe] That there is one God, who made all things. And that God will certainly reward virtue and punish vice, either here or hereafter. On June 28, 1787, Franklin made a formal motion for prayers at the Constitutional Convention.

From Franklin...He's Electric!: Franklin was one of the first to discover that storms tend to move from west to east, and he made some of the first-recorded weather forecasts in his Poor Richard's Almanack. He also charted the Gulf Stream in detail and developed Daylight Savings Time.

Ben's inventions include: bifocals, lightning rod, Glass Armonica, library chair, swim fins, the long reach device, Franklin Stove, catheter, and Daylight Savings Time. Swim Fins: An avid swimmer, Franklin developed early swim fins. As a boy, he had fashioned two wooden palettes, oval in shape and with a hole through which to put one's thumb. With one on each hand, he paddled through water, observing that they helped him to swim faster.

Ben's observations include: vaccination, common cold, fresh air baths, colored cloth, volcanoes, weather, Franklin Bells, and air mail via balloon. Flight: After observing the world's first-known hot air balloon flight in France, Ben correctly predicted that balloons would be used for military, recreational, and scientific purposes.

On November 29, 1986, while performing "An Evening With Cary Grant" in Davenport, Iowa, Cary complained about not feeling well. He was taken to the hospital where he died of a stroke a short time later. Cary was not buried. He was cremated and his ashes were given to his daughter, Jennifer, and his wife, Barbara. I do not know for certain what Jennifer and Barbara did with his ashes, but I have heard that they were scattered in the hills around his Beverly Grove house.

Yes, because she thought that the sufferings of the soldiers in the Crimean War had led to improvements in Britain that she had helped to bring about. Yes, almost certainly. A young man spent nine years before the war proposing marriage to her but she rejected him to do God’s work instead. No, probably not a practising one. She seems to have had passionate friendships with women in her adolescence and again late in life. But for most of her life she was happier in the company of men.

From his school days on, Benjamin Franklin wanted to be a sailor. His father did not want this because an older son, Josiah, had gone to sea and never returned. Reading was Ben's favorite pastime so his father made the connection to the trade of printing and sent Ben to learn in his brother's printing shop. Ben continued this learning in Philadelphia and England eventually set up his own printing business in Philadelphia. Benjamin Franklin was not a Quaker.

Benjamin Franklin had five older sisters: Elizabeth, Hannah, Anne, Mary, and Sarah. He had two younger sisters: Lydia and Jane. Ben also had five older brothers: Samuel, Josiah, John, Peter, and James.

Pages 90 - 91 of Carl Van Doren's book, Benjamin Franklin offers the following comments on Franklin's physical appearance: No certain early likeness of him survives, but what he outwardly was when he returned to Philadelphia may be imagined backwards from later portraits and various chance notes on his personal appearance. Strongly built, rounded like a swimmer or a wrestler, not angular like a runner, he was five feet nine or ten inches tall, with a large head and square, deft hands.

Ben was a negotiator of treaties with Prussia and other countries. For England, negotiator of the Treaty of Peace with Great Britain. Ben did not patent inventions, and he retired from business at 41 or 42. He said in his autobiography: "Having emerged from the poverty and obscurity in which I was born and bred, to a state of affluence .." (www.ushistory.org/franklin/autobiography/page01.htm)

From www.fi.edu/franklin/printer/printer.html: Ben opened his own printing office in Philadelphia. His most famous publications were a newspaper called The Pennsylvania Gazette and his annual Poor Richard's Almanack. He had many new ideas for publishing and he is known for printing cartoons, illustrated news stories, and letters to the editor. He believed in the power of the press, using his printing press as a way to bring the news to all people.

Ben established: street lighting, paving, post office, fire company, insurance, and the Library Company. From www.fi.edu/franklin/statsman/statsman.html: Ben served as Postmaster, helping to set up the postal system in Philadelphia. In order to make Philadelphia a safer city, he started the Union Fire Company in 1736. A few years later, in 1752, he set up America's first fire insurance company. He even organized a Night Watch and Militia to help keep peace and safety in Philadelphia.

The University of Pennsylvania, American Philosophical Society, Pennsylvania Hospital, Franklin and Marshall College.