Although the Julian calendar was still used by Britain and its colonies at the time, Benjamin Franklin was born and baptized on Sunday, Jan. 17, 1706 (the Georgian calendar of today). He was the last son of Josiah and Abiah Franklin, born in Boston, Mass.

Today, known as a “polymath” or a “Renaissance Man” in modern vernacular, Franklin was born to a long line of “jack of all trades.” The surname “Franklin” itself is a derision of “Freeman,” according to Walter Isaacson’s extraordinary and definitive 493-page biography of the statesman.

Benjamin’s grandfather Thomas Franklin was born in Econ, Northamptonshire, England in 1598. He was a Puritan, blacksmith and farmer, who hid a banned English Bible on the underbelly of a stool to throw off Queen Mary I’s troops who were burning Protestants at the stake in an attempt to restore Roman Catholism to Britain from 1553–1558.

Thomas married Jane White and they had several children, including Benjamin’s father, Josiah Franklin. Josiah Franklin, 19, met and married Anne Child and quickly had three children. When he was 25, the family took the nine-month trek and emigrated to America.

Throughout time, the migration to America was described for many as freedom of religion. But for the Franklins and others, the long trek was also for a better financial life. Men were legally bound to long apprenticeships to learn a trade. Josiah originally trained to be a fabric dyer. No such measure was required in the New World, plus wages were better (two-to-three times higher) and the cost of living was less expensive.

Discovering a new trade, Josiah became a tallow chandler who used animal fat to make candles and soaps. They rented a home on what is now Washington Street in Boston. He became a “tithingman,” a “moral marshal” who enforced Church attendance and Sabbath breakers. He later became a constable.

Josiah and Anne would have more children, but sadly, the mortality rate for newborns in the late 1600s was dismal (one quarter of all Boston newborns died within a week, wrote Isaacson). In addition, Anne died on July 9, 1689, at the age of 34 after giving birth to her seventh child, a son who also died about a week later.

It was not uncommon in the 17th century to get remarried quickly after a spouse’s death, and Josiah married Abiah Folger on Nov. 25, 1689, in the Old South Meeting House. The would have 10 children together.

When Benjamin, Josiah’s 10th son, was born, Boston was a burgeoning community, and not the Puritan outpost where immigrants rushed to start new lives. Benjamin’s mother Abiah was the daughter of a rebellious schoolteacher named Peter Folger, who advocated and taught English to Native Indians.

Even from a young age, Benjamin Franklin was considered “a leader among the boys.” One day, he and others stole stones designated for the building of a home and built their own wharf along the Charles River. They were caught and reprimanded. In that river, he would swim with homemade paddles on his hands and feet to go faster. It was also along those shores he first learned to fly a kite.

When Benjamin was 6, the family moved to a larger home and Abiah, then 45, had the family’s last child, Jane. She would become Benjamin’s favorite sibling and the two shared a lifelong friendship.

Benjamin also spent a lot of time with his recently immigrated uncle, who history would later dub “Benjamin the Elder” to differentiate between the two men.

Franklin’s father wanted Benjamin to study at Harvard and work in the ministry, but only afforded a few years of proper learning, including some time at Boston Latin School. Finances were blamed, but Benjamin would question that decision years later. There’s also a theory that Josiah thought his son simply wouldn’t take the clergy seriously. Franklin’s proper education ended when he was just 10. That didn’t stop him from being a voracious reader and lifelong learner.

He worked with his father for a time, and then in 1718, Benjamin became an apprentice to his brother James, 21, a printer who would become a famed newspaper publisher.

James Franklin founded The New-England Courant, which was Boston’s third-ever newspaper when Benjamin was 15. When James scuttled Benjamin’s interest in writing a letter for publication, the younger Franklin manufactured “Silence Dogood” a middle-aged woman. Her letters, described as “a triumph of imagination,” were published and became popular. “Dogood” started to receive marriage proposals.

James Franklin was jailed for three weeks in 1722 for publishing unflattering material about the Governor and Benjamin published “Silence Dogood” letters quoting Cato’s Letters, “Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.”

In 1723, Franklin dated and proposed to Deborah Read, a 15-year-old girl who lived in the home where Benjamin rented a room as a boarder. Her family didn’t approve of the young and struggling Franklin and the romance stopped.

Sources say Benjamin’s apprenticeship with James was abusive, so the 17-year-old became a fugitive by leaving without his brother’s permission. James was not pleased. Benjamin arrived in Philadelphia on Oct. 6, 1723. He found the city to be much more accommodating to a young printer. Meanwhile, James had sabotaged any attempt for him to land a similar job in Boston. The two would reconcile in 1735.

After a short time in Philadelphia, then-Pennsylvania Gov. Sir William Keith encouraged Benjamin to go to London to get supplies to start another newspaper. Nothing ever came of that mission, and he stayed there until 1726.

In 1728, he returned to the Philadelphia newspaper industry with the Pennsylvania Gazette. Business flourished as he sponsored two dozen printers in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, New York, Connecticut, and even the Caribbean. By 1753, eight of the fifteen English language newspapers in the colonies were published by Franklin or his partners.

On Feb. 22, 1730, Benjamin Franklin had an illegitimate son, William. Despite rumors of an indentured servant or friend from a bar, the woman has never been identified. As an adult, William would become a loyalist to the British king, be the last colonial governor of New Jersey and have a falling out with his father over the Revolutionary War.

While Franklin was away and correspondence between the two stopped, Deborah Read married another man, who promptly fled with her dowry to avoid debts and prosecution. And since his fate was never discovered, Read couldn’t legally be declared a widow. She and Franklin began dating again and entered a common-law marriage on Sept. 1, 1730. William would be added to the family, and he would call Deborah his mother. Some suspected that Read was William’s mother; however, nothing was ever proven.

Benjamin and Deborah would have two children: Francis Folger Franklin, who died of smallpox at 4 (his death has been described as driving a wedge between the couple), and Sarah “Sally” Franklin, who would become a leader in relief work during the American Revolutionary War, also was an important leader for women in the pro-independence effort in Philadelphia.

In 1731, Franklin and other like-minded individuals created the Library Company of Philadelphia, a subscription library that would later become linked with Temple University.

In 1732, Franklin, under the pen name Richard Saunders, began to publish the noted Poor Richard’s Almanack. Reportedly, the pseudonym didn’t fool anyone; however, “Richard Saunders” never let on.

Around this time, Franklin became a Master Mason and a Grand Master in 1734. He was subpoenaed to court as a witness in a hazing initiation gone wrong that ended with someone else being charged with manslaughter.

Franklin would take long business trips to England and Deborah, who was frightened by the prospect of long, overseas trips, never joined.

In 1736, Franklin created one of the first volunteer firefighting companies in the country called the Union Fire Company. Thus, Benjamin Franklin’s Bucket Brigade was born. A longtime proponent of paper money, he printed a new currency for New Jersey based on innovative anti-counterfeiting techniques he had devised.

Around this same time, he started his political career, serving as the chief clerk of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly. He served in that capacity until 1751.

Franklin became a councilman in 1748 and became a justice of the peace in 1749 and two years later was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly.

As a lawmaker, Franklin and prominent colonial American physician Thomas Bond obtained a charter from the Pennsylvania legislature to establish the Pennsylvania Hospital, a first for the colonies.

In June 1752, Franklin and his kite-and-key experiment invented the lightning rod that would be used to protect buildings from strikes. Franklin nearly died twice conducting experiments: once when he tried to use electric shock to cure a man of paralysis and another when he attempted to kill a turkey with electricity.

Also in 1752, Franklin organized the Philadelphia Contributionship, the colonies’ first homeowner’s insurance company, and he developed college-level curriculum. In 1753, Harvard and Yale Universities awarded Franklin honorary Master of Arts degrees.

Franklin’s interest in science never waned. In 1756, Franklin became a member of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce. An amateur musician, he played the harp, guitar, violin, and viola da gamba. He also perfected the glass harmonica. He spoke five languages including English, French, Latin, Italian and Spanish.

He was a corresponding member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, and the University of St. Andrews awarded him an honorary doctorate in recognition of his accomplishments. Among other honors, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Oxford University in 1762. Afterward, he was often referred to as “Dr. Franklin.”

Over the next two decades, Franklin would travel overseas on political and official business, was accused of being a British spy, and was involved in treaty negotiations with Native Indians, as well as heirs of the Penn family, the “proprietors of the colony.”

Deborah Read Franklin had a stroke and died on Dec. 19, 1774, at age 66. She had started to have a series of strokes, beginning in 1768. The two had corresponded via letters, but the Franklins did not live together for 17 years, and he would not see his wife for 10 years.

When Franklin returned to Philadelphia on May 5, 1775, the American Revolution had begun. The Pennsylvania Assembly quickly and unanimously chose Franklin as their delegate to the Second Continental Congress.

In June 1776 and temporarily disabled due to gout, he was appointed to “The Committee of Five” that drafted the Declaration of Independence and made important additions to the document. He also served as the ambassador to France.

Franklin was the only Founding Father to sign the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the peace treaty with Great Britain in 1783 and the United States Constitution.

When he returned to Philadelphia, Franklin served as president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania — the equivalent of governor — from Oct. 18, 1785, to Nov. 5, 1788. It is a common misconception that Franklin was the leader of the Free World. To some, he is considered second only to George Washington as the champion of American Independence.

Franklin, who was obese for much of his adult life, died from pleuritic attack at his home in Philadelphia on April 17, 1790, at age 84. He was buried next to Deborah at Christ Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia. His influence could not be understated. When Franklin died, more than 20,000 people attended his funeral.

Over an 18-year period, Franklin penned his autobiography or “memoirs.” He wrote it in four parts, the first chapter addressed to his estranged son William, and covers his life only up to 1757. It was first printed after his death and in a French translation in 1791, and a complete English edition combining all four parts wasn’t published until 1868. It is widely considered one of the most famous and influential examples of an autobiography ever written.