1706 Born January 17, 1706 to Josiah and Abiah Folger Franklin his father’s second wife.
Benjamin was one of seventeen children and the youngest of ten sons.
1714 - 1715 Attended Boston’s South Grammar School for two years. He was an avid reader
1716 Worked in his father’s candle-making shop
1718 Began as an apprentice in his brother James’s printing shop in Boston
1722 Began writing a series of letters under the pseudonym “Silence Dogood”
1723 Ran away to Philadelphia and worked at Samuel Keimer’s printing shop
1726 Returned to Philadelphia and worked as clerk, bookkeeper and shopkeeper for Thomas Denham
1727 Formed the Junto, a club for “self-improvement, study, mutual aid, and conviviality”
1729 Purchased The Pennsylvania Gazette
1730 Joined in common-law marriage with Deborah Read. Franklin, Benjamin Franklin’s son, is born out of wedlock
1731 Established the Library Company of Philadelphia, the first lending library in America
1732 Deborah Read Franklin gave birth to a son, Francis Folger Franklin
Issued the first edition of Poor Richard’s Almanack, the most popular almanac in the colonies
1736 Four-year-old son Francis Folger Franklin died of smallpox
Helped found the Union Fire Company, which organized and trained teams of firemen
1737 Began service as postmaster of Philadelphia, continued until 1753
1743 Deborah Read Franklin gave birth to Sarah (Sally) Franklin, Franklins’ only daughter
1748 Retired from the printing business at the age of forty-two
1749 Founded the Academy and College of Philadelphia, now called University of Pennsylvania
1753 Appointed joint deputy postmaster general of North America
1754 Published in The Pennsylvania Gazette the “Join, or Die” cartoon, America’s first symbol of the united colonies
1771 Began writing his Autobiography
1774 Deborah Read Franklin died
1785 Moved back to Philadelphia after his service in France
1790 Died at the age of eighty-four on April 17, 1790