Franklin's Birthday

Franklin's (Benjamin) Birthday

January 17

This holiday is a commemoration of the birth of Benjamin Franklin—printer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, writer, editor, wit, and aphorist. Born in Boston on this day in 1706, Franklin helped edit, and was a signer of, the Declaration of Independence. He also helped to frame the Constitution. The commonsense moralities of his Poor Richard's Almanac became catch-phrases in his time and are still quoted today—for example, "Make haste slowly"; "Fish and visitors smell in three days"; "He that goes a-borrowing, goes a-sorrowing."
Franklin invented bifocals, proposed Daylight Saving Time in 1786, and unsuccessfully recommended the wild turkey rather than the bald eagle as the national bird. When he died in 1790 in Philadelphia, he was given the most impressive funeral that city had ever seen: 20,000 people attended.
Since 1991, the Bower Award and Prize in Science—a cash prize of more than $300,000—has been presented on Jan. 17 by the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia to a person who has made a scientific contribution of a practical nature in the manner of Franklin. Also in Philadelphia, the Franklin Institute Science Museum holds a two-day "birthday bash" that often involves people dressing as Franklin. The celebration takes place on the weekend preceding Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, which is the Monday after Jan. 15.

CONTACTS:
Franklin Institute Science Museum
222 N. 20th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19103
215-448-1200
sln.fi.edu
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave. S.E.
Washington, DC 20540
202-707-5000; fax: 202-707-8366
www.loc.gov

SOURCES:
AmerBkDays-2000, p. 65
AnnivHol-2000, p. 10
DictDays-1988, p. 44
(c)

Celebration day: Jan 17