Today we pause to tip our collective hat to Benjamin Franklin—printer, philosopher, inventor, diplomat, statesman, and all-around overachiever. On what would have been his 320th birthday, it’s worth remembering that Franklin wasn’t just a name slapped on a hundred-dollar bill. He was a walking reminder of what happens when curiosity, discipline, and a refusal to sit still collide with history.

Franklin entered the world on January 17, 1706, in Boston, the fifteenth of seventeen kids, which means he learned early how to compete for oxygen and attention. He had little formal education, but that didn’t stop him. He taught himself to read, write, think, argue, and persuade. By his early twenties, he wasn’t just getting by—he was running one of the most influential printing operations in the colonies. Not bad for a guy who started with almost nothing but stubbornness and a stack of books.

What really set Franklin apart was his belief that knowledge should be useful. He didn’t invent things to show off; he invented them because people needed them. Lightning rods, bifocals, experiments with electricity—these weren’t parlor tricks. They were practical solutions meant to make everyday life safer and better. He helped start the first public library and volunteer fire department, and as Postmaster General, he created a mail system that connected the colonies long before politics ever did. Franklin understood something essential: a nation isn’t just ideas—it’s infrastructure.

Then came the revolution, and Franklin once again found himself exactly where history needed him. After watching Britain grow increasingly hostile to the colonies, he returned home and joined the Second Continental Congress. Alongside Adams and Jefferson, he helped shape the Declaration of Independence, nudging Jefferson toward language that would define the American creed: equality, liberty, and self-evident truth.

But Franklin’s most underrated battlefield wasn’t in America—it was in France. Old, tired, and half-deaf, he charmed the French court into backing a scrappy rebellion against the British Empire. Without that alliance, the war likely ends very differently. He later helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris and, in his final public acts, supported the ratification of the Constitution. Few men can claim fingerprints on every stage of America’s birth. Franklin can.

Often called the “First American,” Franklin embodied the traits that still define us: curiosity, self-reliance, humor, and a deep sense of civic duty. He proved that ideas matter, service matters, and that one determined citizen can bend history. Three centuries later, his legacy still hums through our institutions and our national character.

Happy birthday, Ben. The republic you helped build is still standing.