Benjamin Franklin Timeline: 1741 -1790

1741	Advertises the "Franklin Stove" Published the first edition of "The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle," one of America's earliest magazines. It failed after six issues.
1742	Franklin organized and publicized a project to sponsor plant collecting trips by renowned Philadelphia botanist John Bartram.
1743	Attends Archibald Spencer's Boston lectures on natural philosophy (including electricity) Comes out with "A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge" (the founding document of the prototype of the American Philosophical Society) Daughter Sally born and baptized at Christ Church
1744	The American Philosophical Society begins meeting
1745	Death of Josiah Franklin, Benjamin's father

1746	Begins extensive electrical experiments
1747	Franklin writes "The Plain Truth," a pamphlet arguing for better military preparedness in PA. In the pamphlet is the first political cartoon published in America. Peter Collinson of London sends Franklin an electric tube. "For my own part, I never was before engaged in any study that so totally engrossed my attention and my time as this has lately done.
1748	Becomes a soldier in the PA militia after turning down a commission as a Colonel citing military inexperience.
1749	Franklin presents his vision for education in a pamphlet titled "Publick Academy of Philadelphia." His initiatives and vision would lead to the founding of the University of Pennsylvania.
1751	Letters on electricity published in London by Peter Collinson
1752	Conducts kite experiment Received Copley Medal of the royal Society of London for research in electricity. Deputy Postmaster General of N.A. Wrote a plan for a union of the colonies for security and defense.

1752	Helps found the Philadelphia Contributionship for Insuring of Houses from Loss Against Fire
1753	Received honorary degrees from Harvard and Yale. Appointed joint Deputy Postmaster General of North America.
1754	Proposes plan of colonial union at Albany Congress
1757-62	In England as agent for Pennsylvania Assembly, Massachusetts, Georgia, New Jersey
1759	Receives honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland
1762	Mapped Postal routes in the colonies. Invents glass armonica
1764-65	Charts Gulf Stream.
1766	Examined in House of Commons in support of repeal of the Stamp Act
1768	Named Colonial Agent for Georgia.
1769	Named Colonial Agent for New Jersey.
1770	Elected Colonial Agent for Massachusetts.
1771	Tours Ireland.

1771-72	Begins writing his Autobiography.
1774	Dressed down before London's Privy Council by Solicitor General Wedderburn for leaking letters in the "Hutchinson Affair." Deborah Read, his wife of 44 years, dies in Philadelphia
1775	Elected as a Pennsylvania delegate of Pennsylvania to Second Continental Congress; serves as chairman of Pennsylvania Committee of Safety Elected Postmaster General of the Colonies
1776	Presides over Constitutional Convention of PA. Serves on a committee of five who draft the Declaration of Independence. Arrives in Paris on 12/21 as one of the Commissioners of Congress to the French Court
1777	Meets Madame Brillon, an amour.
1778	Signs French Alliance
1779-81	Appointed to negotiate peace treaty with England.
1780	Madame Helvetius rejects Franklin's offer of marriage.
1783-84	Signed Peace Treaty Invented bifocals
1785-86	Elected President of Pennsylvania Executive Council Invents the "long arm," an instrument for taking down books from a shelf
1787	Signs the United States Constitution
1789	Writes anti-slavery treatise He becomes president of the Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery
1790	April 17, dies in Philadelphia at the age of 84. 20,000 mourners attend his funeral at Philadelphia's Christ Church Burial Ground.