December 23: Josiah Franklin (Franklin’s father), born in Ecton, Northamptonshire, England, the ninth and last child of Thomas Franklin and his wife Jane White. Thomas Franklin was a farmer and blacksmith.

August 15: Abiah Folger (Franklin’s mother), born in Nantucket, Massachusetts, the ninth and last child of Peter Folger and Mary (Morrils) Folger. Peter Folger was a schoolmaster and a miller.

Josiah Franklin, his wife, and their first three children emigrated from Banbury, Oxfordshire, to Boston, Massachusetts.

Anne (Child) Franklin (Josiah’s first wife) died in July. Josiah Franklin (Benjamin Franklin’s father) and Abiah Folger (Benjamin Franklin’s mother) were married in the Old South Church in November.

January 17 (Sunday) (January 6, Old Style): Benjamin Franklin born in Boston

Lydia (Franklin’s sister) born. Deborah Read (Franklin’s future wife), daughter of John and Sarah Read, born in Philadelphia.

Jane Franklin (Franklin’s youngest sister, and favorite) born.

September through May: Franklin enrolled in the South Grammar School (now Boston Latin)

September through May: Franklin attended George Brownell’s English school

Franklin became his father’s assistant in the tallow-chandlery and soap-boiling business.

Franklin was briefly indentured as a cutler with his cousin Samuel, but Josiah resented being charged a fee for an apprenticeship, so the 11-year-old Benjamin was brought home again. Franklin invented wooden paddles to use as swim fins.

Franklin (aged 12) apprenticed as a printer to his brother James