This Day in History...

June 15 - Tonight in 1750, during a fierce summer storm, Benjamin Franklin reportedly flew his famous kite and successfully extracted sparks from a cloud. Consequently he deduced that lightning was electrical in nature. He went on to invent the lightning rod. “Would not these pointed Rods probably draw the Electrical Fire silently out of a Cloud before it came nigh enough to strike,” he theorized, “and thereby secure us from that most sudden and terrible Mischief!” In the end he did exactly that, and planted rods by the University of Pennsylvania and Independence Hall.

Franklin’s electrical experiments are probably the first thing any child learns about him in school, but of course he was so much more than just a kite enthusiast. His unending curiosity about the world around him, and relentless drive to hypothesize, experiment, and discover are all trademarks of an independent mind. He lived life wishing to see things how they were, not how others insisted they were. It is no surprise that he concluded monarchy was an inferior system to republicanism, and so became one of the most brilliant minds campaigning for American independence.

His fame and charisma attracted international attention to the cause, and it was Franklin that eventually persuaded the French to provide financial and military assistance to the Continental Army. A decade later, he was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. In fact, he is the only Founding Father to have signed the Declaration of Independence, the treaty of alliance with France, the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolution, and the Constitution. He was gifted not only with intellect, but the energy to always be at the center of events. Celebrate his place in our history by picking up this free sticker with your purchase.

WARNING: Paypal does not acknowledge our Free Sticker discount and will charge the full amount. We apologize for the inconvenience, and recommend you use a credit card instead. There is no need to enter any codes; the sticker will automatically ring up as free once you've completed checkout.