Patriot, politician, inventor, philosopher, author, and businessman Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1706. As a young man, Franklin moved to Philadelphia, where he became a printer and newspaper editor, publishing Poor Richard's Almanac and The Pennsylvania Gazette. Franklin became a hero to colonial America because of his work to repeal the Stamp Act and other unpopular British measures in colonies, as well as his service as a diplomat during the Revolutionary War. Franklin helped negotiate and then write the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War. A signer of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, a Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress, inventor of technology such as the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, and a creator of the first public library and fire department. Franklin remains an inspirational figure to countless Americans. He died in 1790.