Franklin did many many many great things .. .. here's but one:
When Franklin invented the Lightning Rod .. he opined that it was way too valuable to have a personal patent .. so he made sure that anyone could duplicate it without reprisel
nor fee paid to him (nor anyone).
95 % of the dwellings in the WORLD use Franlin's invention saving millions of lives and quintillions of dollars.
I would have said Jesus but nothing was actually written about him until 60 years after his death.
(know what I mean?)
Jesus Christ is easily the most influential historical figure of all time. There's no question about it. Look at how the world is still so greatly affected by his life 2,000 years post facto.
I would put Mohammad second, followed by Buddha and then Hammurabi.
Franklin was very influential, but he's too recent to be the most influential historical figure. On a side note, did you watch the History Channel show on Franklin last night? Is that where this is coming from?
I'll amend the question to say the greatest American historical figure:
Alexander Hamilton. One of the most active and prolific figures to ratify the fredoms of americans by fathering the US Constitution.
His great foresight has paved the way for all of us americans to enjoy such freedoms as the right to bare arms and free speach to only name a couple.
As for the world historical figure it has to be Joe Gibbs.
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[size=14][b]Letters from the procupine, they'll stick straight through you.
So read one anytime you think you've made mistakes.[/b][/size]
knapplc wrote:Jesus Christ is easily the most influential historical figure of all time. There's no question about it. Look at how the world is still so greatly affected by his life 2,000 years post facto.
I would put Mohammad second, followed by Buddha and then Hammurabi.
Franklin was very influential, but he's too recent to be the most influential historical figure. On a side note, did you watch the History Channel show on Franklin last night? Is that where this is coming from?
knapplc wrote:Jesus Christ is easily the most influential historical figure of all time. There's no question about it. Look at how the world is still so greatly affected by his life 2,000 years post facto.
I would put Mohammad second, followed by Buddha and then Hammurabi.
Franklin was very influential, but he's too recent to be the most influential historical figure. On a side note, did you watch the History Channel show on Franklin last night? Is that where this is coming from?
Yes, yes.
Thought so. That seemed like a good show but I couldn't watch most of it because my daughter was being quite loud at her dinner. Three year olds tend to hinder your TV watching quite a bit.
On a side note, I was in Paris last September and was within arm's reach of the Code of Hammurabi. It was a very, very cool moment in my life. That thing is over 3,700 years old!
knapplc wrote:On a side note, I was in Paris last September and was within arm's reach of the Code of Hammurabi. It was a very, very cool moment in my life. That thing is over 3,700 years old!
Paris is gay
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[size=14][b]Letters from the procupine, they'll stick straight through you.
So read one anytime you think you've made mistakes.[/b][/size]
By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer Tue Jan 17, 2:41 PM ET
LONDON - Benjamin Franklin, Londoner. The U.S. founding father lived in the British capital for almost two decades before the American Revolution, working to bridge the widening gap between the colonies and the crown. After decades of neglect and a $5.3 million restoration, his house was unveiled to the public Tuesday as a museum dedicated to a revolutionary who spent years trying to keep Britain and its American colonies united.
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"He wasn't very successful, but he sowed the seeds of the Anglo-American special relationship," said Marcia Balisciano, director of the Benjamin Franklin House museum.
U.S. Ambassador Robert H. Tuttle and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw cut a red, white and blue ribbon Tuesday — the 300th anniversary of Franklin's birth — to formally open the 18th-century brick home.
The house where Franklin worked, did scientific experiments and invented a musical instrument called the glass armonica will be open by appointment beginning Wednesday. Regular hours start in February.
Franklin lodged in the four-story brick building just off Trafalgar Square from 1757-1762 and from 1764-1775, acting as a diplomat on behalf of American colonists.
He shared the home at 36 Craven St. with landlady Margaret Stevenson, her daughter Polly and, for a time, Polly's husband William Hewson, a surgeon who ran an anatomy school at the house. Hundreds of human bones were found in the basement during excavations in the 1990s.
Balisciano said the house, a center of the 18th-century intellectual ferment known as the Enlightenment, was "stuffed to the brim with people." Temporary residents included Franklin's niece, his illegitimate grandson and the economist Adam Smith.
Franklin's 20th-century biographer, Carl Van Doren, noted that he was less a lodger than the head of the household, "living in serene comfort and affection."
The house — which curators call the "first de facto U.S. Embassy" — was the site of many of Franklin's scientific experiments, including the invention of bifocal glasses and the ethereal-sounding glass armonica, for which Beethoven and Mozart composed pieces.
"Each of the rooms tells a different part of Franklin's life in London," said Balisciano.
She said curators were driven by "what would have interested Franklin, who said 'I was born 200 years too soon.' "
Used as a hotel until World War II and then as offices for non-profit groups, the house was almost derelict when the British government gave it to a charitable trust in the 1970s. The trust spent eight years renovating the building, which now includes a multimedia "historical experience," an archive of Franklin's papers and a student science center.
The rooms, restored to the austere wood floors and painted paneling of their 18th-century heyday, include the parlor in which Franklin — a great fan of fresh air — sat "air bathing" naked by the open windows.
Balisciano said it was fitting that the only surviving Franklin home in the world was in Britain. Franklin — who was born in Boston and made his home in Philadelphia for most of his life — spent much of his time in London working to prevent a split that, by the time he left, he came to see as inevitable.
"He really believed that the ties that bound the two nations were stronger than what pulled them apart," Balisciano said.
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by Siouxsie » Wed Jan 18, 2006 9:41 am 
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