Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on January 17th, 1706 and died on April 17th, 1790 where more than 24,000 people attended his funeral. Franklin was the tenth child of seventeen. He began writing for the Boston newspaper when he was just 15 years old. Benjamin Franklin was elected to the second continental congress and worked on a committee of five that would help draft the declaration of independence. Much of the contributions were Franklin’s.