Happy 307th Birthday, Benjamin Franklin! Founding Father's date of birth in 1706

from "Writer's Almanac" (American Public Media, Garrison Keillor):

January 17th is the birthday of Benjamin Franklin, born in Boston, Massachusetts (1706). He was a printer, a scientist, an inventor, a writer, the founder of America's first lending library, and one of the Founding Fathers of America itself. He recalled in his Autobiography (1794) that writing well became "of great Use to me in the Course of my Life, and was a principal Means of my Advancement."
He was fond of writing adages and aphorisms:
"Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead."
"How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, his precepts! O! 'tis easier to keep Holidays than Commandments."
"Beware of the young doctor and the old barber."
"He that lives upon hope will die fasting."
"Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."