Franklin Fund is established.

A bequest made in a codicil in Benjamin Franklin’s will dated June 23, 1789, it calls for £1,000 each to go to the cities of Philadelphia and Boston to be lent to “such young married artificers” as have “served an apprenticeship in the said town.” Some of the money may be used 100 years after his death. The remainder is to be used after 200 years, by which time, Franklin calculated each bequest should total £4,061,000 and may be used at the discretion of the towns and their states “not presuming to carry my views further.” (The fund for Boston is valued at almost $5 million in 1990.)