Benjamin Franklin had a lot of jobs: printer, postman, scientist, professional stormy weather kite flyer. But of all these hats, the one he wore as the United States' first diplomat might have had the most lasting impact, by securing the support that kept a nascent American republic from being strangled in its cradle.

One month after being appointed by the Continental Congress to a diplomatic commission, Franklin set sail for France 238 years ago on October 26, 1776. With him he took his 16-year-old grandson to act as secretary, and they settled in a Paris suburb. Franklin would spend the next nine years in France. There, he was an active Freemason, an advocate for the rights of non-Catholics, and a famous hit with the French women. (Diplomacy…it's a rough job.) He charmed the French with his "rustic" fur cap, and generally became the guy everyone wanted at their parties. They put his face on medallions and rings, and celebrated him as an emblem of the "enlightened" New World.

But in the middle of all this, Franklin had a job to do. He was there to secure increased French support for his countrymen back in the American colonies. France was already contributing support to the colonists under the table, but wasn't prepared to openly oppose its British rival until the Americans appeared likely to win the war. The Americans appeared to gain the upper hand after the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777, a year after Franklin's departure for France. This was the turning point the French had been waiting for, and they declared a formal alliance in February 1778. As delegates from the Continental Congress met with representatives of Louis XVI in a Paris hotel, Franklin was there to witness the solidifying of the alliance.

French support proved invaluable for the success of the American Revolution, which now had an established European power with its thumb on the scale as it took on the world's most powerful empire. When the British finally surrendered at Yorktown three years later, French forces were there to witness it. It's impossible to know how much of a role Franklin's glad-handing and charm had on the outcome, but it's clear that the infant United States couldn't have picked a better representative to send across the ocean on this date.

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