Things You Definitely Didn’t Know About The Founding Fathers

We all know our founding fathers are the reason we don’t live under British rule today.

As kids, we were educated on their heroic actions and all the amazing accomplishments they made. What many of us didn’t learn in school, however, were the weird, funny, and embarrassing facts surrounding these seemingly noblemen. Get ready to see five of your founding fathers in a whole new (and unflattering) light.

1. Benjamin Franklin — the man on a mission to make farts more bearable.

• Franklin wrote an essay in the late 1700s asking scholars to find ways to improve the smell of flatulence.
• Franklin was a big fan of letting it all hangout, as he regularly enjoyed being naked in his house while reading or writing.
• Franklin was all for simplifying the English language much like younger people do today. Instead of “though,” “through,” and “night,” he preferred “tho,” “thru,” and “nite.” Seriously, tho.
• Franklin was against using the bald eagle as a national symbol. He called it “a bird of bad moral character” that “does not get his living honestly.”

2. John Adams — the owner of Satan.

• One of Adams’ dogs, which lived in the White House, was named Satan.
• Adams signed the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798, essentially outlawing criticism of the government. So much for free speech, right?