Joyce Chaplin's new book "The Franklin Stove" is out now. (Book cover courtesy Farrar, Straus and Giroux; author photo courtesy Saffron Sener) The winter of 1740-41 was exceptionally cold and ...

The list of his inventions included: bifocals; the medical catheter; the odometer; the Franklin stove (a wood burning stove that made home heating safer); and, of course, the lightning rod.

The list of his inventions included: bifocals; the medical catheter; the odometer; the Franklin stove (a wood burning stove that made home heating safer); and, of course, the lightning rod.

House Republicans say they're honoring the sitting president with their unprecedented bills. Historians see something darker.