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Prominent scientist, inventor, and civic activist, the United States founding father Benjamin Franklin is perhaps one of the most famous Freemasons. Alongside his duties as Grand Master of Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin formulated theories of positive and negative electrical charges and invented the lightning rod and bifocal glasses.

This two-time British Prime Minister had family history with the Masons and was a member of Studholme Mason Lodge No. 1591 in England. Initiated in 1901, he had little to do with Freemasonry outside casual social engagements and resigned from the lodge in 1912.

The man who discovered penicillin, Sir Alexander Fleming, was a Freemason. He became the master of his lodge in 1924 and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1945.

The famous Austrian composer was the son of a Freemason and wrote several Masonic musical numbers. Composer Franz Joseph Haydn belonged to the same lodge as Mozart. Other notable Johann Christian Bach was also a Freemason.

The first President of the United States, George Washington was initiated as a Freemason in 1752. He graduated to Master Mason in less than a year and performed Masonic rites when he laid the cornerstone of the Capitol in 1793. He received a Masonic funeral; even today, Masons take pilgrimages to his tomb at Mount Vernon.