Oct 14, 1644: William Penn was born in London. He became one of the most stubborn troublemakers in England and ended up founding Pennsylvania. His father was an admiral and a war hero who expected his son to become a gentleman at court. Instead, in his early 20s, Penn joined the Quakers, a despised religious sect that refused to swear oaths, refused to take off their hats to anyone, and held their own worship services in defiance of the law. His father threw him out of the house. Penn was jailed in the Tower of London for writing a pamphlet attacking official church doctrine. Later he was arrested for preaching in the street. At his trial the judge ordered the jury to convict him. They refused. The judge locked them up without food, water, or heat, and they still refused. When the jurors were fined and jailed for it, a higher court ruled that judges couldn't punish juries for their verdicts. It's one of the foundations of trial by jury in England and America. When his father died, King Charles II owed the family a large debt. Penn asked to be paid in land in America. In 1681 the king gave him a huge grant and named it Pennsylvania, meaning Penn's woods, after the admiral. Penn was embarrassed and tried to get the name changed. The king refused. Penn set it up as a colony with freedom of religion, where Quakers, Catholics, Jews, and others could live side by side. He laid out Philadelphia and named it the city of brotherly love, and he made treaties with the Lenape people. He also owned enslaved people himself. His colony made him famous, but not rich. A business manager cheated him out of a fortune, and in his 60s Penn spent time in debtors' prison. In 1984, the US made him an honorary citizen.