Today, a bunch of years ago, Benjamin Franklin self-pubbed the first Poor Richard’s Almanack (sometimes spelled Almanac), an annual publication that included information such as weather forecasts, farmers’ planting dates, tide tables, and tabular information in a particular field or fields often arranged according to the calendar, etc.

Franklin adopted the pseudonym of “Poor Richard” or “Richard Saunders” for this purpose and continued to publish from 1732 to 1758. It was a best seller for a pamphlet published in the American colonies; print runs reached 10,000 per year.