Today is the birthday of the man many have called the “Father of American copyright law,” Noah Webster. Born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1758, Webster was a political activist, a newspaper editor, a founder of Amherst College, and an early antislavery advocate.
But it was his work as a teacher and an education reformer that earned him his unique sobriquet, eventually resulting in the ratification of the U.S Constitution which included a clause granting Congress the power to enact federal copyright law.