On this day 288 years ago, January 29, 1737 (December 29, 1736 lunar calendar), Paine, a propagandist and agitator during the North American War of Independence, was born. January 29, 1737, was the birthday of Thomas Paine, a famous propagandist and agitator during the North American War of Independence. He was born in Norfolk, England, to a tailor father. Due to his poor family, he only attended secondary school. In his youth, he worked as a teacher, shop clerk, tax collector, etc., and was repeatedly threatened by unemployment and hunger. Paine was concerned with politics when he was a tax collector in Lewes in 1765. In 1772, he wrote a pamphlet "The Tax Collector Affair" describing the troubles of British tax collectors. In April 1774, he was dismissed for his "anti-government" ideas. In October of the same year, Paine was brought to America as an indentured slave. He served as the editor of Pennsylvania magazine in Philadelphia. At that time, the anti-British struggle of the people in North America was surging, but the concept of monarchy was still so deeply ingrained that even famous politicians such as Washington, Franklin, and Adams during the Revolutionary War did not explicitly propose British independence. Under such circumstances, Paine published a pamphlet "Common Sense". It publicly raised the issue of American independence. The pamphlet denounced the sins of hereditary monarchs: "In the eyes of God, an ordinary honest man is more valuable than all the crowned bad guys from ancient times to the present." Paine's article became a textbook for the people during the Revolutionary War. Paine made great contributions to the American Revolutionary War, but as a stranger from humble beginnings, he was ostracized and beaten, and became unemployed. Returned to England in 1788. Soon he wrote a pamphlet extolling the French Revolution, "A Treatise on Human Rights," which called the fall of the Baths a "worldwide event." The pamphlet was banned, and Paine was forced to live in France. He participated in the French Revolution, which was far more intense and thorough than the American War of Independence. Paine's ideas could not keep up. He opposed the execution of Louis XVI. When the Jacobins were in power, Paine said: "The Republic is dead." Therefore, the Public Security Commission arrested him on charges of "conspiring against the Republic." He was released only after the intervention of the American ambassador to France, Monroe. In 1802, Paine returned to the United States and died in obscurity seven years later.