Robert Bailey Thomas

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Robert Bailey Thomas

1766-1846

American publisher who, in 1792 during George Washington's second term as U.S. president, founded The Old Farmer's Almanac, the oldest continually published almanac of its kind. Thomas's Almanac presented farming features, astronomical information, and weather data that he calculated using a secret weather forecasting formula said to be 80% accurate. When Thomas died in 1846, he was rumored to be hard at work on his 55th edition of The Old Farmer's Almanac.