1776 Events

The Burning of Norfolk was an incident that occurred during the American Revolutionary War. On January 1, 1776, by the order of John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, Royal Governor of the Colo...

Common Sense is a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine. It was first published anonymously on January 10, 1776, during the American Revolution. Common Sense was signed "Written by an Englishm...

The evening before the battle, a small scouting party approached the bridge and saw only a small encampment on the north side of the bridge. They were not aware of the much larger force h...

The Battle of Nassau (March 2 – March 3, 1776) was a naval action and amphibious assault by American forces against British-occupied Nassau in the Bahamas during the American Revolutionar...

The Battle of the Rice Boats was a battle of the American Revolutionary War that took place in the Savannah River on the border between the Province of Georgia and the Province of South C...

The Fortification of Dorchester Heights was a decisive action early in the American Revolutionary War that precipitated the end of the siege of Boston and the withdrawal of British troops...

The 11-month siege of Boston ended when the Continental Army, under the command of George Washington, fortified Dorchester Heights in early March 1776 with cannons captured at Ticonderoga...

On March 24, 1776, one week after the British troops under General William Howe evacuated Boston, General George Washington wrote a letter to the Continental Congress. General Washington...

The Battle of Saint-Pierre was a military confrontation on March 25, 1776, near the Quebec village of Saint-Pierre, south of Quebec City. This confrontation, which occurred during the Con...

Mary Anne Clarke (born Mary Anne Thompson 3 April 1776–21 June 1852) was the mistress of Frederick, Duke of York and became the Duke's mistress in 1803, while he was Commander-in-Chief of...

On April 12, 1776, North Carolina's Provincial Congress authorized its delegates to the Second Continental Congress to vote for independence. The first formal call for American sovereignt...

The Battle of the Cedars (French: Les Cèdres) was a series of military confrontations, involving limited combat, between May 19 and 27, 1776, early in the American Revolutionary War. They...

The Battle of Trois-Rivières (Three Rivers in English) was fought on June 8, 1776, during the American Revolutionary War. A British army under Quebec Governor Guy Carleton defeated an att...

Articles 1-3 address the subject of rights and the relationship between government and the governed. Article 1 states that "all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have ce...

At around 9 AM, on June 28, the British fleet fired a signal gun to advance against the fort. Less than an hour later, the nine warships arrived at the fort. The Thunder and Friendship an...

Carolina Day is the day set aside to commemorate the first decisive victory of the American Revolutionary War. On June 28, 1776, a small band of Palmetto State patriots defeated the mi...

The preparation of the first Virginia Constitution began in early 1776, in the midst of the early events of the American Revolution. Among those who drafted the 1776 Constitution were Geo...

The New York and New Jersey campaign was a series of battles in the American Revolutionary War between British forces under General Sir William Howe and an American army under General Geo...

On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence.

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve th...

At 9:00 am, Washington arrived from Manhattan. Around this time five British ships attempted to sail up the East River to cut off any possible American evacuation but the wind had shifted...

On September 15, 1776, General Howe landed at Kip's Bay. General Washington's troops were spread so thinly here that he had to retreat and again saved many troops from being captured. Mea...

The Landing at Kip's Bay was a British maneuver during the New York Campaign in the American Revolutionary War on September 15, 1776, occurring on the eastern shore of present-day Manhatt...

On the morning of September 16, Washington received word that the British were advancing. Washington, who had been expecting an attack, sent a reconnoitering party of 150 men under the co...

On September 22, 1776, American patriot Nathan Hale was hanged for spying on British troops. As he was led to the gallows, Hale's famous last words—inspired by a line from Joseph Addison'...

Carleton's fleet, commanded by Captain Thomas Pringle, which included 50 unarmed support vessels, sailed onto Lake Champlain on October 9. Moving cautiously, the British advanced up the l...

At dawn, the British began to land on the shore, an advance guard of 4,000 British and Hessian troops landing first. Inland, opposing them, was a brigade of some 750 men under the command...

The Battle of White Plains was a battle in the New York and New Jersey campaign of the American Revolutionary War fought on October 28, 1776, in the area surrounding White Plains, New York.

The island got its name from the fact that every fort located here was always informally known as "The Castle." Quickly appreciated for its strategic location for the protection of Bos...

The Battle of Fort Cumberland was an attempt by a small number of militia commanded by Jonathan Eddy to bring the American Revolutionary War to Nova Scotia in late 1776. With minimal logi...

Before dawn on November 16, the British and Hessian troops moved out. Knyphausen and his troops were ferried across the Harlem River on flatboats and landed on Manhattan. The flatboatmen ...

The Battle of Fort Lee was fought on November 19, 1776 between American and British forces. The British were led by Charles Cornwallis and 'Wilhelm von Knyphausen, while the Americans wer...

On December 5, 1776, Phi Beta Kappa, America's most prestigious undergraduate honor society, was founded at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Membership in the o...

Cornet Francis Geary (1752-1776), son of Admiral Sir Francis Geary, and a party of eight troopers of the 16th (Queen's) Light Dragoons were engaged in a scouting mission when fired upon b...

On December 25, 1776, Washington and a small army of 2,400 men crossed the Delaware River at McKonkey's Ferry, Pennsylvania on their way to attack the Hessian garrison of about 900 in Tre...

An outpost was set up by the Hessians at a cooper shop on Pennington Road about one mile north-west of Trenton. George Washington himself led the assault, riding in front of his soldiers....

Final preparation for the attack was begun on December 23. On December 24 Washington ordered that each man be provided with three days rations and that they keep their blankets handy. He ...