* 1776 – American Revolutionary War: Ships of the Continental Navy fail in their attempt to capture a Royal Navy dispatch boat.

* 1776 – American Revolution: With the Halifax Resolves, the North Carolina Provincial Congress authorizes its Congressional delegation to vote for independence from Britain.

* 1776 – The Battle of Long Island: in what is now Brooklyn, New York, British forces under General William Howe defeat Americans under General George Washington.

* 1776 – Amedeo Avogadro, Italian chemist ( d. 1856 )

* 1717 – Louis François, Prince of Conti ( d. 1776 )

* 1776 – The signing of the United States Declaration of Independence took place.

* 1734 – Duchess Maria Anna Josepha of Bavaria ( d. 1776 )

* 1776 – Thomas Bladen Capel English navy admiral ( d. 1853 )

* 1776 – American Revolutionary War: American forces are surprised in the Battle of Bound Brook, New Jersey.

In the years between 1776 – 78, Volta studied the chemistry of gases.

Maria's sister, Elizabeth Branwell ( 1776 – 1842 ), moved to the parsonage, initially to nurse her dying sister, but she spent the rest of her life there raising the children.

* 1776 – American Revolutionary War: word of the United States Declaration of Independence reaches London.

* Ioannis Kapodistrias, the first leader of free modern Greece ( 1776 – 1831 ), had a large building erected ; intended as a barracks, it was subsequently used as a museum, a library and a school.

* 1710 – James Ferguson, Scottish astronomer ( d. 1776 )

* 1776 – Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh ( d. 1857 )

* Benjamin Franklin: First American Diplomat, 1776 – 1785 US State Department

* 1776 – Marquis de Lafayette arranges to enter the American military as a major general.

* 1776 – Johann Wilhelm Ritter, German physicist ( d. 1810 )

* 1776 – At The College of William and Mary, Phi Beta Kappa is founded and becomes the first American college fraternity.

* 1776 – American Revolutionary War: The British are defeated in the Battle of Trenton.

* 1776 – Nikolay Kamensky, Russian general ( d. 1811 )

His first wife, Juliet Macpherson ( c. 1776 – 1850 ), was a daughter of James Macpherson ( 1736 – 1796 ), a probable translator of Ossian poems.

Edvard Munch was related to painter Jacob Munch ( 1776 – 1839 ) and historian Peter Andreas Munch ( 1810 – 1863 ).

* 1776 – Captain James Cook begins his third voyage.

In the past, a number of expeditions briefly visited the islands, including that of Captain James Cook in 1776.

The spacecraft takes its name from four British ships of exploration named Discovery, primarily HMS Discovery, one of the ships commanded by Captain James Cook during his third and final major voyage from 1776 to 1779.

In 1776, Bligh was selected by Captain James Cook for the position of sailing master on the Resolution and accompanied Cook in July 1776 on Cook's third and fatal voyage to the Pacific.

Captain ( OF-2 ) | Captain Fernando Rivera y Moncada violated ecclesiastical Right of asylum | asylum at Mission San Diego de Alcalá on March 26, 1776 when he forcibly removed a ' neophyte ' in direct defiance of the padres.

On June 21, 1775, Marion was commissioned Captain in the 2nd South Carolina Regiment under William Moultrie, with whom he served in June 1776 in the defense of Fort Sullivan ( today known as Fort Moultrie ), in Charleston harbor.

In 1776, he was commissioned as a Captain of the 5th Company of the Maryland 1st Regiment.

The Randall burial plot near the William Floyd Parkway includes the grave of LT Stephen Randall ( 1736 – 1818 ), patriot of the American Revolution and a Suffolk County Militia veteran of the Battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776 as part of a company of Suffolk County Minutemen commanded by Captain Daniel Mulford, his wife Elizabeth Swezey ( 1747 – 1834 ) and several descendants.

Near the tree, at the right, tradition says the Tory Captain Richard Miller fell from his horse in 1776.

Captain Cook's surveying crew in 1776 to 1779 landed on a beach which is now above sea level due to volcanic uplifting.

Washington was elected a Captain of Stafford County Minutemen on September 12, 1775, and became part of the 3rd Virginia Regiment, Continental Line on February 25, 1776, commanding its 7th Company.

Its common name comes from the archipelago of its discovery, the Kerguelens, and its generic name derives from Sir John Pringle, President of the Royal Society at the time of its discovery by Captain James Cook's Surgeon, William Anderson in 1776.

Very little information is available regarding the flags carried by early American Marines, although indications are that the Grand Union Flag was carried ashore by the battalion led by Captain Samuel Nicholas on New Providence Island, 3 March 1776.

The relief of Quebec by British Captain Charles Douglas in May 1776 forced the Continental Army to retreat.

He is known for his performance as Dustin Hoffman's father in The Graduate ( 1967 ), as Howard in Two for the Road, as John Adams in 1776, as Carter Nash in Captain Nice, as Mr. George Feeny in ABC's Boy Meets World, as the voice of KITT in Knight Rider, and as Dr. Mark Craig in St.

* William Anderson ( naturalist ) ( 1750 – 1778 ), naturalist on Captain Cook's third voyage ( 1776 – 1780 ), died aboard the Resolution

He afterwards was in the Blonde, which, under the command of Captain Philemon Pownoll, took General John Burgoyne to America in the spring of 1776.

In June 1776, Ledyard joined Captain James Cook's third and final voyage as a British marine.

Father Pedro Font, while on the de Anza Expedition to found the Presidio of San Francisco in March, 1776 wrote in his diary, " we saw a grove of live oaks near which is the Laguna de la Merced, where Captain Ribera stopped ; and here we saw many bears ( California Grizzly Bear )..." Once owned by Francisco De Haro, first Alcalde of Yerba Buena, as part of the Galindo ranch, the Spring Valley Water Company bought the water rights for the Lake in 1868, and the surrounding watershed in successive years.

In 1776, he was the Captain of the Defence ( ship )

She was acquired in 1775, and accompanied HMS Resolution on Captain James Cook's third voyage of exploration from 1776 to 1780.

Franklin was attacked during the night of May 19, 1776 in the company of Lady Washington ( a small privateer schooner with a crew of 7 commanded by Joseph Cunningham ) by British boarders claiming to be friends from Boston ; Captain Mugford was killed in action.