* 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 )

* 1776 – Captain John Barry and the captures the Edward.

* 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 ).

Jeremiah Markland ( October 18 ( or 29 ) 1693 – July 7, 1776 ), English classical scholar, was born at Childwall in Liverpool on the 29th ( or 18th ) of October 1693.

In 1741, he left Edinburgh for Newcastle and began to call himself surgeon, though it is doubtful whether he practised, and from the next year dates his lifelong friendship with Jeremiah Dyson ( 1722 – 1776 ).

The contract for the work was given to Jeremiah Ilsley in June 1776, and the widened cut was operational from 1 September 1777, having cost £ 975.

For example, following the American Revolution in 1776, one of the first legislative acts undertaken by each of the newly independent states was to adopt a " reception statute " that gave legal effect to the existing body of English common law to the extent that American legislation or the Constitution had not explicitly rejected English law.

Significant elements of English common law prior to 1776 still remain in effect in many jurisdictions in the United States, because they have never been rejected by American courts or legislatures.

Often called " the first modern historian ", the English scholar Edward Gibbon wrote his magnum opus, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ( 1776 – 1788 ).

John Harrison ( 24 March 1693 – 24 March 1776 ) was a self-educated English carpenter and later a clockmaker.

* 1776 – John Harrison, English clockmaker ( b. 1693 )

* 1776 – James Ferguson, English astronomer ( b. 1710 )

* Thomas Paine ( 1737 – 1809 ) English / American pamphleteer, most famous for Common Sense ( 1776 ) calling for American independence as the most rational solution

Virginia adopted this provision of the English Bill of Rights in the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776, and the Virginia convention that ratified the U. S. Constitution recommended in 1788 that this language also be included in the Constitution.

* March 31 – John Constable, English painter ( b. 1776 )

** Jane Porter, English novelist ( b. 1776 )

* September 16 – William Blackwood, English writer ( b. 1776 )

* June 4 – Benjamin Huntsman, English inventor and manufacturer ( d. 1776 )

* March 24 – John Harrison, English clockmaker ( d. 1776 )

An English abolitionist, Thomas Day, had earlier written in a 1776 letter:

Along with John Constable ( 1776 – 1837 ), Crome was one of the earliest English artists to represent identifiable species of trees, rather than generalised forms.

William Bartram visited Amelia Island in 1776 and noted the presence of several very large tumuli, or mounds, called " Ogeechee mounts " by the English.

John Constable ( 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837 ) was an English Romantic painter.

* George Smith ( artist ) ( 1713 / 1714 – 1776 ), English landscape painter

Peter Barlow ( 13 October 1776 – 1 March 1862 ) was an English mathematician and physicist.

His principal work was the treatise Dell ’ Elettricismo Naturale ed Artificiale ( 1753 ), which was translated into English in 1776.

Richard Mant ( February 12, 1776 – 1848 ) was an English churchman and writer.