* 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 – 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 ).

* Johann Wilhelm Ritter, chemist and physicist, born December 16, 1776 in nearby Samitz, died January 23, 1810 in Munich

The species name troglodytes, Greek for " cave-dweller ", was coined by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach in his book De generis humani varietate nativa liber (" on the natural varieties of the human genus ") published in 1776, This book was based on his dissertation presented one year before ( it had a date 16 Sep 1775 printed on its title page ) to the University of Göttingen for internal use only, thus the dissertation did not meet the conditions for published work in the sense of zoological nomenclature.

* Johann Georg von Soldner 1776 – 1833, Munich ( Germany )

" Other theories include those in Johann Friedrich Breithaupt's Christliche Helden Insel Malta (), published in 1632, where he calls Maltese a mixed ' barbaric ' language and John Dryden's description of the language as ' Berber ' on his visit to the islands ( the memoirs of those journeys appeared in 1776 ).

Image: Johann Christian Bach by Thomas Gainsborough. jpg | Johann Christian Bach, ( 1776 )

* January 23 – Johann Wilhelm Ritter, German chemist and physicist ( b. 1776 )

The first bolt-action rifle was produced in 1824 by Johann Nikolaus von Dreyse, following work on breechloading rifles that dated to at least the Ferguson of 1776.

Bach set several texts by Johann Gottfried Herder, who was at the Bückeburg court as its superintendent and chief preacher from 1771 – 1776.

Johann Joseph von Görres ( 25 January 1776 – 29 January 1848 ) was a German writer and journalist.

Johann Gottfried Schweighauser ( 1776 – 1844 ), son of the classicist Johann Schweighauser was also a distinguished scholar and archaeologist, joint-author with M. Golbéry of Antiquités de l ' Alsace ( 1828 ).

Johann Christian Bach, painted in London by Thomas Gainsborough, 1776 ( Museo Civico, Bologna )

The caracal first became known to Western science from a German naturalist, Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber ( 1739 – 1810 ), who illustrated and described a specimen from Table Mountain in Cape Town in 1776.

Cranioscopy was later renamed phrenology ( phrenos: mind, logos: study ) by his student Johann Spurzheim ( 1776 – 1832 ), who wrote extensively on " Drs.

* Johann Gaspar Spurzheim ( 1776 – 1832 ), phrenologist

There she met with the future director of the St. Petersburg Pedagogical Institute, Theodor Johann von Middendorff ( 1776 – 1856 ), whose father was a Baltic German pastor in Karuse, Estonia.

This new carillon was installed in 1776 by the German clockmaker Johann Erdmann Rudiger.

JJ Bodmer and his friend Johann Jakob Breitinger ( 1701 – 1776 ) were among the most prominent purely literary writers in the city.

Major von Dechow, who was in command in late 1776, warned Colonel Johann Rall to fortify the town, advice that was ignored.

Following his death in 1776 and her death in 1781, their sons Martin Leopold Widhalm ( 1747 – 1806 ) and Gallus Ignatius Widhalm ( 1752 – 1822 ) took over from him and a grandson, Johann Martin Leopold Widhalm ( 1799 – 1855 ) too became involved in the business.

Johann Wilhelm Ritter ( 16 December 1776 – 23 January 1810 ) was a German chemist, physicist and philosopher.

Before 1776 the theatre had been leased from the state by Johann Koháry.

They had two more children that survived to adulthood, Karl ( 1774 – 1815 ) and Johann ( 1776 – 1848 ).