On June 12, 1776, a day after appointing a committee to prepare a draft of the Declaration of Independence, the Second Continental Congress resolved to appoint a committee of 13 to prepare a draft of a constitution for a union of the states.

He resigned his crown-appointed positions in 1776 and, on June 22, went on to represent New Jersey in the Second Continental Congress where he signed the Declaration of Independence.

Chosen by the Second Continental Congress in 1775 to be commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolution, Washington managed to force the British out of Boston in 1776, but was defeated and almost captured later that year when he lost New York City.

Middleton's son, Arthur ( 1742 – 1787 ) would also get involved in politics, succeeding his father as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in 1776, after his resignation, and, later on, sign the Declaration of Independence.

* 1776 – American Revolution: The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress.

In 1776, the Thirteen Colonies, acting through the Second Continental Congress, declared political independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution.

In Lee's Resolution on the 7th of June 1776 during the Second Continental Congress, Lee put forth the motion to the Continental Congress to declare Independence from Great Britain, which read ( in part ):

In 1776, allied with the Shawnee led by Cornstalk, Cherokee attacked settlers in South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina in the Second Cherokee War.

* William Williams ( 1731 – 1811 ), merchant and delegate for Connecticut to the Second Continental Congress in 1776, where he signed the Declaration of Independence.

The bell became widely famous after an 1847 short story claimed that an aged bell-ringer rang it on July 4, 1776, upon hearing of the Second Continental Congress's vote for independence.

On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress, still meeting in Philadelphia, voted unanimously for the independence " of the thirteen United States of America.

A committee appointed by the Second Continental Congress conferred with Howe in September 1776, but nothing came of it.

* 1776 – The Second Continental Congress enacts ( July 2 ) a resolution declaring independence from the British Empire, and then approves ( July 4 ) the written Declaration of Independence.

In 1776, Stockton was elected to the Second Continental Congress, where he took a very active role.

Langdon Cheves ( pronounced chivis ) ( September 17, 1776 – June 26, 1857 ) was an American politician and a president of the Second Bank of the United States.

The United States Declaration of Independence, which was primarily drafted by Thomas Jefferson, was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.

Tench joined His Majesty's Marine Forces, Plymouth division, as a Second Lieutenant on 25 January 1776, aged 17.

For example, in 1776, while Hancock was simultaneously treasurer of Harvard and president of the Second Continental Congress, a committee headed by Bowdoin decided that securities physically held by Hancock were at risk because of the war, and a delegation was sent to Philadelphia to receive an accounting of them and physical custody of the papers.

The Letters to the inhabitants of Canada were three letters written by the First and Second Continental Congresses in 1774, 1775, and 1776 to communicate directly with the population of the Province of Quebec, formerly the French province of Canada, which had no representative system at the time.

Inspired by the ideals of the American Revolution, in the summer of 1776 settlers in the region proclaimed their independence from Pennsylvania and Virginia by petitioning the Second Continental Congress to recognize Westsylvania as the fourteenth state.

So impressed were those in attendance that the American Philosophical Society commissioned the speech to be printed and distributed to delegates of the Second Continental Congress when they arrived in 1776.

Langdon served as a member of the Second Continental Congress from 1775 to 1776.

On June 4, 1776, a resolution was introduced in the Second Continental Congress declaring the union with Great Britain to be dissolved, proposing the formation of foreign alliances, and suggesting the drafting of a plan of confederation to be submitted to the respective states.

As events unfolded Dickinson was one of Pennsylvania's delegates to the First Continental Congress in 1774 and the Second Continental Congress in 1775 and 1776.

Its drafting by the Continental Congress began in mid 1776, and an approved version was sent to the states for ratification in late 1777.

On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee tabled a resolution before the Continental Congress declaring the colonies independent ; at the same time he also urged Congress to resolve “ to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances ” and to prepare a plan of confederation for the newly-independent states.

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

Gerry was a Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress from February 1776 to 1780.

* Enterprise ( 1776 ), a ship of the Continental Navy during the American Revolution

* 1776 – Richard Henry Lee presents the " Lee Resolution " to the Continental Congress.

* 1776 – The Continental Congress appoints Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to the Committee of Five to draft a declaration of independence.

* 1776 – The Continental Congress adopts a resolution severing ties with the Kingdom of Great Britain although the wording of the formal Declaration of Independence is not approved until July 4.

* 1776 – George Washington ordered the Declaration of Independence to be read out loud to members of the Continental Army in New York, New York for the first time.

* 1776 – American Revolution: the Virginia Convention instructs its Continental Congress delegation to propose a resolution of independence from Great Britain, paving the way for the United States Declaration of Independence.

* 1776 – American Revolutionary War: The Continental Army fortifies Dorchester Heights with cannon, leading the British troops to abandon the Siege of Boston.

* 1776 – American Revolutionary War: Nathan Hale volunteers to spy for the Continental Army.

* 1776 – The Continental Congress officially names its new union of sovereign states the United States.

Ezra Lee, Continental Army ) tried and failed to sink the British warship HMS Eagle, flagship of the blockaders in New York harbor on September 7, 1776.

Jefferson had also served on the committee appointed to draw up the rules of order for the Continental Congress in 1776.

* Tory Act University of Tulsa ; Order of the Continental Congress, Philadelphia, 2 January 1776

The committee met repeatedly, and chairman John Dickinson presented their results to the Congress on July 12, 1776.

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

He departed the Congress on November 30, 1776 to serve on the Navy Board at Philadelphia.

In June 1776, Congress ' first attempt at running the war effort was established with the committee known as " Board of War and Ordnance ", succeeded by the Board of War in July 1777, a committee which eventually included members of the military.

When Congress began considering a resolution of independence in June 1776, Adams ensured that Jefferson was appointed to the five-man committee to write a declaration in support of the resolution.

" A final draft was presented to the Congress on June 28, 1776.

On July 4, 1776, the Congress ratified the Declaration of Independence and the delegates signed the document.