1776

The year 1776 was the 76th year of the 18th century in the Gregorian calendar. It is most notable for events in the American Revolution, including the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, which proclaimed the Thirteen Colonies independent from Britain and helped establish the United States as a new political entity, even as the war continued.

In the early part of the year, public opinion in the American colonies was shaped by Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, published in January 1776, which argued for independence and republican government. On June 7, 1776, the Continental Congress passed Richard Henry Lee’s resolution for independence. A Committee of Five—Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston—was appointed to draft the Declaration, which the Congress adopted on July 4, 1776.

Military developments of 1776 included the British capture of New York City after the Battle of Long Island in August, and the fall of Fort Washington in November. The Continental Army, led by George Washington, achieved a morale-boosting victory at the Battle of Trenton on December 25–26, 1776, following a covert crossing of the Delaware River, and soon afterward won at Princeton in early January 1777.

In broader context, 1776 also saw influential works in political economy, with Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations appearing that year, contributing to liberal economic thought alongside the independence discourse sparked by the Declaration.

The year has also entered popular culture, most famously through the stage musical 1776 (1969) and its 1972 film adaptation, which dramatize the drafting and signing of the Declaration.

1776 remains a defining year in the formation of the United States and in the wider Atlantic world’s shift toward republican, liberal political ideals.