ton defeated the British under Lord Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton, in the War of American Independence.
1776, Tucson, Arizona, was founded.
31/12/1776.Benjamin Franklin, arrived in Paris to negotiate French aid for the American rebels.
26/12/1776, The Battle of Trenton. Major victory for Washington, who took 1,000 prisoners.
16/11/1776, British forces captured Fort Washington.
28/10/1776, Battle of White Plains; General Howe defeated General Washington.
3/10/1776. The American Congress borrowed 5 million dollars to halt the rapid depreciation of paper currency, which was being printed to finance the revolution. Fighting against the British continued.
22/9/1776, The US patriot Nathan Hale was found hanged in New York City by the British, for being a spy during the American Revolutionary War.
21/9/1776, The British captured Nathan Hale, 21-year old US Army Captain, who had been spying on the British in Long Island. He also started numerous fires in New York to create confusion amongst the British.
15/9/1776, The British under General Howe occupied New York, and narrowly missed capturing General Washington.
9/9/1776. American Congress changed the name of the United Colonies to the United States.
6/9/1776, The US pioneered the use of the submarine for military purposes. David Bushnell’s Connecticut Turtle, a pear-shaped 2 metre long wooden vessel dived under British ships in New York Harbour in an attempt to bore holes with an augur and plant explosives, However the British ships had copper bottoms and the attempt was futile.
27/8/1776, The Battle of Long Island. General Howe’s army, 20,000 regular soldiers, defeated 8,000 colonials under General Israel Putnam.
2/8/1776. Formal signing of America’s Declaration of Independence.
4/7/1776. The American Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence was drafted by Thomas Jefferson between 11/6/1776 and 28/6/1776 and became America’s most cherished symbol of liberty. Its political philosophy voiced the ideas of individual liberty and justified to the world the breaking of ties between the old colony and Britain. The Liberty Bell was cast to signal the Independence of the USA and was rung from the tower of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, calling citizens to hear the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence. The bell has cracked and is no longer rung but remains a tourist attraction. Firework displays on 4 July symbolise the Revolutionary war that began in 1776.
28/6/1776, The British were repulsed at Charleston.
15/5/1776, Virginia declared independence from the British Empire and adopted George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights, which was then included in a new constitution.
17/3/1776. George Washington forced British troops to withdraw from Boston, Massachusetts.
31/12/1775, An American attack on Quebec failed.
10/11/1775. The US Marine Corps was founded.
18/10/1775, The British bombarded Falmouth, now called Portland, Maine.
13/10/1775, The Continental Congress established an American Navy, ‘Two swift sailing vessels’.
23/8/1775. George III rejected an offer of peace, saying the Americans were in open rebellion against the Crown.
26/6/1775. George Washington of Virginia arrived at Boston to take command of the American Army.
17/6/1775. British troops under Lord Howe defeated the rebel American colonists at Bunker Hill, near Boston, but suffered heavy losses themselves. The battle was actually fought on nearby Breeds Hill.
14/6/1775, In the USA, the Second Continental Congress authorised the enlistment of ten companies of citizen soldiers; the beginning of the US Army.
12/6/1775. General Gage imposed martial law, declared all armed colonists traitors, and offered pardons to those who swore allegiance to the Crown.
20/5/1775. Charlotte in North Carolina was the first place to declare Independence from Britain, the Mecklenburg Declaration.
10/5/1775, Fort Ticonderooga was captured from the British by the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont.
19/4/1775, The Battle of Lexington, the opening engagement of the War of American Independence took pl