| 1730–1807 | UK [newspapers] | The Daily Advertiser is launched in London, England. With its dependence on advertisements, this may be regarded as the first modern newspaper. |
| 1750–1777 | Portugal [law and government] | Sebastião José de Carvalho e Mello, the Marquis of Pombal, virtual ruler of Portugal during the reign of José I, carries out a series of extensive reforms aimed at breaking the power of the nobility and revitalizing Portugal's finances, industry, agriculture, and education system. |
| 1766–1777 | UK [canals] | English engineer James Brindley begins work on the Grand Trunk Canal linking the Trent and Mersey rivers. It crosses the Pennines by the Harecastle tunnel and will establish a water route between the North Sea and the Irish Sea. |
| 1770–1780 | America [statistics and demography] | The estimated population of the American colonies is 2,780,369 including 575,420 black slaves. |
| 1776 | America [weapons] | American engineer David Bushnell builds a hand-powered wooden-hulled submarine named the Turtle. It is used in an unsuccessful attempt to attach an explosive device to a British ship, HMS Eagle. |
| 1776–1779 | Pacific [exploration] | English explorer James Cook explores the Pacific Ocean. In 1778, he discovers Hawaii, where the indigenous population treat him as a god. Later that year, he passes through the Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean, searching for the northwest passage to the Atlantic. |
| 1776 | UK [historical study] | The English historian Edward Gibbon publishes the first volume of his major work The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, the most important historical work of the period. It is soon popular and controversial, with its criticisms of early Christians seen as scandalous. The eight-volume work is completed in 1788. |
| 11 June 1776 | England [births and deaths] | John Constable, English landscape painter, born in East Bergholt, Suffolk, England (–1837). |
| 4 July 1776 | America [American Revolution] | The American Declaration of Independence, drafted by Thomas Jefferson with revisions by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, is approved by the Continental Congress. It announces the separation of the 13 North American British colonies from Britain. |
| 25 August 1776 | Scotland [births and deaths] | David Hume, Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, dies in Edinburgh, Scotland (65). |
| 25 December 1776 | America [American Revolution] | American forces under George Washington cross the ice-strewn Delaware River in a surprise raid on Christmas night, and defeat a corps of British Hessian mercenaries at the Battle of Trenton. |
