1676 in England

← 1675 1674 1673 1676 in England → 1677 1678 1679
Centuries:	15th 16th 17th 18th 19th
Decades:	1650s 1660s 1670s 1680s 1690s
See also:	Other events of 1676

Events from the year 1676 in England .

Incumbents

• Monarch – Charles II

Events

• 18 February – Isaac Newton observes to Robert Hooke that "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants". ^[1]
• 2 March – first performance of George Etherege's play The Man of Mode . ^[1]
• 26 May – fire in Southwark destroys 625 houses. ^[2]
• September to November – major influenza epidemic; the first to be recorded as such. ^[2]
• 11 December – first performance of William Wycherley's play The Plain Dealer . ^[1]

Undated

• Construction begins on Trinity College Library in Cambridge, designed by Sir Christopher Wren. ^[2]
• The Royal Greenwich Observatory in London, designed by Wren, is completed this summer.
• Consecration of the first Greek Orthodox church in England, at Hog Lane, London. ^[2]
• The first fossilised bone of what is now known to be a dinosaur is discovered by Robert Plot, the femur of a Megalosaurus from a limestone quarry at Cornwell near Chipping Norton. ^[3]

Births

• 4 January – Sir William Lowther, 1st Baronet, of Marske, Member of Parliament (died 1705)
• 19 January – John Weldon, composer (died 1736)
• baptised 30 January – Charles Fane, 1st Viscount Fane, courtier and landowner (died 1744)
• 14 June – Sir John Rogers, 2nd Baronet, lawyer and politician (died 1744)
• 21 June (Old Style) – Anthony Collins, philosopher (died 1729)
• 26 August – Robert Walpole, first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1745) ^[4]
• 14 November – Benjamin Hoadly, clergy (died 1761)
• 29 November – Sir Henry Bunbury, 3rd Baronet, politician (died 1733)
• 30 December – John Philips, poet (died 1709)

Deaths

• 4 March – Sir Edward Turnour, Speaker of the House of Commons (born 1617)
• 22 March – Lady Anne Clifford, literary patron (born 1590)
• 23 May (bur.) – William Samwell, architect (born 1628)
• 12 July – Henry Stubbe, writer and scholar (born 1632; drowned)
• 10 September – Gerrard Winstanley, religious reformer (born 1609)
• 11 October – Anthony Terill, theologian (born 1623)
• 25 December –
  • Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Justice (born 1609)
  • William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle, soldier, politician and writer (born 1592)
• Chesten Marchant, last monoglot speaker of the Cornish language

References

1. "1676: Science." The People's Chronology. Ed. Jason M. Everett. Gale Group, Inc., 2006. eNotes.com. 2006. 11 Oct, 2007
2. Palmer, Alan & Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 193–194. ISBN   0-7126-5616-2.
3. Sarjeant, William A.S. (1997). "The earliert discoveries". In Farlow, James O.; Brett-Surman, Michael K. (eds.). The Complete Dinosaur . Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp.  3–11. ISBN   0-253-33349-0.
4. "Robert Walpole, 1st earl of Orford | prime minister of Great Britain". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 1 September 2021.