Timeline March 1776

Events in March 1776 3

• 1776 James Watt's steam engine enters commercial use Improved engine installed for industrial pumping in Birmingham The first commercial engines built to James Watt's improved design, developed with manufacturer Matthew Boulton, were installed to pump water at mines in England. Watt's separate condenser made steam engines far more fuel-efficient than earlier Newcomen designs. The engines became a key technology of the early Industrial Revolution.
• 1776 Adam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations Foundational work of modern economics appears in London Adam Smith published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations in London, laying out ideas on free markets, the division of labour, and self-interest as drivers of economic activity. The book became a foundational text of classical economics and shaped economic policy debates for centuries. It appeared the same year as the American Declaration of Independence.
• 1776 British forces evacuate Boston Siege of Boston ends with British withdrawal by sea After an eleven-month siege, British troops under General William Howe evacuated Boston by sea following the Continental Army's fortification of Dorchester Heights with cannon captured at Fort Ticonderoga. The withdrawal gave the Continental Army its first major success of the Revolutionary War. The date is still observed as Evacuation Day in Massachusetts.