British & Revolution · event 6 of 7

21 September 1776

The Great Fire. Six days into the British occupation, fire breaks out at the southern tip of Manhattan and destroys between 400 and 1,000 buildings — around a quarter of the city — including Trinity Church. Nobody has ever established who started it. St Paul’s Chapel survives because men stand on its roof putting out embers.

The British & Revolution era

  1. 1673
  2. 1712
  3. 4 August 1735
  4. 1754
  5. 27 August 1776
  6. 21 September 1776
  7. 25 November 1783

See the full timeline or read the history of New York.