Today is the anniversary of a fire that destroyed 20% of New York City, on Sept. 21, 1776. You’ve probably never heard of this fire, which is what the Founding Fathers intended.

On This Day: The Great New York Fire of 1776. On this day in 1776, a fire broke out and burned down much of Manhattan shortly after the British took the city during the Revolutionary War.

The Great New York Fire of 1776: A Lost Story of the American Revolution Benjamin L. Carp. Yale Univ, $30 (360p) ISBN 978-0-300-24695-7 ...

In “The Great New York Fire of 1776,” Benjamin L. Carp argues that Americans, not the British, deliberately started the blaze.

The British during the American Revolution had occupied New York Harbor with a force of some 400 ships stationed off Staten Island earlier in the summer. ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY, AUGUST 10, 1776 ...

Brooklyn College professor Benjamin Carp talked about the 1776 fire that burned down much of New York City shortly after the British took the city during the Revolutionary War. The Fraunces Tavern ...