This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1756.

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• March 1 – The first issue of The Critical Review is published, with Tobias Smollett as editor.^[1]
• April–May – Beginning of the Seven Years' War in Europe.
• June 20 – The Black Hole of Calcutta incident inspires renewed British efforts in India.
• October 29 – Frances Abington first acts with the company of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.
• November – Gilbert White becomes curate at his birthplace of Selborne in Hampshire, England, for the second time.
• December 14 – Rev. John Home's blank verse tragedy Douglas is performed for the first time, in Edinburgh, with considerable success, in spite of the opposition of the local church presbytery, who summon Rev. Alexander Carlyle to answer for having attended its representation.^[2] However, it fails in its early promise to set up a new Scottish dramatic tradition.

• March 3 – William Godwin, English writer (died 1836)^[3]
• April – William Gifford, English satirist (died 1826)
• June 13 – Edmund Lodge, English biographer and writer on heraldry (died 1839)
• July 13 – Thomas Rowlandson, English caricaturist (died 1827)
• July 25 (probable year) – Elizabeth Hamilton, Irish-born Scottish essayist, poet and novelist (died 1816)
• September 15 – Karl Philipp Moritz (C. P. Moritz), German essayist and travel writer (died 1793)
• November 2 – Pierre Laromiguière, French philosopher (died 1837)
• November 18 – Thomas Burgess, English philosopher and bishop (died 1837)

• February 25 – Eliza Haywood, English writer and actress (born 1693)
• March 26 – Gilbert West, English poet (born 1703)
• March 30 to April 2 – Stephen Duck, English poet (suicide, born c. 1705)
• June 4 – Benjamin Elbel, German theologian (born 1690)^[4]
• December 29 – Thomas Cooke, English translator, dramatist and critic (born 1703)