text:
1777

January–March

 * January 2 – American Revolutionary War – Battle of the Assunpink Creek: American general George Washington's army repulses a British attack by Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis, in a second battle at Trenton, New Jersey.
 * January 3 – American Revolutionary War – Battle of Princeton: American general George Washington's army defeats British troops.
 * January 13 – Mission Santa Clara de Asís is founded in what becomes Santa Clara, California.
 * January 15 – Vermont declares its independence from New York, becoming the Vermont Republic, an independent country, a status it retains until it joins the United States as the 14th state in 1791.
 * January 21 – The Continental Congress approves a resolution "that an unauthentic copy, with names of the signers of the Declaration of independence, be sent to each of the United States.
 * February 5 – Under the 1st Constitution of Georgia, 8 counties are chartered: Burke, Camden, Chatham, Effingham, Glynn, Liberty, Richmond, and Wilkes. This dissolves the existing parishes of St. George, St. Mary's, St. Thomas, St. Phillip, Christ Church, St. David, St. Matthews, St. Andrew, St. James, St. Johns, and St. Paul.
 * February 24 – King Joseph I of Portugal dies, and is succeeded by his daughter Maria I of Portugal, and his brother and son-in-law Peter III of Portugal.
 * March 4 – The Fourth Continental Congress, with John Hancock as president, begins a 199 day session in Philadelphia, lasting until September 18.
 * March 29–30 – Third voyage of James Cook: English explorer Captain Cook discovers Mangaia and Atiu in the Cook Islands.

April–June

 * April 1 – Friedrich Maximilian Klinger's play Sturm und Drang is premiered by the Seyler Theatre Company in Leipzig, giving its name to the whole Sturm und Drang movement in German literature.
 * April 13 – American Revolutionary War – Battle of Bound Brook: A British and Hessian force led by Charles Cornwallis surprises a Continental Army outpost in New Jersey, commanded by Major General Benjamin Lincoln.
 * April 27 – American Revolutionary War – Battle of Ridgefield: The British Army defeats Patriot militias, galvanizing resistance in the Connecticut Colony.
 * May 8 – Richard Brinsley Sheridan's comedy of manners, The School for Scandal, is first performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London.
 * May 16 – Lachlan McIntosh and Button Gwinnett shoot each other during a duel near Savannah, Georgia. Gwinnett, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, dies three days later.
 * June 13 – American Revolution: The Marquis de Lafayette lands near Georgetown, South Carolina, to help the Continental Congress train its army.
 * June 14 – The Stars and Stripes is adopted by the Continental Congress as the flag of the United States.
 * June 21 – Encyclopædia Britannica Second Edition begins publication in Edinburgh.

July–December

 * July 6 – American Revolutionary War – Siege of Fort Ticonderoga: After a bombardment by British artillery under General John Burgoyne, American forces retreat from Fort Ticonderoga, New York.
 * July 7 – American Revolutionary War – Battle of Hubbardton: British forces capture over 200 of the American rearguard, from Fort Ticonderoga.
 * July 8 – The 1777 Constitution of Vermont is signed, officially abolishing slavery.
 * August 6 – American Revolutionary War – Battle of Oriskany: Loyalists gain a tactical victory over Patriots; Iroquois fight on both sides.
 * August 16 – American Revolutionary War – Battle of Bennington: British and Brunswicker forces are decisively defeated by American troops at Walloomsac, New York.
 * August 22 – American Revolutionary War – The Siege of Fort Stanwix is ended by withdrawal of British forces, following a ruse by Benedict Arnold to persuade them that a much larger force is arriving.
 * September 3 – American Revolutionary War – Battle of Cooch's Bridge: British and Hessian forces defeat an American militia in a minor skirmish in New Castle County, Delaware.
 * September 11 – American Revolutionary War – Battle of Brandywine: The British gain a major victory in Chester County, Pennsylvania.
 * September 19 – American Revolutionary War – First Battle of Saratoga (Battle of Freeman's Farm): Patriot forces withstand a British attack at Saratoga, New York.
 * September 26 – American Revolutionary War – British troops occupy Philadelphia; members of the Continental Congress flee to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where they meet and hold a one day session as the Fifth Congress before fleeing again.
 * September 30 – American Revolutionary War – The Sixth Continental Congress opens its session at York, Pennsylvania, and continues for 272 days until June 27, 1778.
 * October 4 – American Revolutionary War – Battle of Germantown: Troops under George Washington are repelled by British troops under Sir William Howe.
 * October 6 – American Revolutionary War – Battle of Forts Clinton and Montgomery: British troops capture Fort Clinton and Fort Montgomery (Hudson River), and are able to dismantle the Hudson River Chain.
 * October 7 – American Revolutionary War – Second Battle of Saratoga (Battle of Bemis Heights): British General John Burgoyne is defeated by American troops.
 * October 17 – American Revolutionary War – Battle of Saratoga: British General John Burgoyne surrenders to the American troops.
 * November 15 – American Revolution: After 16 months of debate, the Continental Congress approves the Articles of Confederation, in the temporary American capital at York, Pennsylvania.
 * November 17 – American Revolution: The Articles of Confederation are submitted to the states for ratification.
 * November 29 – San Jose, California, is founded. It is the first pueblo in Spanish Alta California.
 * December 18 – The United States celebrates its first Thanksgiving, marking October's victory by the American rebels over British General John Burgoyne at Saratoga.
 * December 19 – American Revolutionary War – George Washington's Continental Army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
 * December 20 – Morocco recognizes the United States as an sovereign state.
 * December 24 – Third voyage of James Cook: English explorer Captain Cook locates Kiritimati (Christmas Island).
 * December 30 – Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria dies and is succeeded by his distant cousin Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria.

Date unknown

 * The code duello is adopted at the Clonmel Summer Assizes as the form for pistol duels by gentlemen in Ireland. It is quickly denounced, but nevertheless widely adopted throughout the English-speaking world.
 * Kunsthochschule Kassel is founded in Germany as a fine arts academy.
 * Det Dramatiske Selskab is founded in Copenhagen (Denmark) as an acting academy.
 * George II Frederic is crowned as king of the Miskito Kingdom.

January–March

 * January – William Barton, English cricketer (d. 1825)
 * January 2 – Christian Daniel Rauch, German sculptor (d. 1857)
 * January 7 – Lorenzo Bartolini, Italian sculptor (d. 1850)
 * January 11 – Vincenzo Borg, Maltese merchant, rebel leader (d. 1837)
 * January 13 – Elisa Bonaparte, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, sister of Napoleon Bonaparte (d. 1820)
 * January 25 – Karoline Jagemann, German actor (d.1848)
 * February 3 – John Cheyne, British physician, surgeon and author (d. 1836)
 * February 10 – Amable Berthelot, Quebec lawyer, author and political figure (d. 1847)
 * February 12
 * Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, French poet (d. 1843)
 * Bernard Courtois, French chemist (d. 1838)
 * February 18 – Andreas Arntzen, Norwegian politician (d. 1837)
 * February 20 – Zacheus Burnham, Canadian farmer, judge and public figure (d. 1857)
 * February 26 – Matija Nenadović, Prime Minister of Serbia (d. 1854)
 * March 3 – Adolphe Dureau de la Malle, French geographer, naturalist, historian and artist (d. 1857)
 * March 10 – Robert Allison (Pennsylvania politician), U.S. Representative (d. 1840)
 * March 13 – Charles Lot Church, Nova Scotia politician (d. 1864)
 * March 17
 * Patrick Brontë, Irish Anglican curate and writer; father of writers Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë (d. 1861)
 * Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1864)
 * March 19 – José María Bustamante, Mexican composer (d. 1861)
 * March 28 – Antoine Germain Labarraque, French chemist (d. 1850)

April–June

 * April 11 – William Addams, United States Congressman (d. 1858)
 * April 12 – Henry Clay, American politician (d. 1852)
 * April 16 – John Alexander (Ohio politician), U.S. Representative (d. 1848)
 * April 30 – Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician, astronomer and physicist (d. 1855)
 * May 4 – Richard Bourke, Australian governor (d. 1855)
 * May 8 – Mateli Magdalena Kuivalatar, Finnish-Karelian folksinger (d. 1846)
 * May 11 – Samuel Bridger, English cricketer
 * May 12 – Mary Reibey, Australian businessperson (d. 1855)
 * May 18 – John George Children, British chemist, mineralogist and zoologist (d. 1852)
 * June 1 – Fernando Errázuriz Aldunate, president of Chile (d. 1841)
 * June 12 – Robert Clark, American politician (d. 1837)
 * June 14 – Heman Allen (of Milton), U.S. Representative (d. 1844)
 * June 15 – David Daniel Davis, British physician (d. 1841)
 * June 22
 * Andrzej Alojzy Ankwicz, Polish-born Catholic archbishop of Prague (d. 1838)
 * William Brown (admiral), Irish-born first admiral of Argentina (d. 1857)
 * June 23 – Frederick Bates, American politician (d. 1825)

July–September

 * July – Thomas Clayton, American lawyer, politician (d. 1854)
 * July 9
 * Henry Hallam, English historian (d. 1859)
 * Paavo Ruotsalainen, Finnish farmer and lay preacher (d. 1852)
 * July 23 – Philipp Otto Runge, German painter (d. 1810)
 * July 26 – Robert Hamilton Bishop, Scottish-American educator, minister (d. 1855)
 * July 27
 * Heinrich Wilhelm Brandes, German physicist (d. 1834)
 * Thomas Campbell, Scottish poet (d. 1844)
 * Henry Trevor, 21st Baron Dacre, British peer, soldier (d. 1853)
 * July 31 – Pedro Ignacio de Castro Barros, Argentine statesman, priest (d. 1849)
 * August 11 – Giuseppe Bossi, Italian painter (d. 1815)
 * August 12 – George Wolf, American politician (d. 1840)
 * August 14 – Hans Christian Ørsted, Danish physicist and chemist (d. 1851)
 * August 23 – Princess Adélaïde of Orléans, French princess (d. 1847)
 * August 29 – Nikita Bichurin (Hyacinth), Russian monk (d. 1853)
 * August 31 – Alexander Bashilov, Russian general (d. 1847)
 * September 9 – James Carr (Massachusetts politician), U.S. Congressman (d. 1818)
 * September 12 – Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville, French zoologist, anatomist (d. 1850)
 * September 25 – Joseph Badeaux, Canadian politician (d. 1835)

October–December

 * October 1 – Zaro Aga, Turkish-Kurdish possible supercentenarian (claimed to have been born this year or 1774; d. 1934)
 * October 5 – Guillaume Dupuytren, French anatomist, military surgeon (d. 1835)
 * October 16
 * Levi Barber, American surveyor, court administrator, banker and legislator (d. 1833)
 * Lorenzo Dow, American Methodist preacher (d. 1834)
 * October 18
 * Auguste François-Marie de Colbert-Chabanais, French general (d. 1809)
 * Heinrich von Kleist, German poet, dramatist, novelist and short story writer (d. 1811)
 * November 7 – Richard Bassett (clergyman), Welsh cleric (d. 1852)
 * November 13 – Kunwar Singh, Leader during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 (d. 1858)
 * November 14 – Nathaniel Claiborne, American politician (d. 1859)
 * November 24 – Samuel Butts, American militia officer (d. 1814)
 * December 1 – Thomas Bradford, British Army officer (d. 1853)
 * December 4 – Juliette Récamier, French writer (d. 1849)
 * December 10 – William Conner, American trader, politician (d. 1855)
 * December 14 – Du Pré Alexander, 2nd Earl of Caledon, Irish peer, landlord and colonial administrator (d. 1839)
 * December 15 – Agostino Aglio, Italian painter, decorator and engraver (d. 1857)
 * December 16 – Madame Clicquot Ponsardin, French champagne producer (d. 1866)
 * December 21 – John Campbell, 7th Duke of Argyll, Scottish peer, Whig politician (d. 1847)
 * December 23 – Emperor Alexander I of Russia, Russian officer (d. 1825)
 * December 24 – Barbara Spooner Wilberforce, wife of English abolitionist William Wilberforce (d. 1847)

Date unknown

 * Suleiman al-Halabi, Syrian student, assassin (d. 1800)
 * Carlos Anaya, Uruguayan politician (d. 1862)
 * Charles James Apperley, English sportsman, sporting writer (d. 1843)
 * Carlo Armellini, Italian politician, activist and jurist (d. 1863)
 * Mevlana Halid-i Bagdadi, Ottoman mystic (d. 1826)
 * Connell James Baldwin, Irish soldier, civil servant (d. 1861)
 * Karl Friedrich Becker, German educator, historian (d. 1806)
 * Vicente Benavides, Chilean soldier (d. 1822)
 * John Bennett (Hampshire cricketer) (d. 1857)
 * William Bellinger Bulloch, U.S. Senator (d. 1852)
 * Sophia Campbell, Australian artist (d. 1833)
 * Abiel Chandler, U.S. philanthropist (d. 1851)
 * John Claiborne, U.S. politician (d. 1808)
 * Charles Othon Frédéric Jean-Baptiste de Clarac, French artist, scholar and archaeologist (d. 1847)
 * Thomas Cochran (judge), Canadian judge (d. 1804)
 * Anselmo de la Cruz, Chilean political figure (d. 1833)
 * Thomas Day, American judge (d. 1855)
 * Benjamin D'Urban, British general, colonial administrator (d. 1849)
 * Tu'i Malila, Malagasy-born tortoise, longest living animal on record (d. 1965)

January–March

 * January 10 – Spranger Barry, Irish actor (b. 1719)
 * January 12 – Hugh Mercer, American Revolutionary War officer, mortally wounded in battle (b. 1726)
 * January 13 – James Rait, Anglican clergyman, Scottish Episcopal Church Bishop of Brechin 1742–1777 (b. 1689)
 * January 27 – Hubert de Brienne, French naval commander (b. 1690)
 * January 30 – Enrichetta d'Este, Duchess of Parma (b. 1702)
 * February 9
 * Captain Abraham Godwin, American marine on USS Washington (1776 row galley) (b. 1724)
 * Seth Pomeroy, American gunsmith and soldier (b. 1706)
 * February 11 – Sir Gilbert Elliot, 3rd Baronet, of Minto, Scottish statesman, philosopher and poet (b. 1722)
 * February 24 – King Joseph I of Portugal (b. 1714)
 * February 28 – Joab Hoisington, American major (b. 1736)
 * March 1
 * Józef Aleksander Jabłonowski, Polish nobleman (szlachcic) (b. 1711)
 * Georg Christoph Wagenseil, Austrian composer (b. 1715)
 * March 2 – Empress Xiaoshengxian, mother of the Chinese Qianlong Emperor of China (b. 1692)
 * March 4 – Pierre-Herman Dosquet, 4th bishop of Quebec (b. 1691)
 * March 6 – Jeremias Friedrich Reuß, German theologian (b. 1700)
 * March 10 – John the Painter, British criminal (b. 1752)
 * March 20 – Jean-François-Joseph de Rochechouart, French Roman Catholic Cardinal (b. 1708)
 * March 23 – Sir Hugh Paterson, 2nd Baronet, Scottish Jacobite and Member of the Parliament of Great Britain (b. 1685)
 * March 31 – Richard Terrick, Church of England clergyman, Bishop of Peterborough 1757–1764 and Bishop of London 1764–1777 (b. 1710)

April–June

 * April 7 – Anna Chamber, British noblewoman and poet (b. 1709)
 * April 29 – Antonio Joli, Italian painter of vedute and capricci (b. 1700)
 * May 5 – Raphael Hayyim Isaac Carregal, Palestinian rabbi preaching in the Americas (b. 1733)
 * May 7 – Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Roch de Ramezay, marine captain and colonial administrator in New France (b. 1708)
 * May 9 – Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Aylesford, Member of the Parliament of Great Britain (b. 1715)
 * May 11 – George Pigot, 1st Baron Pigot, British governor of Madras (b. 1719)
 * May 19 – Button Gwinnett, a signatory of the American Declaration of Independence (b. 1735)
 * May 22 – David Wooster, American general in the French and Indian War and in the American Revolutionary War (b. 1711)
 * May 28 – William Douglas, American military officer, leading regiments from Connecticut in the American Revolutionary War (b. 1742)
 * May 31 – Henry Fane of Wormsley, English politician (b. 1703)
 * June 8 – Cornelia Schlosser, sister and only sibling of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe to survive to adulthood (b. 1750)
 * June 21 – Georg Friedrich Meier, German philosopher and aesthetician (b. 1718)

July–September

 * July 4 – Consort Shu, consort of the Chinese Qianlong Emperor (b. 1728)
 * July 13 – Guillaume Coustou the Younger, French artist (b. 1716)
 * August 14
 * Karl Wilhelm von Dieskau, Prussian lieutenant general and general inspector of the artillery (b. 1701)
 * Otto Magnus von Schwerin, Prussian general in the army of Frederick the Great (b. 1701)
 * August 23 – Celia Grillo Borromeo, Italian scientist, mathematician (b. 1684)
 * August 30 – John Clavering, British Army officer (b. 1722)
 * September 7 – Tekle Haymanot II, emperor of Ethiopia (b. 1754)
 * September 16 – Simon Harcourt, 1st Earl Harcourt, English landowner, diplomat, general and Viceroy of India (b. 1714)
 * September 18 – Princess Amalia of Nassau-Dietz, wife of Frederick (b. 1710)
 * September 19 – Infante Philip, Duke of Calabria (b. 1747)
 * September 20 – Edward Howard, 9th Duke of Norfolk, British peer (b. 1686)
 * September 22 – John Bartram, American botanist (b. 1699)
 * September 25 – Johann Heinrich Lambert, Swiss mathematician, physicist and astronomer (b. 1728)

October–December

 * October 3 – Jeremias van Riemsdijk, Dutch colonial governor (b. 1712)
 * October 4 – Francis Nash, American brigadier general, killed at the Battle of Germantown (b. c. 1742)
 * October 6 – Marie Thérèse Rodet Geoffrin, French salon holder (b. 1699)
 * October 7 – Simon Fraser of Balnain, Scottish general during the American Revolutionary War, killed in battle (b. 1729)
 * October 21 – Samuel Foote, English dramatist and actor (b. 1720)
 * October 22 – Friedrich Baum, German dragoon Lieutenant Colonel of Brunswick in British service during the American Revolutionary War (b. 1748)
 * October 25 – Carl von Donop, Hessian colonel fighting in the American Revolutionary War (b. 1732)
 * October 27 – Charles Antoine de La Roche-Aymon, French cardinal-archbishop and Grand Almoner (b. 1697)
 * October 30 – John Hart, American militia officer during King George's War and the French and Indian War (b. 1706)
 * November 1 – Jonathan Hampton, American colonial surveyor (b. 1712)
 * November 6 – Bernard de Jussieu, French naturalist (b. 1699)
 * November 10 – Cornstalk, Shawnee chief (b. c. 1720)
 * November 13 – William Bowyer, English printer (b. 1699)
 * November 17 – Pratap Singh Shah, 2nd king of Nepal (b. 1751)
 * November 18 – Thomas Foley, 1st Baron Foley, English landowner and politician (b. 1716)
 * November 27 – Henry Stauffer, German settler in Bucks County, Pennsylvania (b. 1724)
 * December 9 – Sir Charles Knowles, 1st Baronet, British Royal Navy officer (b. c. 1704)
 * December 12 – Albrecht von Haller, Swiss anatomist and physiologist (b. 1708)
 * December 25 – Charles Chauncey, English physician (b. 1706)
 * December 26
 * Dolly Pentreath, last-known fluent native speaker of the Cornish language (b. 1692)
 * Ricardo Wall, Spanish-Irish cavalry officer (b. 1694)
 * December 27 – Frederick Keppel, Church of England clergyman (b. 1728)
 * December 30 – Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria, Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire and Duke of Bavaria 1745–1777 (b. 1727)

title: 1777


text:
1775

Summary
The American Revolutionary War began this year, with the first military engagement on April 19 Battles of Lexington and Concord on the day after Paul Revere's ride. The Second Continental Congress took various steps toward organizing an American government, appointing George Washington commander-in-chief (June 14), Benjamin Franklin postmaster general (July 26) and creating a Continental Navy (October 13) and a Marine force (November 10) as landing troops for it, but as yet the 13 colonies have not declared independence, and both the British (June 12) and American (July 15) governments make laws. On July 6, Congress issues the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms and on August 23, King George III of Great Britain declares the American colonies in rebellion, announcing it to Parliament on November 10. On June 17, two months into the colonial siege of Boston, at the Battle of Bunker Hill, just north of Boston, British forces are victorious, but only after suffering severe casualties and after Colonial forces run out of ammunition, Fort Ticonderoga is taken by American forces in New York Colony's northern frontier, and American forces unsuccessfully invade Canada, with an attack on Montreal defeated by British forces on November 13 and an attack on Quebec repulsed December 31.

Human knowledge and mastery over nature advanced when James Watt built a successful prototype of a steam engine, and a scientific expedition continued as Captain James Cook claims the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands in the south Atlantic Ocean for Britain. Nature's power over humanity is dramatically demonstrated when the Independence Hurricane (August 29 – September 13) devastates the east coast of North America, killing 4,173, and when, on the western side of the North American continent, Tseax Cone erupts in the future British Columbia, as well as when a smallpox epidemic begins in New England. Smallpox vaccine was then developed by Edward Jenner. There is no cure for smallpox.

January–June

 * January – The Habsburg monarchy forces the Ottoman Empire to cede Bukovina to its rule.
 * January 5 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart finishes a Sonata for Keyboard in C.
 * January 14 – Siamese conquest of Chiang Mai and the Lan Na Kingdom.
 * January 17 – Second voyage of James Cook: Captain James Cook takes possession of South Georgia for the Kingdom of Great Britain.
 * February 9 – American Revolution: The Parliament of Great Britain declares the Province of Massachusetts Bay to be in rebellion.
 * February 15 – Pope Pius VI succeeds Pope Clement XIV as the 250th pope.
 * February 26 – The British East India Company factory on Balambangan Island is destroyed by Moro pirates.
 * March 6 – Raghunathrao, Peshwa of the Maratha Empire in India, signs the Treaty of Surat with the British Governor-General Warren Hastings in Bombay ceding the territories of Salsette and Bassein to the British East India Company along with part of the revenues from Surat and Bharuch districts in return for military assistance. This leads to the First Anglo-Maratha War fought between the British and the Marathas, ending with the Treaty of Salbai in 1782.
 * March 17 – Catherine the Great of Russia issues a manifesto prohibiting freed serfs from being returned to serfdom.
 * March 23 – American Revolution: Patrick Henry, a delegate to the Second Virginia Convention after the Virginia House of Burgesses was disbanded by the Royal Governor, delivers his "Give me Liberty, or give me Death!" speech at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia.
 * April 18 – American Revolution: Paul Revere and William Dawes, instructed by Dr. Joseph Warren, ride from Boston to Lexington to warn John Hancock and Sam Adams that British forces are coming to take them prisoner and to seize colonial weapons and ammunition in Concord.
 * April 19 – American Revolution – Battles of Lexington and Concord: Hostility between Britain and its American colonies explodes into bloodshed, igniting the American Revolutionary War.
 * May 10 - American Revolution:
 * The Second Continental Congress meets, elects John Hancock president, raises the Continental Army under George Washington as commander and authorizes the colonies to adopt their own constitutions.
 * Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, leading the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont, capture Fort Ticonderoga.
 * May 17 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress bans trade with Canada.
 * June 11
 * Coronation of Louis XVI takes place in Reims. The last coronation of the Ancien Regime before the French Revolution
 * American Revolutionary War – Battle of Machias: In the first naval engagement of the American Revolution, Patriot forces capture the schooner HMS Margaretta.
 * June 12 – American Revolution:
 * The British forces offer a pardon to all colonists who lay down their arms.
 * Action by citizens of Machias, Maine, in capturing British ships recognises the existence of a United States Merchant Marine.
 * June 14 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress names George Washington as commander of the Continental Army.
 * June 16 – The post of Chief Engineer of the Continental Army is created.
 * June 17 – American Revolution: Two months into the colonial siege of Boston, British open fire on Breed's Hill on Charles Town Peninsula. After 3 charges, the British take the hill in the misnamed Battle of Bunker Hill.
 * June 19 – The post of Commanding General is created by the Continental Congress.

July–December

 * July 3 – American Revolution: George Washington takes command of the 17,000-man Continental Army at Cambridge.
 * July 5 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress sends the Olive Branch Petition, hoping for a reconciliation.
 * July 6 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress issues Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, which contains the words: "Our cause is just. Our union is perfect... being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves...".
 * July 26 – The Second Continental Congress appoints Benjamin Franklin to be the first Postmaster General of what later becomes the United States Post Office Department.
 * July 30 – Second voyage of James Cook: HMS Resolution (1771) anchors off the south coast of England, Captain Cook having completed the first eastbound global circumnavigation.
 * August 18 – Tucson is founded.
 * August 21 – American Revolution – Siege of Fort St. Jean: American rebels launch an invasion of Canada.
 * August 23 – American Revolution: Refusing to even look at the Olive Branch Petition, King George issues a Proclamation of Rebellion against the American colonies.
 * August 29 – September 12 – The Independence Hurricane from South Carolina to Nova Scotia kills 4,170, mostly fishermen and sailors.
 * September 25 – American Revolution: Siege of Fort St. Jean – Battle of Longue-Pointe: Thirteen Colonies revolutionary forces under Maj. Ethan Allen attack Montreal in Quebec, commanded by British General Guy Carleton. Allen's forces are defeated, and Allen himself is captured and held on British ships until he is released.
 * October – The Sayre Plotters attempt to kidnap George III of the United Kingdom.
 * October 13 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress orders the establishment of the Continental Navy (later the United States Navy).
 * October 26 – American Revolution: George III announces to Parliament that the American colonies are in an uprising and must be dealt with accordingly.
 * November – American Revolution: Colonel Richard Richardson's South Carolina revolutionaries march through Ninety-Six District in what becomes known as the Snow Campaign, effectively ending all major support for the Loyalist cause in the backcountry of South Carolina.
 * November 7 – American Revolution: John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, British royal governor of the Colony of Virginia, signs Dunmore's Proclamation, declaring martial law and offering freedom to slaves of Patriots who run away from their owners and join the Loyalist forces (formal proclamation November 15) thus losing the support of planters who see slaves as their vital livelihood.
 * November 10 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress passes a resolution creating the Continental Marines to serve as landing troops for the recently created Continental Navy (the Marines are disbanded at end of the war in April 1783 but reformed on July 11, 1798 as the United States Marine Corps).
 * November 13 – American Revolution: Battle of Montreal – American forces under Brigadier General Richard Montgomery capture Montreal. British General Guy Carleton escapes to Quebec.
 * November 17 – The city of Kuopio, Finland (belonging to Sweden at this time) is founded by King Gustav III of Sweden.
 * December 5 – American Revolution: Henry Knox begins his journey to Cambridge, Massachusetts with the artillery that has been captured from Fort Ticonderoga.
 * December 31 – American Revolution: Battle of Quebec – British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at Quebec; Montgomery is killed.

Date unknown

 * Industrial Revolution in Great Britain.
 * James Watt's 1769 steam engine patent is extended to June 1800 by Act of Parliament and the first engines are built under it.
 * John Wilkinson invents and patents a new kind of boring machine.
 * Catherine the Great decrees a Statute for the Administration of the Provinces of the Russian Empire dividing the country into provinces and districts for efficient government.
 * A smallpox epidemic begins in New England.
 * Tseax Cone in northwestern British Columbia erupts.
 * Typhoon Liengkieki devastates the Pacific atoll of Pingelap.
 * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart writes his five violin concertos in Salzburg at about this date.
 * The Calcutta Theatre is inaugurated.
 * Shneur Zalman of Liadi founds the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic Jewish dynasty.
 * Probable date – Jeanne Baret returns to France, becoming the first woman to complete a circumnavigation of the globe.
 * Breguet, one of the oldest Swiss luxury watch brands, clock and jewelry manufacturers is founded by Abraham-Louis Breguet in Paris.

January–March

 * January 2 – Henry Tufton, 11th Earl of Thanet, English cricketer (d. 1849)
 * January 3 – Francis Caulfeild, 2nd Earl of Charlemont, Irish politician (d. 1863)
 * January 4
 * George Weare Braikenridge, English antiquarian (d. 1856)
 * Carlo, Duke of Calabria, Italian prince (d. 1778)
 * January 6
 * Date Narimura, Japanese daimyō (d. 1796)
 * Horace St Paul, English soldier and Member of Parliament (d. 1840)
 * January 7 – Thomas Amyot, English antiquarian (d. 1850)
 * January 9
 * Juan Francisco Larrobla, Uruguayan politician (d. 1842)
 * Antonio Villavicencio, statesman and soldier of New Granada (d. 1816)
 * January 10 – James Sewall Morsell, United States federal judge (d. 1870)
 * January 13 – Stanisław Kostka Zamoyski, Polish noble (d. 1856)
 * January 15 – Giosuè Sangiovanni, Italian zoologist (d. 1849)
 * January 18
 * Pedro Moreno, Mexican soldier (d. 1817)
 * Evelyn Pierrepont, British Member of Parliament (d. 1801)
 * January 19
 * Hudson Gurney, English antiquary and verse-writer (d. 1864)
 * George Pyke, Canadian politician (d. 1851)
 * January 20 – André-Marie Ampère, French physicist and mathematician (d. 1836)
 * January 22
 * Manuel García, Spanish singer, teacher and composer (d. 1832)

 * January 23
 * Pietro Colletta, Neapolitan general and historian (d. 1831)
 * José Fernández Salvador, Ecuadorian politician and jurist (d. 1853)
 * John Rubens Smith, London-born painter (d. 1849)
 * January 27 – Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, German philosopher (d. 1854)
 * January 28
 * Lady Charlotte Bury, English novelist (d. 1861)
 * James Brown Mason, American physician and legislator (d. 1819)
 * January 30 – Walter Savage Landor, English writer and poet (d. 1864)
 * January 31
 * Giordano Bianchi Dottula, Italian writer and politician (d. 1846)
 * John Richard Farre, English physician (d. 1862)
 * February 1
 * Philippe de Girard, French engineer and inventor of the first flax spinning frame in 1810 (d. 1845)
 * Jochum Nicolay Müller, Norwegian naval officer who (d. 1848)
 * February 2 – Gurun Princess Hexiao of the Manchu dynasty (d. 1823)
 * February 3
 * Maximilien Sébastien Foy, French military leader (d. 1825)
 * Louis-François Lejeune, French general, painter and printmaker (d. 1848)
 * February 8
 * Jacob Liv Borch Sverdrup, Norwegian educator (d. 1841)
 * Antonio Bertoloni, Italian botanist who made extensive studies of Italian plants (d. 1869)
 * Thomas Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth, British politician (d. 1855)
 * February 9
 * Farkas Bolyai, Hungarian mathematician (d. 1856)
 * Theodor Hell, pseudonym of Karl Gottfried Theodor Winkler, German man of letters (d. 1856)
 * February 10
 * Charles Lamb, English essayist (d. 1834)
 * James Wilkes Maurice, British Royal Navy officer during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (d. 1857)
 * Ádám Récsey, Prime Minister of Hungary (October 3–7, 1848) (d. 1852)
 * February 11 – William Hall, American politician (d. 1856)
 * February 12 – Charles Lloyd, English poet (d. 1839)
 * February 14 – William Clift, English medical illustrator and conservator (d. 1849)
 * February 15
 * Paul Allen, American author and editor (d. 1826)
 * Miguel Ramos Arizpe, Mexican priest (d. 1843)
 * February 17
 * Heinrich Jacob Aldenrath, German portrait painter (d. 1844)
 * Frederick Garling, English attorney and solicitor (d. 1848)
 * February 18 – Thomas Girtin, English painter and etcher (d. 1802)
 * February 19
 * John Bibby, founder of the British Bibby Line shipping company (d. 1840)
 * Giovanni Battista Comolli, Italian sculptor (d. 1831)
 * February 20
 * Guy-Victor Duperré, French naval officer and Admiral of France (d. 1846)
 * Israel Gregg, first captain of the historic American steamboat Enterprise (1814) (d. 1847)
 * John Starr, merchant and political figure in Nova Scotia (d. 1827)
 * February 21
 * Jean-Baptiste Girard, French soldier (d. 1815)
 * Claudius Herrick, American educator and minister (d. 1831)
 * February 22
 * William Seymour, United States Representative from New York (d. 1848)
 * February 24
 * Claudius Hunter, Lord Mayor of London (d. 1851)
 * Matěj Kopecký, Czech puppeteer (d. 1847)
 * Edward St Maur, 11th Duke of Somerset, English landowner and amateur mathematician (d. 1855)
 * February 25 – John Caldwell, businessman and politician in Lower Canada (d. 1842)
 * February 26 – Adolf Stieler, German cartographer and lawyer (d. 1836)
 * February 28 – Sophie Tieck, German poet (d. 1833)
 * March 3 – Henry Prittie, 2nd Baron Dunalley, British politician (d. 1854)
 * March 4 – Johann Baptist von Lampi the Younger, Austrian portrait painter (d. 1837)
 * March 5
 * Charlotte Richardson, English poet (d. 1825)
 * Adam Elias von Siebold, German gynecologist (d. 1828)
 * March 9
 * Jean Kickx, Belgian botanist and mineralogist (d. 1831)
 * Constance Mayer, French painter (d. 1821)
 * March 10
 * Marc-Antoine Jullien de Paris, French journalist (d. 1848)
 * Sir David Wedderburn, 1st Baronet, Scottish businessman and politician (d. 1858)
 * March 11
 * Nils Landmark, Norwegian politician (d. 1859)
 * Pierre Jean François Turpin, French botanist and illustrator (d. 1840)
 * March 12
 * Joseph Chitty, English lawyer and legal writer (d. 1841)
 * Henry Eckford, Scottish-born American shipbuilder, naval architect, industrial engineer, entrepreneur (d. 1832)
 * Michel Grendahl, Norwegian politician (d. 1849)
 * James Welsh, English officer in the Madras Army of the East India Company (d. 1861)
 * March 14 – Samuel Street Jr., businessman in Upper Canada (d. 1844)
 * March 15 – Juan Bautista Arismendi, Venezuelan patriot and general of the Venezuelan War of Independence (d. 1841)
 * March 17 – Ninian Edwards, founding political figure of the state of Illinois (d. 1833)
 * March 19 – Ramsay Richard Reinagle, English painter (d. 1862)
 * March 22
 * Johan Collett, Norwegian politician and public administrator (d. 1827)
 * Jack Crawford, British Royal Navy sailor, "Hero of Camperdown" (d. 1831)
 * Armand Gouffé, French poet (d. 1845)
 * March 23 – William Haseldine Pepys, English physical scientist (d. 1856)
 * March 24
 * Pauline Auzou, French painter and art instructor (d. 1835)
 * Pierre Berthezène, French Army general (d. 1847)
 * Muthuswami Dikshitar, South Indian poet and composer (d. 1835)
 * March 25 – John Johnston, United States Indian agent (d. 1861)
 * March 26 – Thomas Monteagle Bayly, Virginian politician, lawyer and planter (d. 1834)
 * March 27 – Nicolai Abraham Holten, Danish civil servant and director of Øresund Custom House (d. 1850)
 * March 28 – Johann Heinrich Gossler, Hamburg banker and grand burgher (d. 1842)
 * March 30 – Hieronymus Karl Graf von Colloredo-Mansfeld, Austrian corps commander during the Napoleonic Wars (d. 1822)

April–June

 * April 2
 * John Higton, English animal painter (d. 1827)
 * Calvin Jones, American politician (d. 1846)
 * Moses Walton, Virginia farmer serving in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly (d. 1847)
 * April 4 – Dutch Sam, British boxer (d. 1816)
 * April 5 – Johann Nepomuk Rust, Austrian surgeon (d. 1840)
 * April 6 – Edward Wynne-Pendarves, English politician (d. 1853)
 * April 7
 * Eliza Jumel, American socialite (d. 1865)
 * Francis Cabot Lowell, American businessman (d. 1817)
 * Louis Barbe Charles Sérurier, French diplomat (d. 1860)
 * April 8
 * Antoine Charles Cazenove, Swiss-American businessman and diplomat (d. 1852)
 * Adam Albert von Neipperg, Austrian general and statesman (d. 1829)
 * Thomas Powys, 2nd Baron Lilford, British peer (d. 1825)
 * April 9 – Martim Francisco Ribeiro de Andrada, Brazilian politician, leader in Brazil's independence and government (d. 1844)
 * April 10 – Carl Wigand Maximilian Jacobi, German psychiatrist (d. 1858)
 * April 12
 * Christian Samuel Theodor Bernd, German linguist and heraldist (d. 1854)
 * Vito Nunziante, Italian general (d. 1836)
 * April 13 – Adolph Henke, German physician (d. 1843)
 * April 14
 * Karl Becker, German philologist (d. 1849)
 * John Philip, Scottish-born missionary in South Africa (d. 1851)
 * April 16
 * Sylvester Maxwell, American lawyer and legislator (d. 1858)
 * Charles Stewart, English Anglican bishop in Lower Canada (d. 1837)
 * April 21
 * Alexander Anderson, American physician and illustrator (d. 1870)
 * Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby, British politician (d. 1851)
 * April 22
 * Georg Hermes, German Roman Catholic theologian (d. 1831)
 * Henry Ryan, US-Canadian Methodist minister (d. 1833)
 * April 23 – J. M. W. Turner, English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker (d. 1851)
 * April 25
 * William Warren Baldwin, Canadian politician (d. 1844)
 * Alexander Johnston, Sri Lankan judge (d. 1849)
 * Carlota Joaquina of Spain, Queen consort of Portugal (d. 1830)
 * April 27 – Pietro Ostini, Catholic cardinal (d. 1849)
 * April 28
 * William Capel, English sportsman and clergyman (d. 1854)
 * Loftus William Otway, British Napoleonic Wars general (d. 1835)
 * April 29 – Samuel King, American Presbyterian minister, a founder of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church (d. 1842)
 * April 30
 * Guillaume Dode de la Brunerie, Marshal of France (d. 1851)
 * Calvin Fillmore, American farmer and politician from New York (d. 1865)
 * George Kinloch, Scottish reformer and politician (d. 1833)
 * May 1 – Angélique Mongez, French Neoclassical artist (d. 1855)
 * May 3 – John Hansen Sørbrøden, Norwegian farmer (d. 1857)
 * May 5
 * Marie-Anne Calame, Swiss vitreous enamel miniaturist and pietist philanthropic educator (d. 1834)
 * Johann Christoph Friedrich Klug, German entomologist (d. 1856)
 * Alexander McNair, American frontiersman and politician (d. 1826)
 * Pablo Morillo, Spanish general (d. 1837)
 * May 6
 * Hans Henrich Maschmann, Norwegian pharmacist (d. 1860)
 * Mary Martha Sherwood, English children's author (d. 1851)
 * May 8 – George Gwilt the younger, English architect (d. 1856)
 * May 9 – Jacob Brown, United States general (d. 1828)
 * May 10
 * Antoine Charles Louis de Lasalle, French cavalry general during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (d. 1809)
 * William Phillips, English mineralogist and geologist (d. 1828)
 * May 12 – George Whitmore, British Army general (d. 1862)
 * May 14 – Micah Brooks, United States general (d. 1857)
 * May 17
 * Sir John Beckett, 2nd Baronet, British politician (d. 1847)
 * Daniel LeRoy, Attorney General for the Michigan Territory (d. 1858)
 * May 19 – Antonín Jan Jungmann, Czech physician (d. 1854)
 * May 21 – Lucien Bonaparte, French statesman (d. 1840)
 * May 24
 * Sir Charles Ogle, 2nd Baronet, British Royal Navy officer (d. 1858)
 * Matthew Whitworth-Aylmer, 5th Baron Aylmer, British Army general (d. 1850)
 * May 25 – Pelagio Palagi, Italian painter (d. 1860)
 * May 28 – Thomas Graves, 2nd Baron Graves, British politician (d. 1830)
 * May 29 – Nathan Cutler, American politician from Maine (d. 1861)
 * May 31
 * Charles Digby, British clergyman, Canon of Windsor from 1808 (d. 1841)
 * Charles Jackson, American lawyer and jurist (d. 1855)
 * June 4 – Francesco Molino, Italian guitarist (d. 1847)
 * June 8 – Henry Boehm, American clergyman and pastor (d. 1875)
 * June 9 – Georg Friedrich Grotefend, German epigraphist and philologist (d. 1853)
 * June 10 – James Barbour, American politician (d. 1842)
 * June 12
 * Francis Bloodgood, American lawyer, mayor of Albany (d. 1840)
 * Johann Baptist Malfatti von Monteregio, Italian-born physician (d. 1859)
 * Karl Freiherr von Müffling, Prussian Generalfeldmarschall (d. 1851)
 * June 13 – Antoni Radziwiłł, Polish politician (d. 1833)
 * June 14 – André Bruno de Frévol de Lacoste, French general of the First Empire (d. 1809)
 * June 15
 * Elizabeth Benger, English biographer (d. 1827)
 * Paul Delano, American-born sea captain (d. 1842)
 * Carlo Porta, Italian poet (d. 1821)
 * June 16 – Judah Touro, American businessman (d. 1854)
 * June 17 – Alexander Cowan, Scottish papermaker and philanthropist (d. 1859)
 * June 18 – Orsamus Cook Merrill, American politician (d. 1865)
 * June 19
 * Vardry McBee, American saddlemaker and philanthropist (d. 1864)
 * Friedrich August Peter von Colomb, German general (d. 1854)
 * June 20 – Jacques Frédéric Français, French engineer and mathematician (d. 1833)
 * June 22
 * Johannes Flüggé, German botanist and physician (d. 1816)
 * Camillo Ranzani, Italian priest and a naturalist (d. 1841)
 * June 24 – John Kempthorne, English clergyman and hymnwriter (d. 1838)
 * June 25 – John Stevenson Salt, English barrister, banker and landowner (d. 1845)
 * June 26
 * Jean-Jacques Desvaux de Saint-Maurice, French general of the Napoleonic Wars (d. 1815)
 * John Swaine, English draughtsman and engraver (d. 1860)
 * June 29 – Thomas Boyle, American privateer (d. 1825)
 * June 30 – William Thompson, Irish philosopher (d. 1833)

July–September

 * July 1 – Cephas Thompson, American artist (d. 1856)
 * July 2 – Aaron Peasley, American buttonmaker (d. 1837)
 * July 3 – Antoine Philippe, Duke of Montpensier, member of the French royal family (d. 1807)
 * July 5 – William Crotch, English composer, organist and artist (d. 1847)
 * July 8
 * William Davies, United States federal judge (d. 1829)
 * Lucy Mack Smith, American prominent in the Latter Day Saints, mother of Joseph Smith (d. 1856)
 * July 9 – Matthew "Monk" Lewis, English Gothic horror writer and politician (d. 1818)
 * July 11 – Joseph Blanco White, Spanish-born political thinker, theologian and poet (d. 1841)
 * July 14
 * Louis Ducis, French painter (d. 1847)
 * Berkeley Guise, British landowner and Member of Parliament (d. 1834)
 * July 15
 * George Schonswar, British politician (d. 1859)
 * Richard Westmacott, British sculptor (d. 1856)
 * July 17
 * Domingo Eyzaguirre, Chilean politician and philanthropist (d. 1854)
 * August Harder, German musician (d. 1813)
 * July 18
 * Pierre Decouz, French military officer (d. of wounds 1814)
 * Karl von Rotteck, German political activist (d. 1840)
 * July 19
 * Camillo Borghese, 6th Prince of Sulmona (d. 1832)
 * John Andrew Shulze, Pennsylvania political leader, sixth Governor of Pennsylvania (d. 1852)
 * July 21
 * Edward Heneage, English first-class cricketer (d. 1810)
 * George Osborne, 6th Duke of Leeds, English peer and politician (d. 1838)
 * July 23
 * Carl Ludwig Wilhelm Grolman, German jurist (d. 1829)
 * Étienne-Louis Malus, French officer (d. 1812)
 * July 24 – Eugène François Vidocq, French criminal and private detective agent (d. 1857)
 * July 25 – Anna Harrison, American politician (d. 1864)
 * July 27 – Therese Brunsvik, Hungarian educationalist (d. 1861)
 * July 28 – Hussey Vivian, 1st Baron Vivian, British Army general (d. 1842)
 * July 31 – Emmanuel Dupaty, French singer and writer (d. 1851)
 * August 2
 * William Henry Ireland, English forger (d. 1835)
 * José Ángel Lamas, Venezuelan classical musician and composer born in Caracas (d. 1814)
 * August 6
 * Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême, last Dauphin of France (d. 1844)
 * Daniel O'Connell, Ireland's predominant political leader (d. 1847)
 * Hendrik van Oort, Northern Netherlandish painter (d. 1847)
 * August 7
 * Maria Brizzi Giorgi, Italian organist (d. 1812)
 * Jacob Hoel, Norwegian farmer (d. 1847)
 * Henriette Lorimier, popular portraitist in Paris at the beginning of Romanticism (d. 1854)
 * August 8 – Richard Blakemore, English politician (d. 1855)
 * August 9 – Jacob Brown, United States general (d. 1828)
 * August 12 – Conrad Malte-Brun, Danish-born geographer and writer on French politics (d. 1826)
 * August 14 – Pieter Adrianus Ossewaarde, Dutch politician (d. 1853)
 * August 15
 * Carlos de España, Spanish general (d. 1839)
 * Carl Franz Anton Ritter von Schreibers, Austrian naturalist, native of Pressburg (d. 1852)
 * August 16
 * John Carlyle Herbert, American politician (d. 1846)
 * Ebenezer Sage, American politician (d. 1834)
 * August 18
 * James Elliot, American politician (d. 1839)
 * Johann Leonhard Pfaff, bishop of the German Roman Catholic Diocese of Fulda from 1832 (d. 1848)
 * August 20
 * Franz Dinnendahl, German mechanical engineer (d. 1826)
 * George Tucker, American politician (d. 1861)
 * August 22
 * François Péron, French naturalist and explorer (d. 1810)
 * August von Vécsey, Austro-Hungarian general (d. 1857)
 * August 23 – Mark Cubbon, British army officer with the East India Company (d. 1861)
 * August 25 – Karl Joseph Hieronymus Windischmann, German philosopher and anthropologist (d. 1839)
 * August 26 – William Joseph Behr, German political radical (d. 1851)
 * August 27
 * Frederick Graff, American hydraulic engineer (d. 1847)
 * Jan Verveer, major general of the Royal Netherlands Army (d. 1838)
 * August 28
 * Antoine Marc Augustin Bertoletti, Italian general (d. 1846)
 * Sophie Gail, French singer and composer (d. 1819)
 * August 29 – Niels Wulfsberg, Norwegian publisher (d. 1852)
 * August 31
 * Agnes Bulmer, English epic poet (d. 1836)
 * François de Fossa, French classical guitarist and composer (d. 1849)
 * September 1 – Honoré Charles Reille, French general, Marshal of France (d. 1860)
 * September 4 – Jean-François Le Gonidec, Breton linguist, Bible translator (d. 1838)
 * September 5
 * Juan Martín Díez, El Empecinado, Spanish military leader (d. 1825)
 * Adolph Ferdinand Gehlen, German chemist (d. 1815)
 * September 6 – Aleksey Greig, Russian admiral (d. 1845)
 * September 7 – John Jebb, Irish Anglican bishop and religious writer (d. 1833)
 * September 8
 * John Leyden, Scottish orientalist (d. 1811)
 * Vasily Orlov-Denisov, Cossack Russian general (d. 1843)
 * September 9
 * Guillaume Capelle, French administrator and politician (d. 1843)
 * Francisco Ramón Vicuña, President of Chile (d. 1849)
 * September 10
 * John Kidd, English physician, chemist and geologist (d. 1851)
 * Murray Maxwell, British Royal Navy officer (d. 1831)
 * September 11
 * Narciso Fernández de Heredia, 2nd Count of Heredia-Spínola, Prime Minister of Spain (d. 1847)
 * Ferdinand August Freiherr von Hügel, general in the royal Württemberg Infantry (d. 1834)
 * September 12 – Josef Jüttner, Austrian cartographer and military officer (d. 1848)
 * September 13 – Laura Secord, Canadian heroine of the War of 1812 (d. 1868)
 * September 14
 * Jean-Louis Burnouf, French philologist and translator (d. 1844)
 * John Henry Hobart, third Episcopal bishop of New York from 1816 (d. 1830)
 * Joseph Phillimore, English lawyer and Member of Parliament (d. 1855)
 * September 15 – William A. Griswold, American lawyer and politician (d. 1846)
 * September 16
 * Hermano José Braamcamp de Almeida Castelo Branco, Portuguese nobleman and politician (d. 1846)
 * Giuseppe Rosaroll, Italian essayist and general in the army of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (d. 1825)
 * Christian Friedrich Schwägrichen, German botanist specializing in the field of bryology (d. 1853)
 * September 17
 * Georges Roffavier, French botanist (d. 1866)
 * Margrethe Schall, Danish ballerina (d. 1852)
 * September 19 – José Félix Ribas, hero of the Venezuelan War of Independence (d. 1815)
 * September 20 – François-Pierre Chaumeton, French botanist and physician (d. 1819)
 * September 22 – Philip Milledoler, American protestant minister and fifth President of Rutgers College (d. 1852)
 * September 23 – Jens Christian Berg, Norwegian lawyer and historian (d. 1852)
 * September 24 – Nathan Heald, officer in the United States Army during the War of 1812 (d. 1832)
 * September 25 – Pierre Flor, Norwegian politician (d. 1848)
 * September 26 – James Grimston, 1st Earl of Verulam, British peer and Member of Parliament (d. 1845)
 * September 29
 * David McConaughy, American pastor and fourth president of Washington College from 1831 to 1852 (d. 1852)
 * François Michel de Rozière, French mining engineer and mineralogist (d. 1842)
 * Herbert Taylor, British Army officer (d. 1839)
 * September 30 – Robert Adrain, Irish-born American mathematician (d. 1843)

October–December

 * October 2 – Cornelius O'Callaghan, 1st Viscount Lismore, Irish politician (d. 1857)
 * October 3 – Isaac von Sinclair, German writer and diplomat (d. 1815)
 * October 6 – Johann Anton André, German composer and music publisher (d. 1842)
 * October 7
 * Ramón Power y Giralt, Puerto Rican politician and Spanish admiral (d. 1813)
 * Jaygopal Tarkalankar, Bengali writer and Sanskrit scholar (d. 1846)
 * October 9
 * Sir Alexander Boswell, 1st Baronet, British politician (d. 1822)
 * Lars Johannes Irgens, Norwegian jurist and public official (d. 1830)
 * Peter Thonning, Danish physician and botanist (d. 1848)
 * Charles Williams-Wynn, British politician (d. 1850)
 * October 12
 * Lyman Beecher, American Presbyterian minister and patriarch (d. 1863)
 * Ludovico Micara, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 1847)
 * October 13 – John Wentworth Loring, British Royal Navy admiral (d. 1852)
 * October 14 – Godfrey Macdonald, 3rd Baron Macdonald of Sleat, Scottish general (d. 1832)
 * October 15
 * Bernhard Crusell, Swedish-Finnish clarinetist and composer 1838)
 * Alberto Lista, Spanish poet and educationalist (d. 1848)
 * Bernardo Peres da Silva, governor of Portuguese India (d. 1844)
 * October 17 – Ole Paulssøn Haagenstad, Norwegian politician (d. 1866)
 * October 18
 * Martial Aubertin, French stage actor and dramatist (d. 1824)
 * Dawson Turner, English banker and botanist (d. 1858)
 * John Vanderlyn, American artist (d. 1852)
 * October 19
 * Jean-Baptiste Faribault, Lower Canadian trader with the Indians and early settler in Minnesota (d. 1860)
 * Kamma Rahbek, Danish salon holder (d. 1829)
 * October 21
 * Giuseppe Baini, Italian priest, music critic and composer (d. 1844)
 * Bartholomew Crannell Beardsley, Canadian politician, lawyer and judge (d. 1855)
 * October 23 – Gottlob Friedrich Thormeyer, German architect (d. 1842)
 * October 24 – Bahadur Shah II, Mughal emperor (d. 1862)
 * October 26
 * Charles Douglas, 3rd Baron Douglas, English amateur cricketer (d. 1848)
 * Hans Moritz Hauke, German-Polish general (d. 1830)
 * Joseph Nightingale, prolific English writer and preacher (d. 1824)
 * Alexander Thom, Scottish military surgeon, judge and politician in Upper Canada (d. 1845)
 * October 30
 * Catterino Cavos, Russian composer (d. 1840)
 * Wilhelm Ludwig Viktor Henckel von Donnersmarck, Prussian officer who fought in the Napoleonic Wars (d. 1849)
 * November 1 – Christian Adolph Diriks, Norwegian lawyer and statesman (d. 1837)
 * November 2
 * Jean-Emmanuel Jobez, French businessman and politician (d. 1828)
 * Jeromus Johnson, American politician (d. 1846)
 * November 3 – Edward Paget, British Army general (d. 1849)
 * November 4 – Pierre Capelle, French chansonnier (d. 1851)
 * November 6 – August Wilhelm Hartmann, Danish composer (d. 1850)
 * November 7 – Joseph Fox, English dental surgeon (d. 1816)
 * November 8
 * Achille Fontanelli, Italian nationalist and Napoleonic general (d. 1838)
 * Jacob Peter Mynster, Danish theologian and Bishop of Zealand (d. 1854)
 * November 9 – Daniel Waldron, American businessman (d. 1821)
 * November 10 – James Elliot, American politician (d. 1839)
 * November 11 – Gulbrand Eriksen Tandberg, Norwegian farmer and politician (d. 1848)
 * November 13
 * John Burns, Scottish surgeon (d. 1850)
 * Richard Butler, 1st Earl of Glengall, Irish peer (d. 1819)
 * Rémi Joseph Isidore Exelmans, distinguished French soldier of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (d. 1852)
 * November 14 – Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach, German legal scholar (d. 1833)
 * November 15 – James Carnahan, American clergyman and educator, ninth President of Princeton University (d. 1859)
 * November 19
 * Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger, German entomologist and zoologist (d. 1813)
 * François Antoine Teste, French officer during the Napoleonic Wars (d. 1862)
 * November 20 – Gustav Anton von Seckendorff, German author (d. 1823)
 * November 21 – Josef Servas d'Outrepont, German obstetrician (d. 1845)
 * November 23
 * Clemens Wenzeslaus Coudray, German neoclassical architect (d. 1845)
 * Johann Georg Rist, Danish author (d. 1847)
 * Maria Anna of Naples and Sicily, member of the French Royal Family (d. 1780)
 * November 24 – Peter Buell Allen, politician and military commander in New York State, pioneer of Vigo County and Terre Haute (d. 1833)
 * November 25
 * Joseph Borremans, Belgian composer (d. 1858)
 * Michel Étienne Descourtilz, French physician, botanist and historiographer of the Haitian revolution (d. 1835)
 * Jean Baptiste Godart, French entomologist (d. 1825)
 * Gustaf Gabriel Hällström, Finnish scientist (d. 1844)
 * Charles Kemble, Welsh-born English actor of a prominent theatre family (d. 1854)
 * November 27
 * Jean-Françoìs de Dompierre de Jonquières, Dutch-Danish merchant (d. 1820)
 * Lauritz Weidemann, Norwegian politician (d. 1856)
 * November 28
 * William Frere, English lawyer and academic (d. 1836)
 * Jean-Charles Létourneau, notary and political figure in Lower Canada (d. 1838)
 * November 29 – Marie Antoine de Reiset, French general during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars (d. 1836)
 * November 30 – Jean Joseph Antoine de Courvoisier, French magistrate and politician (d. 1835)
 * December 2 – Joseph Denis Odevaere, Neo-Classical painter from the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium) (d. 1830)
 * December 5 – Abijah Bigelow, American politician (d. 1860)
 * December 6
 * Sir Charles Blunt, 4th Baronet, British Member of Parliament (d. 1840)
 * Nicolas Isouard, Maltese composer (d. 1818)
 * December 10
 * José María de la Cueva, 14th Duke of Albuquerque, Spanish general and ambassador (d. 1811)
 * Giacomo Filippo Fransoni, Catholic cardinal (d. 1856)
 * Jacques-Antoine Manuel, French lawyer (d. 1827)
 * December 11 – Peter Little, American politician (d. 1830)
 * December 13 – Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel the Younger, Prussian statesman (d. 1843)
 * December 14
 * Philander Chase, American Episcopal Church bishop, educator and pioneer (d. 1852)
 * Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, British Royal Navy admiral (d. 1860)
 * December 15 – Phineas Riall, British Army general (d. 1850)
 * December 16
 * Ciro Annunchiarico, Italian cult leader (d. 1817)
 * Jane Austen, English novelist (d. 1817)
 * François-Adrien Boïeldieu, French composer (d. 1834)
 * John Fullerton, Lord Fullerton, Scottish judge (d. 1853)
 * December 17 – Carlo Rossi, Russian architect (d. 1849)
 * December 20
 * Samuel Farrow, American politician (d. 1824)
 * Pierre Antoine François Huber, brigadier general in the French army (d. 1832)
 * December 21 – Julien-Joseph Virey, French naturalist and anthropologist (d. 1846)
 * December 25
 * John Fitzgerald, British Member of Parliament (d. 1852)
 * Peter Reesor, American-born Mennonite settler in Ontario (d. 1854)
 * Antun Sorkočević, Croatian composer, writer and diplomat (d. 1841)
 * December 26 – Anton Carl Ludwig von Tabouillot, French officer, nobleman and counter-revolutionary (d. 1813)
 * December 28
 * João Domingos Bomtempo, Portuguese musician (d. 1842)
 * Jean-Gabriel Eynard, Swiss banker (d. 1863)
 * Pierre François Étienne Bouvet de Maisonneuve, French admiral (d. 1860)
 * Date unknown – Jeanne Geneviève Garnerin, French balloonist and parachutist (d. 1847)

January

 * January 1 – Ahmad Shah Bahadur, 13th Mughal Emperor (b. 1725)
 * January 2
 * St George St George, 1st Baron St George, Irish politician (b. 1710)
 * William Napier, 7th Lord Napier, British noble (b. 1730)
 * January 3
 * Henry Beekman, New York landowner and provincial assemblyman (b. 1687)
 * Robert Campbell, Nova Scotia politician (b. 1718)
 * January 6 – Khawaja Muhammad Zaman of Luari, Sindhi Sufi poet (b. 1713)
 * January 8 – John Baskerville, British printer (b. 1706)
 * January 10
 * Stringer Lawrence, Early British military leader in India (b. 1697)
 * Yemelyan Pugachev, leader of a Russian peasant uprising (b. 1742)
 * January 11
 * Indra Kumari Devi, Queen consort of Nepal (b. 1724)
 * Queen Narendra of Nepal, Queen consort of Gorkha (b. 1723)
 * Prithvi Narayan Shah, last ruler of the Gorkha Kingdom in the Indian subcontinent (b. 1723)
 * January 13 – Johann Georg Walch, German theologian (b. 1693)
 * January 14 – Peter Schenk the Younger, Dutch engraver and map publisher in Leipzig (b. 1693)
 * January 15 – Giovanni Battista Sammartini, Italian composer (b. 1700)
 * January 17 – Vincenzo Riccati, Venetian mathematician and physicist (b. 1707)
 * January 20
 * Sebastian Klotz, German violin maker (b. 1696)
 * Sir George Oxenden, 5th Baronet, English politician (b. 1694)
 * January 21 – Isaac de Forcade de Biaix, Prussian colonel (b. 1704)
 * January 25
 * Bernardo de Rossi, Italian theologian (b. 1687)
 * Georg Friedrich Schmidt, German artist (b. 1712)
 * January 26
 * Domingo de Bonechea, Spanish explorer (b. 1713)
 * Johann Gregor Herold, German painter (b. 1696)
 * Shuja-ud-Daula, Subedar Nawab of Oudh, India (b. 1732)
 * January 29 – Henry Willoughby, 16th Baron Willoughby of Parham, Peer in House of Lords (b. 1696)

February

 * February 1 – Nicholas Herbert, British Member of Parliament (b. 1706)
 * February 2 – Sir John Rushout, 4th Baronet, British politician (b. 1685)
 * February 4 – John Ryder, Irish Anglican bishop (b. 1697)
 * February 5 – Eusebius Amort, German Roman Catholic theologian (b. 1692)
 * February 6 – William Dowdeswell, British politician (b. 1721)
 * February 7 – Mary Butterworth, British counterfeiter in colonial America (b. 1686)
 * February 9 – Princess Hejing, manchu princess of the Qing Dynasty (b. 1756)
 * February 10 – Claude Pouteau, French surgeon and inventor (b. 1724)
 * February 15
 * Peter Dens, Belgian Catholic theologian (b. 1690)
 * Diego Fernández, harpischord maker of the Spanish court (b. 1703)
 * February 16 – Jean-Baptiste Vivien de Châteaubrun, French dramatist and playwright (b. 1686)
 * February 24 – Ferdinando Colonna of Stigliano, 2nd Prince of Sonnino (b. 1695)
 * February 25 – William Small, Scottish physician and professor of natural philosophy (b. 1734)
 * February 28
 * Paul Cardale, British minister (b. 1705)
 * Margaret Coke, Countess of Leicester, British peeress (b. 1700)
 * Empress Xiaoyichun, Qing Dynasty empress (b. 1727)

March

 * March 2 – Nikolaos Doxaras, Greek artist (b. 1710)
 * March 3 – Richard Dunthorne, British astronomer (b. 1711)
 * March 5 – Pierre-Laurent Buirette de Belloy, French actor and dramatist (b. 1727)
 * March 6
 * Job Baster, Dutch naturalist (b. 1711)
 * Gaudenzio Botti, Italian painter (b. 1698)
 * March 7
 * John Boyle, 3rd Earl of Glasgow, British Earl (b. 1714)
 * Thomas Nuthall, English lawyer and politician (b. 1720)
 * March 20 – Pedro Antonio Barroeta y Ángel, Spanish Catholic priest, Archbishop of Lima, Archbishop of Granada (b. 1701)
 * March 21 – Thomas Penn, son of William Penn, founder of the Province of Pennsylvania (b. 1702)
 * March 22
 * Peter August, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck (b. 1697)
 * Hendrik Carré II, Dutch painter (b. 1696)
 * March 23 – Anne Catherine Hoof Green, American printer and publisher (b. 1720)
 * March 30
 * William Irby, 1st Baron Boston, British peer (b. 1707)
 * Christian Ditlev Reventlow, Danish Privy Councillor (b. 1710)
 * March 31 – Samuel Heathcote, British Member of Parliament (b. 1699)

April

 * April 4 – René Charles de Maupeou, French statesman (b. 1688)
 * April 5 – Simon Nikolaus Euseb von Montjoye-Hirsingen, Prince Bishop of Basel (b. 1693)
 * April 7 – Sir Anthony Abdy, 5th Baronet, 5th Abdy Baronet (b. 1720)
 * April 10
 * Jonas Haas, German-born Danish engraver (b. 1720)
 * Louis-Florent de Vallière, Governor General of the French colony of Saint-Domingue, now Haiti (b. 1721)
 * April 11
 * Meletie Covaci, Roman Catholic bishop (b. 1707)
 * Roger Mostyn, English churchman, Canon of Windsor (b. 1720)
 * April 12
 * William Kerr, 4th Marquess of Lothian, Scottish nobleman (b. 1710)
 * Pierre Soubeyran, Genevan-French engraver and copperplate engraver (b. 1709)
 * William Vaughan, Welsh politician (b. 1707)
 * April 14 – Countess Palatine Ernestine of Sulzbach, Landgravine and Carmelite nun (b. 1697)
 * April 16 – William Leyborne Leyborne, governor of the Windward Islands (b. 1744)
 * April 19 – Isaac Davis, American gunsmith and militia officer (b. 1745)
 * April 24 – Jan Caspar Philips, engraver from the Northern Netherlands (b. 1690)
 * April 26 – Josiah Quincy II, American lawyer (b. 1744)
 * April 27 – Peter Boehler, Moravian missionary (b. 1712)
 * April 30
 * Francesco Barsanti, Italian flautist, oboist and composer (b. 1690)
 * Peter Harrison, English-born colonial American architect (b. 1716)

May

 * May 1 – Israel Lyons, English mathematician and botanist (b. 1739)
 * May 2
 * Mary Montagu, Duchess of Montagu, wife of George Brudenell Montagu, Duke of Montagu (b. 1711)
 * Fredericka of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, duchess consort of Saxe-Weissenfels (b. 1715)
 * May 3 – George Boscawen, British Army general (b. 1712)
 * May 5
 * John Blennerhassett, Anglo-Irish politician (b. 1691)
 * Benjamin Dass, Norwegian teacher and book collector (b. 1706)
 * May 7 – Cornelius Heinrich Dretzel, German organist and composer (b. 1697)
 * May 9
 * Domingo de Basavilbaso, Argentinian businessperson (b. 1709)
 * Vittoria Tesi, Italian opera singer and music teacher (b. 1701)
 * May 10
 * Marie Magdalene Charlotte Ackermann, German actress (b. 1757)
 * Caroline Matilda of Great Britain, Queen consort of Denmark and Norway, 1766–1772 (b. 1751)
 * Samuel of Constantinople, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (b. 1700)
 * May 15
 * Hans-Friedrich von Krusemark, Lieutenant General in the Prussian Army of Frederick the Great (b. 1720)
 * Johann Daniel Ritter, German historian (b. 1709)
 * May 16 – Ulla von Liewen, Swedish courtier and baroness (b. 1747)
 * May 17 – Carlo Carlone, painter (b. 1686)
 * May 18
 * Magnus Beronius, Archbishop of Uppsala in the Church of Sweden (b. 1692)
 * Johann Joachim Kändler, German artist (b. 1706)
 * May 25 – Karl Gottlieb Guichard, German writer (b. 1724)
 * May 27 – Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon, French noblewoman (b. 1693)
 * May 28 – Barlow Trecothick, English merchant and politician (b. 1719)
 * May 30 – Jean Capperonnier, French classical scholar (b. 1716)

June

 * June 5 – Giovanni Gaetano Bottari, Italian scholar and critic (b. 1689)
 * June 6 – Sir Charles Burton, 1st Baronet, Anglo-Irish politician (b. 1702)
 * June 11 – Egidio Duni, Italian composer (b. 1708)
 * June 15 – Asa Pollard, American soldier (b. 1735)
 * June 17
 * Andrew McClary, soldier and major in the Continental Army during the American Revolution (b. 1730)
 * John Pitcairn, British Marine officer during the American Revolutionary War (b. 1722)
 * Joseph Warren, American doctor (b. 1741)
 * June 19 – Andrew Barclay, Scottish-American merchant (b. 1719)
 * June 21 – Charles, Prince of Nassau-Usingen and Nassau-Saarbrücken (b. 1712)
 * June 23
 * James Abercrombie, British army officer, died during the American Revolutionary War (b. 1732)
 * Karl Ludwig von Pöllnitz, German soldier, adventurer and writer (b. 1692)
 * June 26 – Aryeh Leib Epstein, Polish rabbi (b. 1708)
 * June 27
 * Ignaz Günther, German sculptor and woodcarver (b. 1725)
 * Robert Livingston, member of New York colonial assembly (b. 1688)
 * June 29 – Anna Smitshuizen, Dutch prostitute, victim of a cause célèbre murder (b. 1751)
 * June 30 – Charles Maynard, 1st Viscount Maynard, British noble (b. 1690)

July

 * July 3 – Thomas Gardner, American politician and colonel (b. 1724)
 * July 11 – Simon Boerum, American Continental Congressman (b. 1724)
 * July 13
 * Louis Charles, Count of Eu, member of the French Capetian dynasty (b. 1701)
 * John Ratcliffe, English academic, Master of Pembroke College, Oxford (b. 1700)
 * July 15 – Servais Duriau, Belgian Cistercian monk (b. 1701)
 * July 18 – Joseph Knight, senior Royal Navy officer, served as East Indies Station (b. c. 1708)
 * July 20 – Enrico Albrici, Italian painter (b. 1714)
 * July 21
 * Robert Bolling, American politician (b. 1738)
 * Szymon Czechowicz, prominent Polish Baroque painter (b. 1689)
 * July 22 – Thomas Lockhart, politician (b. 1739)
 * July 24 – John Pollen, British Member of Parliament (b. 1702)

August

 * August 4 – Sir Gregory Page, 2nd Baronet, English art collector and landowner (b. 1689)
 * August 5 – Maharaja Nandakumar, tax official (b. 1705)
 * August 9 – Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky, Prussian merchant, art dealer and diplomat (b. 1710)
 * August 10
 * Elihu Adams, soldier in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War (b. 1741)
 * César de Missy, Prussian book collector and theologian (b. 1703)
 * August 12 – Remember Baker, American soldier, member of the Green Mountain Boys (murdered) (b. 1737)
 * August 13 – Michał Fryderyk Czartoryski, Polish nobleman (b. 1696)
 * August 14 – Laurens Storm van 's Gravesande, Dutch governor of the colonies of Essequibo and Demerara (b. 1704)
 * August 16 – Jakob Langebek, Danish historian (b. 1710)
 * August 21 – Zahir al-Umar, Arab ruler of northern Palestine (b. 1689)
 * August 25 – Felipe de Castro, Spanish sculptor (b. 1711)
 * August 27 – James Burgh, British Whig politician and writer (b. 1714)
 * August 28 – James Habersham, Merchant and politician in the British colony of Georgia (b. 1712)
 * August 29 – Francesco Sleter, Italian painter (b. 1685)
 * August 30 – George Faulkner, Irish publisher and bookseller (b. 1699)

September

 * September 2 – Antoine Touron, French historian (b. 1686)
 * September 4 – Al-Mahdi Abbas, Imam of Yemen (b. 1719)
 * September 6 – Jean-Baptiste Bullet, French writer (b. 1699)
 * September 8 – John Conyers, English politician (b. 1717)
 * September 12 – Charles-Louis Mion, French composer (b. 1699)
 * September 13
 * Klaas Annink, Dutch serial killer (executed) (b. 1710)
 * Guillaume Mazeas, French physicist (b. 1720)
 * Constantine Phipps, 1st Baron Mulgrave, Irish Baron (b. 1722)
 * September 14 – Janusz Aleksander Sanguszko, Court Marshal of Lithuania (b. 1712)
 * September 16 – Allen Bathurst, 1st Earl Bathurst, English privy councillor (b. 1684)
 * September 17
 * Charles Allanson, British Member of Parliament (b. 1720)
 * John Parker, American colonial farmer, smith and soldier (b. 1729)
 * September 21 – Abel Prescott Jr., American Patriot (b. 1749)
 * September 23 – John Bentinck, British naval officer, inventor and MP (b. 1737)
 * September 24
 * Emanuel Büchel, Swiss graphic artist, aquarellist, topographer and baker (b. 1705)
 * Polixénia Daniel, Hungarian noble and writer (b. 1720)
 * September 28 – Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, writer and enslaved man (b. 1710)

October

 * October 2 – Fukuda Chiyo-ni, Japanese haiku poet and Buddhist nun (b. 1703)
 * October 3 – Cluer Dicey, English newspaper proprietor and patent medicine vendor (b. 1715)
 * October 5 – Amos Adams, Anglican clergy (b. 1728)
 * October 10 – Louis Nicolas Victor de Félix d'Ollières, Marshal of France (b. 1711)
 * October 13 – James Cholmondeley, British Army officer, Member of Parliament (b. 1708)
 * October 14 – Gilles Joubert, French master cabinetmaker (b. 1689)
 * October 16
 * Peter van Hurk, Danish merchant (b. 1697)
 * Antti Piimänen, Finnish churchbuilder (b. 1712)
 * October 18
 * Michael Cresap, Continental Army officer (b. 1742)
 * Paul of the Cross, Italian mystic (b. 1694)
 * Christian August Crusius, German philosopher and theologian (b. 1715)
 * October 20 – Sir John Molesworth, 5th Baronet, British Member of Parliament (b. 1729)
 * October 21
 * François-Hubert Drouais, French painter (b. 1727)
 * Maria Wilhelmina von Neipperg, Mistress of Austrian royalty (b. 1738)
 * Sakai Tadamochi, 酒井忠用 Daimyo (b. 1723)
 * October 22 – Peyton Randolph, planter and public official from the Colony of Virginia (b. 1721)
 * October 27 – Johan Maurits Mohr, Dutch-German pastor and astronomer (b. 1716)
 * October 29 – Gabriel François Venel, French chemist (b. 1723)

November

 * November 1 – Pierre-Joseph Bernard, French writer (b. 1708)
 * November 2 – Noble Jones, British American politician (b. 1702)
 * November 3 – Juan José Pérez Hernández, Spanish explorer (b. 1725)
 * November 5
 * Tysoe Hancock, English physician (b. 1723)
 * Christian IV, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken, German noble (b. 1722)
 * Luis Jayme, Spanish-born Franciscan (b. 1740)
 * November 6
 * Peter Burrell, British politician (b. 1724)
 * Guillaume de Barrême de Châteaufort, French painter (b. 1719)
 * November 7
 * Johann Gottfried Hildebrandt, organ builder (b. 1724)
 * François Rebel, French composer (b. 1701)
 * November 9 – Francisco Ximénez de Tejada, Spanish knight, 69th Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (b. 1703)
 * November 12 – John Smith, English politician (b. 1727)
 * November 13 – Jeanne Camus de Pontcarré, French aristocrat and eccentric widow (b. 1705)
 * November 21 – John Hill, English author and botanist (b. 1716)
 * November 22 – Claude-Henri de Fusée de Voisenon, French dramatist and writer (b. 1708)
 * November 24 – Lorenzo Ricci, Superior General of the Society of Jesus (b. 1703)
 * November 25
 * Jacob Benzon, Norwegian judge (b. 1688)
 * Richard Spry, British Royal Navy officer, North America and West Indies Station (b. 1715)
 * November 28 – Thomas Elfe, British cabinet-maker (b. 1719)
 * November 29 – Juan Curiel, Spanish intellectual and politician (b. 1690)

December

 * December 3 – Giovanni Bianchi, Italian physician and zoologist (b. 1693)
 * December 7
 * Charles Saunders, British politician (b. 1715)
 * Fabrizio Serbelloni, Catholic cardinal (b. 1695)
 * December 8 – Josef Ignaz Mildorfer, Austrian painter (b. 1719)
 * December 9
 * Pietro Gnocchi, Italian composer (b. 1689)
 * Robert Livingston, landowner and politician in Colonial America (b. 1718)
 * December 15
 * Marie-Angélique Memmie Le Blanc, French feral child (b. 1712)
 * Princess Tarakanova, Pretender to the Russian throne (b. 1753)
 * December 16 – Gustavus Hamilton, Irish painter (b. 1739)
 * December 20 – Sigismund Streit, German art collector (b. 1687)
 * December 21 – Theresa Parker, English art patron (b. 1745)
 * December 28
 * John Campbell, Scottish author (b. 1708)
 * Petrus Albertus van der Parra, Dutch colonial governor (b. 1714)
 * John Phillips, English master carpenter and architect (b. 1709)
 * December 31
 * Richard Montgomery, American general (killed in battle) (b. 1738)
 * Anna Vorontsova, Russian lady-in-waiting (b. 1722)

 * Date unknown – Sarah Buttall, English silversmith

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: 1775


text:
1773

January–March

 * January 1 – The hymn that becomes known as Amazing Grace, at this time titled "1 Chronicles 17:16–17", is first used to accompany a sermon led by curate John Newton in the town of Olney, Buckinghamshire, England.
 * January 12 – The first museum in the American colonies is established in Charleston, South Carolina; in 1915, it is formally incorporated as the Charleston Museum.
 * January 17 – Second voyage of James Cook: Captain Cook in HMS Resolution (1771) becomes the first European explorer to cross the Antarctic Circle.
 * January 18 – The first opera performance in the Swedish language, Thetis and Phelée, performed by Carl Stenborg and Elisabeth Olin in Bollhuset in Stockholm, Sweden, marks the establishment of the Royal Swedish Opera.
 * February 8 – The Grand Council of Poland meets in Warsaw, summoned by a circular letter from King Stanisław August Poniatowski to respond to the Kingdom's threatened partition between three foreign powers.
 * February 27 – The construction of Christ Church (Alexandria, Virginia), known for being the house of worship for George Washington and the visiting site for subsequent U.S. presidents, is completed.
 * March 9–19 – Second voyage of James Cook: Tobias Furneaux in HMS Adventure (1771) explores the coast of Van Diemen's Land.
 * March 15 – The popular (and enduring) comedy She Stoops to Conquer, by Irish playwright Oliver Goldsmith, is performed for the first time, premiering at London's Covent Garden Theatre.

April–June

 * April 27 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act (coming into force on May 10), designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.
 * May 8 – In Egypt, Ottoman rebels revolt, killing Ali Bey, Mamluk Sultan of Egypt.
 * June 4 – 1773 Phipps expedition towards the North Pole sets out from Britain.
 * June 10 – The Regulating Act is given royal assent by King George III, creating the office of Governor General, with an advising council, to exercise political authority over the territory under British East India Company rule in India.

July–September

 * July 14 – The first annual conference of American Methodists is convened at Philadelphia in St. George's Church.
 * July 21 – Under pressure from the Bourbon courts, Pope Clement XIV suppresses the Society of Jesus (brief Dominus ac Redemptor). Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, expels the order from his territories.
 * July 29 (Feast of St Martha) – Guatemala earthquake: The Santa Marta earthquake hits, with an estimated epicentral magnitude of 7.5 Mi, striking Guatemala; numerous aftershocks last until December. The city of Antigua Guatemala is virtually destroyed, leading to the decision to move the country's capital to La Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción.
 * August 11 – Second voyage of James Cook in the Tuamotus: Captain Cook discovers Tekokota, which he names Doubtful Island.
 * August 12 – Second voyage of James Cook in the Tuamotus: Captain Cook discovers Marutea Nord, which he names Furneaux Island.
 * September 11 – The Public Advertiser publishes a satirical essay titled Rules By Which A Great Empire May Be Reduced To A Small One, written by Benjamin Franklin.

October–December

 * October 10
 * Daniel Boone leads the first attempt by British colonists to establish a settlement in Kentucky, but is turned back in an attack by Native Americans, in which his son is killed.
 * Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774): Second of the Russian occupations of Beirut begins, following a naval bombardment which began on August 2. The Russians leave Albanian mercenaries as an occupying force.
 * Paul Revere marries Rachel Walker, his second wife.
 * October 12 – America's first insane asylum opens for Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds in Williamsburg, Virginia.
 * October 13 – French astronomer Charles Messier discovers the Whirlpool Galaxy, an interacting, grand design spiral galaxy located at a distance of approximately 31 million light-years, in the constellation Canes Venatici.
 * October 14 – The Komisja Edukacji Narodowej (Polish for Commission for the Education of the People), formed in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, is considered to be the world's first ministry of education.
 * November 10 – Four ships – the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, the Beaver and the William – depart Britain for America, carrying the first Indian tea to be subject to the newly enacted taxes. The William is lost in a storm; the Dartmouth is the first ship to reach Boston, docking on November 28.
 * December 16 – Boston Tea Party: A group of American colonists, dressed as Mohawk Indians, steal aboard ships of the East India Company and dump their cargo of tea into Boston Harbor, in protest against British tax policies.
 * December 23 – Moscow State Academy of Choreography was founded under the reign of Catherine II. It is the second ballet school in Russia after Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet.

Date unknown

 * Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774): Russian forces fail to take Silistria.
 * Emelian Pugachev starts Pugachev's Rebellion in Russia, attacking and occupying Samara.
 * John Harrison wins the Longitude prize, for his invention of the marine chronometer.
 * Hilaire Rouelle discovers urea.
 * Istanbul Technical University is established (under the name of Royal School of Naval Engineering) as the world's first comprehensive institution of higher learning dedicated to engineering education.
 * Marsala wine first shipped to England.
 * In China, written work begins on the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries, the largest literary compilation of books in China's history (surpassing the Yongle Encyclopedia of the 15th Century). Upon completion in 1782, the books are bound in 36,381 volumes (册) with more than 79,000 chapters (卷), comprising about 2.3 million pages, and approximately 800 million Chinese characters.
 * Scottish judge James Burnett, Lord Monboddo, begins publication of Of the Origin and Progress of Language, a contribution to evolutionary ideas of the Enlightenment.
 * Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock publishes the last five cantos of his epic poem Der Messias in Hamburg.

Births

 * January 14 – William Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst, British ambassador to China, Governor-General of India (d. 1857)
 * January 16 – Robert Fullerton, governor of Penang, first governor of British Straits Settlements (d. 1831)
 * January 27 – Prince Augustus of Great Britain, Duke of Sussex (d. 1843)
 * January 29 – Friedrich Mohs, German geologist, mineralogist (d. 1839)
 * February 9 – William Henry Harrison, American military leader and ninth President of the United States (d. 1841)
 * March 14 – John Holmes, American politician (d. 1843)
 * March 16 – Juan Ramón Balcarce, Argentine military leader and politician (d. 1836)
 * March 26 – Nathaniel Bowditch, American mathematician (d. 1838)
 * April 4 – Étienne Maurice Gérard, Prime Minister and Marshal of France (d. 1852)
 * April 9
 * Étienne Aignan, French writer, librettist, and playwright (d. 1824)
 * Marie Boivin, French midwife, inventor and obstetrics writer (d. 1841)
 * April 14 – Jean-Baptiste de Villèle, Prime Minister of France (d. 1854)
 * May 2 – Henrik Steffens, Norwegian philosopher (d. 1845)
 * May 3 – Giuseppe Acerbi, Italian explorer (d. 1846)
 * May 15 – Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, Austrian statesman (d. 1859)
 * May 19 – Arthur Aikin, English chemist and mineralogist (d. 1854)
 * May 31 – Ludwig Tieck, German writer (d. 1853)
 * June 13 – Thomas Young, English scientist (d. 1829)
 * July 23 – Thomas Brisbane, Scottish astronomer, Governor of New South Wales (d. 1860)
 * August 12 – Karl Faber, German historian (d. 1853)
 * August 22 – Aimé Bonpland, French explorer, botanist (d. 1858)
 * September 17 – Jonathan Alder, American settler (d. 1849)
 * October 4 – Harriet Auber, English poet, hymnist (d. 1862)
 * October 6 – Louis Philippe I, King of the French (d. 1850)
 * November 6 – Henry Hunt, British politician (d. 1835)
 * November 24 – Shadrach Bond, American politician and the first governor of Illinois (d. 1832)
 * December 9 – Armand Augustin Louis de Caulaincourt, French general, diplomat (d. 1827)
 * December 17 – Sylvain Charles Valée, Marshal of France (d. 1846)
 * December 21 – Robert Brown, Scottish botanist (d. 1858)
 * December 27 – Sir George Cayley, English aviation pioneer (d. 1857)
 * Unknown – Johann Gottfried Arnold, German cellist (d. 1806)
 * Unknown – Kyra Frosini, Greek heroine (d. 1800)
 * Unknown – Isabel Zendal, Spanish nurse
 * Unknown – Anna Moór, Hungarian actress (d. 1841)

Deaths

 * January 1 – Sir Richard Glyn, 1st Baronet, of Ewell, Lord Mayor of London (b. 1711)
 * January 21 – Alexis Piron, French writer (b. 1689)
 * January 23
 * Manuel Pinto da Fonseca, 68th Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (b. 1681)
 * Pieter van Reede van Oudtshoorn, Dutch administrator of the Cape Colony (b. 1714)
 * February 20 – King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia (b. 1701)
 * March 1 – Luigi Vanvitelli, Italian architect (b. 1700)
 * March 24
 * Stephen Leake, English numismatist, officer of arms at the College of Arms in London (b. 1702)
 * Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, English statesman and man of letters (b. 1694)
 * March 20 – Gottlieb Heinrich Totleben, German noble (b. 1715)
 * May 8 – Ali Bey Al-Kabir, Mamluk Sultan of Egypt (b. 1728)
 * May 15 – Alban Butler, English Catholic priest, writer (b. 1710)
 * May 28 – John Wayles, American lawyer and planter (b. 1715)
 * June 21 – Jorge Juan y Santacilia, Spanish geodesist (b. 1713)
 * June 27 – Mentewab, dowager Empress of Ethiopia (b. c. 1706)
 * July 5 – Francisco José Freire, Portuguese historian, philologist (b. 1719)
 * July 12 – Johann Joachim Quantz, German flutist, composer (b. 1697)
 * July 23 – George Edwards, English ornithologist and naturalist (b. 1694)
 * July 25 – Axel Löwen, Swedish duke (b. 1686)
 * August 3 – Stanisław Konarski, Polish writer (b. 1700)
 * August 19
 * Burkat Shudi, English harpsichord maker (b. 1702)
 * Francesco Zahra, Maltese painter (b. 1710)
 * August 20 – Enrique Florez, Spanish historian (b. 1701)
 * September 23 – Johan Ernst Gunnerus, Norwegian bishop and botanist (b. 1718)
 * October 14 – Septimanie d'Egmont, French salonist (b. 1740)
 * October 30 – Philippe de La Guêpière, French architect (b. 1725)
 * November 2 – John Glas, Scottish minister (b. 1695)
 * November 7 – Princess Anne Charlotte of Lorraine, French royal (b. 1714)
 * November 8 – Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, Prussian general (b. 1721)
 * November 16 – John Hawkesworth, English writer (b. c. 1715)
 * November 19 – James FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster, Irish politician (b. 1722)

Full date unknown

 * Bjarni Halldórsson, Icelandic legal figure and theologian (b. c. 1703)

title: 1773


text:
1772

January–March

 * January 10 – Shah Alam II, the Mughal Emperor of India, makes a triumphant return to Delhi 15 years after having been forced to flee.
 * January 17 – Johann Friedrich Struensee and Queen Caroline Matilda are arrested, leading to his execution and her banishment from Denmark.
 * February 12
 * Breton-French explorer Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec discovers the uninhabited Kerguelen Islands in the Southern Indian Ocean.
 * The Virginia Assembly amends an act to describe the punishments for the practice of gouging.
 * February 17 – The First Partition of Poland is agreed to by Russia and Prussia, later including Austria.
 * February 22 – The Emirate of Diriyah is founded by Muhammad bin Saud Al Muqrin; he is considered the founder of the House of Saud.
 * March 8 – Biela's Comet is first discovered by French astronomer Jacques Leibax Montaigne, but not proven to be a periodic comet until 1826, when Wilhelm von Biela correctly identifies its return.
 * March 20 – Pedro Fages, the Spanish Governor of Alta California, and Juan Crespí, a Catholic priest, set off from the capital at Monterey with a party of 12 soldiers and begin the first European exploration of the lands around San Francisco Bay.

April–June

 * April 8 – Massachusetts legislator Samuel Adams persuades his colleagues to approve his plan for creating a Committee of Correspondence to begin a dialogue with the other American colonies concerning mutual problems with England.
 * April 13 – Warren Hastings begins his service for the British East India Company as Governor of Bengal, arriving at the company's headquarters at Fort William, outside of Calcutta, and including what are now parts of northeast India and Bangladesh. Hastings serves for two years, then later becomes Governor-General of India.
 * May 8 – The Watauga Association Compact is signed in what is now East Tennessee by a group of white settlers led by William Bean, creating the first non-colonial government body in British North America.
 * June 9 – Gaspee Affair: In an act of defiance against the British Navigation Acts, American patriots, led by Abraham Whipple, attack and burn the British customs schooner HMS Gaspee off of Rhode Island.
 * June 10 – The crisis of 1772 is triggered when, following the flight of their partner Alexander Fordyce to France, the London banking house of Neal, James, Fordyce and Down (which has been speculating in East India Company stock) suspends payment. The resultant panic causes other banks to fail, extends to Scotland, Amsterdam and the Thirteen Colonies and threatens the East India Company with bankruptcy.
 * June 22 – Somersett's Case: Lord Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, delivers the decision that leads to the end of slavery in England.
 * June 23–28 – Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774): First of two Russian occupations of Beirut, following a naval bombardment which began on June 18.

July–September

 * July 13 – The second voyage of James Cook departs from Plymouth on Captain Cook's new ship, HMS Resolution and the companion ship HMS Adventure in an attempt to prove the existence of an uncharted continent even further south than New Zealand.
 * August 5 – The first Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth begins. The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria becomes part of the crown lands of the Habsburg monarchy.
 * August 12 – The volcano Mount Papandayan in West Java erupts and partially collapses, the debris avalanche killing several thousand.
 * August 21 – A coup d'état by King Gustav III is completed by adopting a new Constitution, ending half a century of parliamentary rule in Sweden, and making him an enlightened despot.
 * September 1 – Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa is founded in San Luis Obispo, California.

October–December

 * October 28 – Basque-Spanish explorer Domingo de Bonechea, in the Aguila, sights Tauere atoll, which he names San Simon y Judas.
 * November 2 – American Revolutionary War: Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren form the first Committee of Correspondence.
 * December 14
 * Russian government offices reopen at Moscow and Saint Petersburg after being closed for 15 months because of an epidemic of bubonic plague.
 * Second voyage of James Cook: The crew of HMS Resolution (1771) finds that the ice floes encountered on their journey south are a source of fresh water, a "discovery... of utmost importance to the success of the voyage."

Date unknown

 * Scottish scientist Daniel Rutherford discovers nitrogen gas, isolating it from air.
 * Frederick II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, demands that all bodies remain unburied for three days to ensure that death has actually taken place.

Births

 * January 20 – Angélique Brûlon, French soldier, first female Knight of the French Legion of Honour (d. 1859)
 * January 30 – Godfrey Higgins, British archaeologist (d. 1833)
 * February 24 – William H. Crawford, American politician, judge (d. 1834)
 * March 10 – Friedrich von Schlegel, German poet (d. 1829)
 * March 15 – József Ficzkó, Burgenland Croatian writer (d. 1843)
 * April 4 – Nachman of Breslov, Hasidic rabbi and founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement (d. 1810)
 * April 5 – Domenico Puccini, Italian composer (d. 1815)
 * April 7 – Charles Fourier, French philosopher (d. 1837)
 * April 18 – David Ricardo, British economist (d. 1823)
 * April 30 – Karl Gustav Himly, German surgeon, ophthalmologist (d. 1837)
 * May 2 – Novalis, German poet (d. 1801)
 * May 20 – William Congreve, British rocket pioneer (d. 1828)
 * May 22 – Ram Mohan Roy, Hindu religious and social reformer (d. 1833)
 * June 7 – Aurora Liljenroth, Swedish scholar (d. 1836)
 * July 11 – John Rodgers, American naval officer (d. 1838)
 * August 2 – Louis Antoine, Duke of Enghien (d. 1804)
 * August 15 – Johann Nepomuk Mälzel, German inventor (d. 1838)
 * August 24 – King William I of the Netherlands (d. 1843)
 * September 7 – Mark Newman, 3rd Principal of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts (d. 1859)
 * September 27 – Martha Jefferson Randolph, Acting First Lady of the United States (1801-1809) (d. 1836)
 * October 6 – Anna Maria Rüttimann-Meyer von Schauensee, politically active Swiss salonist (d. 1856)
 * October 21 – Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet and philosopher (d. 1834)
 * October 25 – Géraud Duroc, French general (d. 1813)
 * November 5 – Pierre Roch Jurien de La Gravière, French admiral (d. 1849)
 * November 8 – William Wirt, 9th United States Attorney General (d. 1834)
 * November 18 – Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, German prince (d. 1806)
 * date unknown
 * Thomas Noble, English poet and translator (d. 1837)
 * Tuanku Imam Bonjol, Indonesian religious and military leader (d. 1864)
 * approximate date
 * Charlotte Dacre, English Gothic novelist (d. 1825)
 * Lalon, Bengali philosopher, Baul saint, mystic, songwriter, social reformer and thinker (d. 1890)

Deaths

 * February 4 – Princess Victoria Charlotte of Anhalt-Zeitz-Hoym, Margravine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (b. 1715)
 * February 8 – Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Princess of Wales (b. 1719)
 * February 11 – Caterina Sagredo Barbarigo, Venetian aristocrat and salon holder (b. 1715)
 * February 18 – Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff, Danish statesman (b. 1712)
 * February 20 – Princess Maria Theresia of Liechtenstein (b. 1694)
 * March 21 – Jacques-Nicolas Bellin, French cartographer (b. 1703)
 * March 22 – John Canton, English physicist (b. 1718)
 * March 26 – Charles Pinot Duclos, French writer (b. 1704)
 * March 27 – Taylor White, British judge (b. 1701)
 * March 29 – Emanuel Swedenborg, Swedish philosopher and mathematician (b. 1688)
 * April 28 – Johann Friedrich Struensee, Danish royal physician (b. 1737)
 * May 1 – Gottfried Achenwall, German statistician (b. 1719)
 * May 22 – Durastante Natalucci, Italian historian (b. 1687)
 * June 15 – Louis-Claude Daquin, French composer (b. 1694)
 * June 18
 * Gerard van Swieten, Dutch-born Austrian physician (b. 1700)
 * Johann Ulrich von Cramer, German judge, philosopher (b. 1706)
 * June 22 – François-Vincent Toussaint, French writer most famous for Les Mœurs (The Manners) (b. 1715)
 * August 31 – William Borlase, English naturalist (b. 1695)
 * September 30 – James Brindley, English canal builder (b. 1716)
 * October 7 – John Woolman, American Quaker preacher, abolitionist (b. 1720)
 * October 8 – Jean-Joseph de Mondonville, French violinist, composer (b. 1711)
 * October 14 – Benjamin Green, Canadian merchant and judge (b. 1713)
 * October 16 – Ahmad Shah Durrani, Afghan founder of the Durrani Empire (cancer) (b. 1724)
 * October 19 – Andrea Belli, Maltese architect, businessman (b. 1703)
 * November 10 – Pedro Antonio Joaquim Correa da Serra Garção, Portuguese poet (b. 1724)
 * November 18 – Madhavrao I, ruler of India (b. 1745)
 * November 19 – William Nelson, American colonial governor of Virginia (b. 1711)
 * December 4 – Dov Ber of Mezeritch, the Great Maggid, a preacher and founder of Hasidism.
 * December 7 – Martín Sarmiento, Spanish writer, scholar (b. 1695)
 * date unknown – Panna Cinka, Hungarian violinist (b. 1711)

title: 1772