text:
1785

January–March

 * January 1
 * The Burmese Konbaung Dynasty annexes the Mrauk U Kingdom of Arakan.
 * The first issue of the Daily Universal Register, later known as The Times, is published in London.
 * January 7 – Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England to Calais, France in a hydrogen gas balloon, becoming the first to cross the English Channel by air.
 * January 11 – Richard Henry Lee is elected as President of the U.S. Congress of the Confederation.
 * January 20 – Battle of Rạch Gầm-Xoài Mút: Invading Siamese forces, attempting to exploit the political chaos in Vietnam, are ambushed and annihilated at the Mekong River, by the Tây Sơn.
 * January 27 – The University of Georgia in the United States is chartered by the Georgia General Assembly meeting in Savannah. The first students are admitted in Athens, Georgia in 1801.
 * February 9 – Sir Warren Hastings, who has been governing India on behalf of King George III as the Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William (later British India), resigns. Sir John Macpherson administers British India until General Charles Cornwallis arrives 19 months later.
 * February 27 – The Confederation Congress votes an $80,000 expense to establish diplomatic relations with Morocco.
 * March 7 – Scottish geologist James Hutton first presents his landmark work, Theory of the Earth; or an Investigation of the Laws observable in the Composition, Dissolution, and Restoration of Land upon the Globe to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
 * General Henry Knox is appointed as the Confederation Congress's Secretary of War, with added duties as the Secretary of Navy, both functions now of the U.S. Department of Defense.
 * March 10
 * American engineer James Rumsey sends a letter to George Washington informing of his plans to create a successful steamboat.
 * Thomas Jefferson is appointed the new U.S. Minister to France, and Benjamin Franklin's request for permission to return home is accepted.

April–June

 * April 19 – The Commonwealth of Massachusetts cedes all of its claims to territory west of New York State to the United States Confederation Congress. The area will become the southern portions of Michigan and Wisconsin.
 * April 21 – The Empress Catherine the Great of the Russian Empire issues the Charter to the Towns, providing for "a coherent, unified system of administration" for new governments organized in Russia.
 * April 26 – John Adams is appointed as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, and Thomas Jefferson as ambassador to France.
 * April 28 – Astronomer William Herschel begins his second series of surveys of the stars, published in 1789.
 * May 10 – A hot air balloon crashes in Tullamore, Ireland, causing a fire that burns down about 100 houses, making it the world's first aviation disaster (by 36 days).
 * May 20 – The Northwest Ordinance of 1785, setting the rules for dividing the U.S. Northwest Territory (later Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan) into townships of 36 square miles apiece, is passed by the Confederation Congress. Walter G. Robillard and Lane J. Bouman, Clark on Surveying and Boundaries (LexisNexis, 1997) The survey system will later be applied to the continent west of the Mississippi River.
 * June 3 – The Continental Navy is disbanded.
 * June 15 – After several attempts, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and his companion, Pierre Romain, set off in a balloon from Boulogne-sur-Mer, but the balloon suddenly deflates (without the envelope catching fire) and crashes near Wimereux in the Pas-de-Calais, killing both men, making it the first fatal aviation disaster.

July–September

 * July 2 – Don Diego de Gardoqui arrives in New York City as Spain's first minister to the United States.
 * July 6 – The dollar (and a decimal currency system) is unanimously chosen as the money unit for the United States by the Congress of the Confederation.
 * July 16 – The Piper-Heidsieck Champagne house is founded by Florens-Louis Heidsieck in Reims, France.
 * August 1 – The fleet of French explorer Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse leaves Paris for the circumnavigation of the globe.
 * August 15 – Cardinal de Rohan is arrested in Paris; the Necklace Affair comes into the open.
 * September 10 – The United States and the Kingdom of Prussia sign a Treaty of Amity and Commerce.
 * September 13
 * The Bank of North America, central bank for the Confederation Congress government, loses its charter.
 * Benjamin Franklin returns to Philadelphia after seven years as the U.S. Ambassador to France and prepares to take office as the new Governor of Pennsylvania.

October–December

 * October 5 – Vincenzo Lunardi of Italy becomes the first person to pilot a balloon over Scotland.
 * October 13
 * The first newspaper in British India, the English-language Madras Courier, is published. It continues publication as a weekly until 1794.
 * France mints new Louis d'or coins, with the image of King Louis XVI on the obverse, and one-sixth less gold than the coins with King Louis XV's image.
 * October 17 – The Commonwealth of Virginia stops the importation of new African slaves by declaring that "No persons shall henceforth be slaves within this commonwealth, except such as were so on the seventeenth day of October, 1785, and the descendants of the females of them."
 * October 18 – Benjamin Franklin takes office as the new President of the Supreme Council of Pennsylvania, at the time the equivalent of a republic as one of the 13 independent governments of the United States of America under the Articles of Confederation.
 * November 23 – John Hancock of Massachusetts, the former President of the Continental Congress, is selected as the new President of the Congress of the Confederation, but is unable to take office because of illness.
 * November 28 – The Treaty of Hopewell is signed between the United States of America and the Cherokee Nation.
 * December 11 – An edict is issued limiting Masonic lodges throughout the Holy Roman Empire by Emperor Joseph II. With the exception of Vienna, Budapest and Prague, no Empire province may have more than one lodge.

Date unknown

 * The University of New Brunswick is founded in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
 * Coal gas is first used for illumination.
 * Louis XVI of France signs a law that a handkerchief must be square.
 * The British government establishes a permanent land force in the Eastern Caribbean, based in Barbados.
 * Belfast Academy (later Belfast Royal Academy) is founded by Rev. James Crombie in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
 * Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi publishes Letters on the Teachings of Spinoza, and starts the Pantheism controversy.
 * Napoleon Bonaparte becomes a lieutenant in the French artillery.
 * Cabinet des Modes, the first fashion magazine, is published in France.
 * Mozart's "Haydn" String Quartets are published, as is his collaboration with Salieri and Cornetti, Per la ricuperata salute di Ofelia.
 * Charles Adams, John Adams’ son and John Quincy Adams's brother enters Harvard in August, at age 15. A few months later, he starts to drink often and would get into trouble, and was almost expelled from Harvard when he was caught running naked through the Campus while drunk with other boys.

Births

 * January 4
 * Jacob Grimm, German philologist, folklorist, and writer (d. 1863)
 * Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (d. 1831)
 * January 15 – William Prout English chemist, physician, and natural theologian (d. 1850)
 * January 20 – Theodor Grotthuss, German-Lithuanian chemist (d. 1822)
 * February 8 – Martín Miguel de Güemes Argentine military leader (d. 1821)
 * February 10 – Claude-Louis Navier, French engineer, physicist (d. 1836)
 * February 26 – Anna Sundström, Swedish chemist (d. 1871)
 * March 11
 * John McLean, American politician, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1861)
 * Eleonore Prochaska, German heroine soldier (d. 1805)
 * March 17 – Ellen Hutchins, Irish botanist (d. 1815)
 * March 27 – Louis XVII of France (d. 1795)
 * April 4 – Bettina von Arnim, German poet (d. 1859)
 * April 26 – John James Audubon, French-American naturalist, illustrator (d. 1851)
 * April 29 – Karl Drais, German inventor, creator of a precursor to the bicycle (d. 1851)
 * May 18 – John Wilson, Scottish writer (d. 1854)
 * May 20 – Marcellin Champagnat, French Catholic saint (d. 1840)
 * May 22 – John Hindmarsh, English naval officer, first Governor of South Australia (d. 1860)
 * July 6 – William Jackson Hooker, English botanist (d. 1865)
 * July 20 – Mahmud II, Ottoman sultan (d. 1839)
 * August 15 – Thomas de Quincey, English writer (d. 1859)
 * August 23 – Oliver Hazard Perry, American naval officer (d. 1819)
 * August 27 – Agustín Gamarra, Peruvian general and politician, 10th and 14th President of Peru (d. 1841)
 * September 27 – David Walker, African-American abolitionist (d. 1830)
 * October 15 – José Miguel Carrera, Chilean general, founding father (d. 1821)
 * October 17 – Gunatitanand Swami, born Mulji Sharma, Indian paramahamsa of the Hindu Swaminarayan Sampraday sect (d. 1867)
 * October 18 – Thomas Love Peacock, English satirist (d. 1866)
 * October 20 – George Ormerod, English historian and antiquarian (d. 1873)
 * November 11 – Diponegoro, Javanese Prince (d. 1855)
 * November 18 – David Wilkie, Scottish painter (d. 1841)
 * November 21 – William Beaumont, American physician and surgeon (d. 1853)
 * November 28 – Victor de Broglie, Prime Minister of France (d. 1870)
 * December 17 – Dorothea Lieven, Latvian diplomat, politically active princess (d. 1857)
 * December 23 – Christian Gobrecht, American engraver, designer of the United States Seated Liberty coinage (d. 1844)
 * December 26 – Étienne Constantin de Gerlache, 1st Prime Minister of Belgium (d. 1871)

Deaths

 * January 3 – Baldassare Galuppi, Italian composer (b. 1706)
 * January 6 – Haym Salomon, Polish-Jewish American financier of the American Revolution (b. 1740)
 * January 19 – Jonathan Toup, English classical scholar, critic (b. 1713)
 * January 23 – Matthew Stewart, Scottish mathematician (b. 1717)
 * February 24 – Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 7th Baronet (b. 1722)
 * February 26 – Barbara Erni, Liechtenstein confidence trickster (b. 1743)
 * March 14 – Giovanni Battista Locatelli, Italian opera director (b. 1713)
 * April 14 – William Whitehead, English writer (b. 1715)
 * April 26 – Johan Samuel Augustin, German-Danish astronomical writer, civil servant (b. 1715)
 * May 8
 * Étienne François, duc de Choiseul, French statesman (b. 1719)
 * Pietro Longhi, Venetian painter (b. 1701)
 * June 2
 * Jean Paul de Gua de Malves, French mathematician (b. 1713)
 * Gottfried August Homilius, German composer, cantor and organist (b. 1714)
 * June 30 – James Oglethorpe, English general, founder of the state of Georgia (b. 1696)
 * July 5 – Anne Poulett, British politician (b. 1711)
 * July 6 – Frederick August I, Duke of Oldenburg (b. 1711)
 * July 9 – William Strahan, British politician (b. 1715)
 * July 12 – Louis-René de Caradeuc de La Chalotais, French jurist on the so-called "Brittany affair" (b. 1701)
 * July 13 – Stephen Hopkins, Founding Father of the United States (b. 1707)
 * July 17 – Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland, British duchess (b. 1715)
 * August 17 – Jonathan Trumbull, Governor of the Colony and the state of Connecticut (b. 1710)
 * August 26 – George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville, British soldier, politician (b. 1716)
 * August 28 – Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, French sculptor (b. 1714)
 * August 31 – Pietro Chiari, Italian playwright (b. 1712)
 * September 19 – Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain, Queen consort of Sardinia (b. 1729)
 * September 30 – Johann Jakob Moser, German jurist (b. 1701)
 * October 4
 * David Brearley, delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention (b. 1703)
 * Alexander Runciman, Scottish painter (b. 1736)
 * November 13 – Joaquín Ibarra, Spanish printer (b. 1725)
 * November 15 – César Gabriel de Choiseul, French officer (b. 1712)
 * November 18 – Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, French soldier, writer (b. 1725)
 * November 19 – Bernard de Bury, French composer (b. 1720)
 * November 20 – James Wright, Governor of Georgia (b. 1716)
 * November 25 – Richard Glover, English poet (b. 1712)
 * December 6 – Kitty Clive, English actress, playwright (b. 1711)
 * December 29 – Johan Herman Wessel, Norwegian author (b. 1742)
 * date unknown
 * Faustina Pignatelli, Italian mathematician (b. 1705)

title: 1785


text:
1784

January–March

 * January 6 – Treaty of Constantinople: The Ottoman Empire agrees to Russia's annexation of the Crimea.
 * January 14 – The Congress of the United States ratifies the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain to end the American Revolution, with the signature of President of Congress Thomas Mifflin.
 * January 15 – Henry Cavendish's paper to the Royal Society of London, Experiments on Air, reveals the composition of water.
 * February 24 – The Captivity of Mangalorean Catholics at Seringapatam begins.
 * February 28 – John Wesley ordains ministers for the Methodist Church in the United States.
 * March 1 – The Confederation Congress accepts Virginia's cession of all rights to the Northwest Territory and to Kentucky.
 * March 22 – The Emerald Buddha is installed at the Wat Phra Kaew, on the grounds of the Grand Palace in Bangkok.

April–June

 * April 23 – The Congress of the Confederation passes the Ordinance of Governance to set guidelines for adding to the original 13 states in the United States of America.
 * April 27 – The Marriage of Figaro, written by playwright Pierre Beaumarchais as a sequel to The Barber of Seville, premieres at the Comédie-Française in Paris.
 * May 12 – The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3 the previous year, comes into effect.
 * May 20 – A treaty is signed in Paris between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic, formally ending the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War.
 * June 4 – Élisabeth Thible is the first woman to ascend in a hot-air balloon, at Lyon, France.

July–September

 * July 9 – The Bank of New York opens as the first in New York state and continues to operate under that name for almost 223 years until being acquired by Mellon Financial and becoming BNY Mellon.
 * July 29 – The United States and the Kingdom of France sign a convention for establishing diplomatic relations and "determining the functions and prerogatives of their respective consuls, vice consuls, agents, and commissaries".
 * August 13 – Parliament of Great Britain passes Pitt's India Act (An Act for the better Regulation and Management of the Affairs of the East India Company and of the British Possessions in India). It requires the governor-general to be chosen from outside the Company and makes company directors subject to parliamentary supervision.
 * August 15 – Cardinal de Rohan is called before the French court to account for his actions, in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace.
 * August 16 – Britain creates the colony of New Brunswick.
 * September 19 – In France, the Robert brothers (Anne-Jean Robert and Nicolas-Louis Robert) and a Mr. Collin-Hullin (whose first name is lost to history) become the first people to fly more than 100 km or 100 miles in the air, lifting off from Paris and landing 6 hours and 40 minutes later near Bethune after a journey of 186 km.
 * September 22 – Russia establishes a colony at Kodiak, Alaska.

October–December

 * October 8 – "Kettle War", a 1-day action on the Scheldt in which a ship of the Dutch Republic repels forces of the Holy Roman Empire.
 * October 22 – North Carolina rescinds its resolution ceding its western territory (modern-day Tennessee) to the United States, after earlier giving Congress two years to accept the terms.
 * October 31–December 14 – The Revolt of Horea, Cloșca and Crișan in Transylvania causes Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor to suspend the Hungarian Constitution.
 * November 26 – The Roman Catholic Apostolic Prefecture of the United States is established.
 * November 27 – The phenomenon of black holes is first posited in a paper by John Michell, in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.
 * November 30 – Richard Henry Lee of Virginia is selected as the new President of the Confederation Congress.
 * December – Immanuel Kant's essay "Answering the Question: What Is Enlightenment?" is published.
 * December 25 – The Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States is officially formed at the "Christmas Conference", led by Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury.

Date unknown

 * Britain receives its first bales of imported American cotton.
 * King Carlos III of the Spanish Empire authorizes land grants in Alta California.
 * Princess Yekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova is named first president of the newly created Russian Academy.
 * The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the town of Morgansborough, named for Daniel Morgan. The town is designated as the county seat for Burke County, North Carolina and is subsequently renamed Morgan, later shortened to Morganton.
 * The North Carolina General Assembly changes the name of Kingston, North Carolina, originally named for King George III of Great Britain, to Kinston.
 * The Japanese famine continues as 300,000 die of starvation.
 * A huge locust swarm hits South Africa.
 * Foundation of the first theater in Estonia, the Tallinna saksa teater.
 * Benjamin Franklin invents bifocal spectacles.
 * Benjamin Franklin tries in vain to persuade the French to alter their clocks in winter to take advantage of the daylight.
 * Antoine Lavoisier pioneers quantitative chemistry.
 * Cholesterol is isolated.
 * Carl Friedrich Gauss pioneers the field of summation with the formula summing at the age of 7.
 * Madame du Coudray, pioneer of modern midwifery, retires.

Births

 * January 17 – Philippe Antoine d’Ornano, Marshal of France (d. 1863)
 * January 28 – George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1860)
 * February 5 – Nancy Hanks, mother of Abraham Lincoln (d. 1818)
 * February 20 – John E. Wool, general officer in the United States Army, who served during the War of 1812, Mexican–American War, and the American Civil War (d. 1869)
 * February 29 – Leo von Klenze, German neoclassicist architect, painter and writer (d. 1864)
 * March 12 – William Buckland, English geologist, paleontologist (d. 1856)
 * March 22 – Samuel Hunter Christie, English physicist, mathematician (d. 1865)
 * March 23 – Tom Molineaux, African-American boxer (d. 1818)
 * March 27 – Jonathan Jennings, American politician and the first governor of Indiana (d. 1834)
 * April 5 – Louis Spohr, German violinist, composer (d. 1859)
 * April 13 – Friedrich Graf von Wrangel, Prussian field marshal (d. 1877)
 * April 24 – Peter Vivian Daniel, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1860)
 * June 24 – Juan Antonio Lavalleja, Uruguayan military, political figure (d. 1853)
 * July 21 – Charles Baudin, French admiral (d. 1854)
 * July 22 – Friedrich Bessel, German mathematician, astronomer (d. 1846)
 * July 27 – Denis Davydov, Russian general, poet (d. 1839)
 * August 18 – Robert Taylor, British Radical writer, freethought advocate (d. 1844)
 * September 4 – William Pope Duval, first civilian governor of the Florida Territory (d. 1854)
 * October 13 – King Ferdinand VII of Spain (d. 1833)
 * October 15 – Thomas Robert Bugeaud, Marshal of France and duke of Isly (d. 1849)
 * October 19
 * Leigh Hunt, British critic, essayist (d. 1859)
 * John McLoughlin, Canadian fur trader (d. 1857)
 * October 20 – Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1865)
 * October – Sarah Biffen, armless English painter (d. 1850)
 * November 24 – Zachary Taylor, 12th President of the United States (d. 1850)
 * November 27 – August, Prince of Hohenlohe-Öhringen (d. 1853)

Deaths

 * February 4 – Princess Friederike Luise of Prussia, Prussian princess (b. 1714)
 * February 27 – Count of St. Germain, French philosopher, adventurer (b. 1710)
 * March 26 – Thomas Bond, American physician and surgeon (b. 1712)
 * March 27 – Ralph Bigland, British officer of arms (b. 1712)
 * March 31 – Thomas Adam, Clergyman, religious writer (b. 1701)
 * April 26 – Nano Nagle, Irish convent founder (b. 1718)
 * April 29 – Agustín de Jáuregui, Spanish colonial governor (b. 1711)
 * May 3 – Anthony Benezet, French-born American abolitionist and educator (b. 1713)
 * May 10 – Antoine Court de Gébelin, French pastor (b. 1725)
 * May 12 – Abraham Trembley, Swiss naturalist (b. 1710)
 * June 8 – Lukrecija Bogašinović Budmani, Croatian poet (b. 1710)
 * June 11 – Lê Quý Đôn, Vietnamese philosopher, poet, encyclopedist, and government official (b. 1726)
 * June 13 – Henry Middleton, American president of the Continental Congress (b. 1717)
 * June 14 – Andrzej Mokronowski, Polish general (b. 1713)
 * June 26 – Caesar Rodney, American lawyer, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (b. 1728)
 * July 1 – Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, German composer (b. 1710)
 * July 31 – Denis Diderot, French philosopher, encyclopedist (b. 1713)
 * August 4 – Giovanni Battista Martini, Italian musician (b. 1706)
 * August 10 – Allan Ramsay, Scottish portrait-painter (b. 1713)
 * August 14 – Nathaniel Hone, Irish-born painter (b. 1718)
 * August 28 – Junípero Serra, Spanish Franciscan missionary (b. 1713)
 * September 1 – Jean-François Séguier, French astronomer and botanist (b. 1703)
 * September 4 – César-François Cassini de Thury, French astronomer (b. 1714)
 * September 8 – Ann Lee, American religious leader (b. 1736)
 * September 15 – Nicolas Bernard Lépicié, French painter (b. 1735)
 * November 1 – Jean-Jacques Lefranc, Marquis de Pompignan, French polymath, author and poet (b. 1709)
 * November 9 – George Baylor, officer in the American Continental Army (b. 1752)
 * December 5 – Phillis Wheatley, first published African-American author (b. 1753)
 * December 13 – Samuel Johnson, English writer, lexicographer (b. 1709)
 * December 25 – Yosa Buson, Japanese poet, painter (b. 1716)
 * December 26 – Seth Warner, American revolutionary leader (b. 1743)
 * date unknown – Raja Haji Fisabilillah, Buginese monarch of the Johor Sultanate, warrior, emperor, and government official

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

title: 1784


text:
1780

January–March

 * January 16 – American Revolutionary War – Battle of Cape St. Vincent: British Admiral Sir George Rodney defeats a Spanish fleet.
 * February 19 – The legislature of New York votes to allow its delegates to cede a portion of its western territory to the Continental Congress for the common benefit of the war.
 * March 1 – The legislature of Pennsylvania votes, 34 to 21, to approve An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery.
 * March 11
 * The First League of Armed Neutrality is formed by Russia with Denmark and Sweden to try to prevent the British Royal Navy from searching neutral vessels for contraband (February 28 O.S.).
 * General Lafayette embarks on FRENCH FRIGATE Hermione at Rochefort, arriving in Boston on April 28, carrying the news that he has secured French men and ships to reinforce the American side in the American Revolutionary War.
 * March 17 – American Revolutionary War: The British San Juan Expedition sails from Jamaica under the command of Captains John Polson and Horatio Nelson to attack the Captaincy General of Guatemala (modern-day Nicaragua) in New Spain.
 * March 26 – The British Gazette and Sunday Monitor, the first Sunday newspaper in Britain, begins publication.

April–June

 * April 16 – The University of Münster in Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany is founded.
 * April 29 – American Revolutionary War: The Spanish commander of the Fortress of the Immaculate Conception on the San Juan River in modern-day Nicaragua surrenders it to the British San Juan Expedition.
 * May 4 – The first Epsom Derby horse race is run on Epsom Downs, Surrey, England. The victor is Diomed.
 * May 12 – American Revolutionary War: Charleston, South Carolina is taken by British forces.
 * May 13 – The Cumberland Compact is signed by American settlers, in the Cumberland Valley of Tennessee.
 * May 19 – New England's Dark Day: An unaccountable darkness spreads over New England, regarded by some observers as a fulfillment of Bible prophecy.
 * May 29 – American Revolutionary War – Waxhaw Massacre: Loyalist forces under Colonel Banastre Tarleton kill surrendering American soldiers.
 * June 2 – An Anti-Catholic mob led by Lord George Gordon marches on the Parliament of Great Britain, leading to the outbreak of the Gordon Riots in London.
 * June 7 – The Gordon Riots in London are ended by the intervention of troops. About 285 people are shot dead, with another 200 wounded and around 450 arrested.
 * June 23 – American Revolutionary War – Battle of Springfield: The Continental Army defeats the British in New Jersey.

July–September

 * July 11 – French soldiers arrive in Newport, Rhode Island to reinforce the colonists, in the American Revolutionary War.
 * July 17 – The first bank created in the United States, the Bank of Pennsylvania, is chartered.
 * August 16 – American Revolutionary War – Battle of Camden: British troops inflict heavy losses on a Patriot army at Camden, South Carolina.
 * August 9 – American Revolutionary War: Spanish admiral Luis de Córdova y Córdova captures a British convoy totalling 55 vessels amongst Indiamen, frigates and other cargo ships off Cape St. Vincent.
 * August 24 – Louis XVI of France abolishes the use of torture in extracting confessions.
 * September 21 – Benedict Arnold gives detailed plans of West Point to Major John André. Three days later, André is captured, with papers revealing that Arnold was planning to surrender West Point to the British.
 * September 25 – Benedict Arnold flees to British-held New York.
 * September 29 The Danish ship-of-the-line Printz Friderich runs aground on the Kobbergrund shoal and is a total loss

October–December

 * October 2 – American Revolutionary War: In Tappan, New York, British spy John André is hanged by American forces.
 * October 7 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Kings Mountain: Patriot militia forces annihilate Loyalists under British Major Patrick Ferguson, at Kings Mountain, South Carolina.
 * October 10–16 – The Great Hurricane flattens the islands of Barbados, Martinique and Sint Eustatius; 22,000 are killed.
 * November 4 – Rebellion of Túpac Amaru II: In the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru, Túpac Amaru II leads an uprising of Aymara and Quechua peoples and mestizo peasants as a protest against the Bourbon Reforms.
 * November 28 – A lightning strike in Saint Petersburg begins a fire that burns 11,000 homes.
 * November 29 – Maria Theresa of Austria dies in Vienna after 40 years of rule, and her Habsburg dominions pass to her ambitious son, Joseph II, who has already been Holy Roman Emperor since 1765.
 * November 30 – American Revolutionary War: The British San Juan Expedition is forced to withdraw.
 * December 14 – Alexander Hamilton marries Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton
 * December 16 – Emperor Kōkaku accedes to the throne of Japan.
 * December 20 – The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War begins.

Date unknown

 * Jose Gabriel Kunturkanki, businessman and landowner, proclaims himself Inca Túpac Amaru II.
 * The Duke of Richmond calls, in the House of Lords of Great Britain, for manhood suffrage and annual parliaments, which are rejected.
 * Jeremy Bentham's Introduction to Principles of Morals and Legislation, presenting his formulation of utilitarian ethics, is printed (but not published) in London.
 * Nikephoros Theotokis starts introducing Edinoverie, an attempt to integrate the Old Believers into Russia's established church.
 * The Woodford Reserve bourbon whiskey distillery begins operation in Kentucky.
 * In Ireland, Lady Berry, who is sentenced to death for the murder of her son, is released when she agrees to become an executioner (she retires in 1810).
 * The Jameson Irish Whiskey distillery is founded in Dublin, Ireland.
 * The original Craven Cottage is built by William Craven, 6th Baron Craven, in London, on what will become the centre circle of Fulham F.C.'s pitch.
 * The amateur dramatic group Det Dramatiske Selskab is founded in Christiania, Norway.
 * Western countries pay 16,000,000 ounces of silver for Chinese goods.
 * The Kingdom of Great Britain reaches c.9 million population.

Births

 * January 13 – Pierre Jean Robiquet, French chemist (d. 1840)
 * January 14 – Henry Baldwin, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1844)
 * February 1 – David Porter, American naval officer (d. 1843)
 * February 3 – Mihail G. Boiagi, Aromanian grammarian and professor (d. uncertain)
 * February 19 – Richard McCarty, American politician (d. 1844)
 * February 25 – John Sumner, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1862)
 * March 25 – Joseph Ritner, American politician (d. 1869)
 * March 29 – Jørgen Jørgensen, Danish adventurer (d. 1841)
 * April 7 – William Ellery Channing, influential American Unitarian theologian and minister (d. 1842)
 * April 26 – Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert, German naturalist (d. 1860)
 * April 29 – Charles Nodier, French author (d. 1844)
 * May 1 – John McKinley, American politician, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1852)
 * May 21 – Elizabeth Fry, British humanitarian (d. 1845)
 * May 29 – Henri Braconnot, French chemist, pharmacist (d. 1855)
 * June 1 – Carl von Clausewitz, Prussian military strategist (d. 1831)
 * July 4 – Sofia Hjärne, Finnish baroness, writer (d. 1860)
 * July 5 – François Carlo Antommarchi, French physician (d. 1838)
 * July 15 – Emilie Petersen, Swedish philanthropist (d. 1859)
 * July 27 – Anastasio Bustamante, 4th President of Mexico (d. 1853)
 * August 29
 * Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, French painter (d. 1867)
 * Richard Rush, United States Attorney General under James Madison, United States Secretary of the Treasury under President John Quincy Adams (d. 1859)
 * October 20 – Pauline Bonaparte, Italian noblewoman (d. 1825)
 * October 28 – Ernst Anschütz, German teacher, organist, poet, and composer (d. 1861)
 * November 13 – Ranjit Singh, Maharaja of The Punjab (Sikh Empire), (d. 1839)
 * December 13 – Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner, German chemist (d. 1849)
 * December 26 – Mary Fairfax Somerville, British mathematician (d. 1872)

Date unknown

 * James Justinian Morier, British diplomat and novelist (d. 1849)
 * Manuela Medina, Mexican national heroine (d. 1822)
 * Elizabeth Philpot, British paleontologist (d. 1857)
 * Jahonotin Uvaysiy, Uzbek Sufi poet (d. 1845)

Deaths

 * January 13 – Duchess Luise of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Prussian princess (b. 1722)
 * January 15 – Johann Rudolf Tschiffeli, Swiss agronomist (b. 1716)
 * February 10 – Samuel Egerton, British Member of Parliament (b. 1711)
 * February 14 – William Blackstone, English jurist (b. 1723)
 * February 17 – Andreas Felix von Oefele, German historian, librarian (b. 1706)
 * February 18 – Kristijonas Donelaitis, Lithuanian poet (b. 1714)
 * March 17 – Elizabeth Butchill, English woman executed for the murder of her newborn child (b. c. 1758)
 * March 26 – Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (b. 1713)
 * April 5 – Ulrika Strömfelt, Swedish courtier (b. 1724)
 * May 18 – Charles Hardy, British governor of Newfoundland (b. c. 1714)
 * May 21 – Thomas Townshend (MP), British politician (b. 1701)
 * June 3 – Thomas Hutchinson, American colonial governor of Massachusetts (b. 1711)
 * July 4 – Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, Austrian military leader (b. 1712)
 * July 14 – Charles Batteux, French philosopher (b. 1713)
 * July 18 – Gerhard Schøning, Norwegian historian (b. 1722)
 * July 21 – Louis Legrand, French Sulpician priest and theologian (b. 1711)
 * August 3 – Étienne Bonnot de Condillac, French philosopher (b. 1715)
 * August 19 – Johann de Kalb, Bavarian-French military officer who served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War (b. 1721)
 * August 29 – Jacques-Germain Soufflot, French architect (b. 1713)
 * September 4 – John Fielding, English magistrate, social reformer (b. 1721)
 * September 6 – Françoise Basseporte, French painter (b. 1701)
 * September 8
 * Enoch Poor, American Revolutionary general (b. 1736)
 * Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, French writer (b. 1711)
 * September 15 – Jacob Rodrigues Pereira, academic, first teacher of deaf-mutes in France (b. 1715)
 * September 19 – James Cecil, 6th Earl of Salisbury, England (b. 1713)
 * September 23 – Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise du Deffand, French salon holder (b. 1697)
 * October 2 – John André, British Army officer of the American Revolutionary War (executed) (b. 1750)
 * October 17 – William Cookworthy, English chemist (b. 1705)
 * November 26 – Sir James Steuart, Scottish economist (b. 1712)
 * November 29 – Empress Maria Theresa of Austria (b. 1717)
 * December 12 – Jakab Fellner, Hungarian architect (b. 1722)
 * December 26 – John Fothergill, English physician (b. 1712)
 * date unknown – Thomas Dilworth, British cleric and writer

title: 1780


text:
427 BC

Year 427 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Ahala and Mugillanus (or, less frequently, year 327 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 427 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Greece

 * Aristophanes produces Daitaleis (The Banqueters)
 * Sparta's King Archidamus II is succeeded by his son Agis II.
 * Following the surrender of Mytilene to Athens, the Athenian leader Cleon insists that the city be destroyed. In response to the pleadings of a number of Athenian citizens, Cleon's decree to destroy the population of Mytilene is reversed with only the ringleaders of the Mytilenean revolt being executed.
 * Plataea surrenders to the Spartans and Thebans after its garrison comes close to death from starvation. Over 200 prisoners are put to death and Plataea is destroyed.
 * The civil war in Corcyra, in which the Athenians and the Spartans have interfered ineffectually, results in a victory of the democrats (who support an alliance with Athens) over the oligarchs.
 * In an effort to blockade Sparta from access to Sicilian corn, Athens responds to a plea for help from a delegation from the city of Leontini led by Gorgias, the sophist and rhetorician. Leontini is being threatened by Syracuse which is allied to Sparta. However, the Athenian mission led by the Athenian general Laches is unable to offer much help. Laches is later prosecuted by Cleon for his unsuccessful mission to support Athenian interests in Sicily.

Roman Republic

 * The Quaestorship is opened to the Plebs.

Births

 * Plato, Greek philosopher (d. c. 347 BC)

Deaths

 * Archidamus II, king of Sparta

title: 427 BC


text:
347 BC

Year 347 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known in Rome as the Year of the Consulship of Venno and Torquatus (or, less frequently, year 407 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 347 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Greece

 * In the wake of the Macedonian victory at Olynthus, Athens seeks to make peace with Macedonia. Because his financial policy is based on the assumption that Athens should not be involved in major wars, the Athenian leader, Eubulus, works for peace with Philip II of Macedon. Demosthenes is among those who support a compromise.
 * An Athenian delegation, comprising Demosthenes, Aeschines and Philocrates, is officially sent to Pella to negotiate a peace treaty with Philip II. During the negotiations, Aeschines seeks to reconcile the Athenians to Macedonia's expansion into Greece. Demosthenes became unhappy with the result.

Roman Republic

 * Coinage is introduced into Rome for the first time.

Philosophy

 * Plato dies and his nephew Speusippus is named as head of the Academy.
 * Aristotle leaves Athens due to the anti-Macedonian feeling that arises in Athens after Philip II of Macedon has sacked the Greek city-state of Olynthus in 348 BC. With him goes another Academy member of note, Xenocrates of Chalcedon. They establish a new academy on the Asia Minor side of the Aegean Sea at the newly built town of Assus.

Deaths

 * Archytas, Greek philosopher, mathematician and statesman (or 350 BC) (b. 428 BC)
 * Plato, Greek philosopher and founder of the Academy in Athens (b. c. 427 BC)
 * Eudoxus of Cnidus, Greek philosopher and astronomer who has expanded on Plato's ideas (or 355 BC) (b. 410 BC or 408 BC)

title: 347 BC


text:
447 BC

Year 447 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Macerinus and Iullus (or, less frequently, year 307 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 447 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Greece

 * Pericles leads Athenian forces in the expulsion of barbarians from the Thracian peninsula of Gallipoli, in order to establish Athenian colonists in the region. Thus Pericles starts a policy of cleruchy (klerouchos) or "out-settlements". This is a form of colonisation where poor and unemployed people are assisted to emigrate to new regions.
 * A revolt breaks out in Boeotia as the oligarchs of Thebes conspire against the democratic faction in the city. The Athenians, under their general Tolmides, with 1000 hoplites plus other troops from their allies, march into Boeotia to take back the towns revolting against Athenian control. They capture Chaeronea, but are attacked and defeated by the Boeotians at Coronea. As a result, the Athenians are forced to give up control of Boeotia as well as Phocis and Locris, which all fall under the control of hostile oligarchs who quit the Delian League.
 * The middle component of the Long Walls from Athens to the port of Piraeus is completed.

Literature

 * Achaeus of Eretria, a Greek playwright, produces his first play.

Architecture

 * Pericles commissions the architects Kallikrates and Iktinos to design a larger temple for the Parthenon and the construction begins on rebuilding the great temple of Athena (the Parthenon) on the Acropolis at Athens soon afterwards.

title: 447 BC


text:
432 BC

Year 432 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Tribunate of Mamercus, Albinus and Medullinus (or, less frequently, year 322 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 432 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Greece

 * Sparta calls and hosts a conference of the Peloponnesian League. The conference is attended by Athenian representatives as well as members of the League. Following arguments by Corinth against Athens, a majority of the League members vote to declare that the Athenians had broken the peace.
 * The Athenian admiral, Phormio, continues the siege of Potidaea by blocking the entrance to the Gulf of Corinth. Meanwhile an Athenian fleet, led by Archestratus, sails for Potidaea. However, instead of attacking Potidaea, they attack the Macedonians under Perdiccas II, who have allied with the Potidaeans. The Athenians capture Therma (modern Thessalonica) and then go on to besiege Pydna. However, as the Athenians are besieging Pydna, they receive news that Corinth has sent a force under the command of Aristeus to support Potidaea. In response, Athens sends more troops and ships under the command of Hipponicus. The combined Athenian force sails to Potidaea and lands there. In the ensuing Battle of Potidaea, the Athenians are victorious against Corinth and its allies.

Italy

 * The Greek colony of Heraclea in Southern Italy is founded by colonists from Tarentum and Thurii.

China

 * The Chinese Marquis Yi of Zeng is buried (approximate date) with lavish tomb items including a 65 set of bronze bells (bianzhong) with five octave musical scale and two musical tones that can be produced by each bell. Marquis Yi was from the State of Chu during the Warring States phase of the Zhou Dynasty.

Astronomy

 * Meton of Athens, a Greek mathematician and astronomer, calculates accurately the comparative chronology of the solar and lunar cycles. As a result, he introduces the 19-year Metonic cycle into the Athenian calendar as a method of calculating dates. Working with Euctemon, he observes the summer solstice on 27 June.

Architecture

 * Pheidias completes the sculptures that form the decoration of the Parthenon in Athens.

Births

 * Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse (d. 367 BC) (approximate birth date)

title: 432 BC


text:
1723

January–March

 * January 25 – English-born pirate Edward Low intercepts the Portuguese ship Nostra Signiora de Victoria. After the Portuguese captain throws his treasure of 11,000 gold coins into the sea rather than surrendering it, Low orders the captain's brutal torture and execution, then has the rest of the Victoria crew murdered. Low commits more atrocities this year, but is not certainly heard of after the end of the year.
 * February 4 – The Kangxi Era ends in Qing dynasty China, and the Yongzheng Era begins, with the coronation of Yinzhen, the Yongzheng Emperor.
 * February 15 – King Louis XV of France attains his majority on his 13th birthday, bringing an end to the regency of his cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans.
 * March 9 – The Mapuche Uprising begins in Chile as the indigenous Mapuche people, commanded by Toqui (war chief) Vilumilla, leading an attack against the city of Tucapel. The war lasts until February 13, 1726.
 * March 28 – The capture of Rasht from the Persian Empire by the Russian Empire brings Rasht and the Gilan Province under Russian control.

April–June

 * April 1 – In Switzerland, the attempt by Major Abraham Davel to make the canton of Vaud independent of the Swiss government, is put down, one day after he and 500 men had taken control of the Vaudois capital, Lausanne. Davel is arrested, tortured and tried for treason; he is beheaded on April 24.
 * May 27 – The Black Act 1723, intended to combat illegal hunting in Great Britain, comes into force and expands the number of crimes that are punishable by death, and remains in effect for 100 years.
 * May 30 – Johann Sebastian Bach assumed the office of Thomaskantor in Leipzig, presenting his first new cantata, Die Elenden sollen essen, BWV 75, in the St. Nicholas Church on the first Sunday after Trinity.
 * June 26 – Russo-Persian War: Baku surrenders to the Russians.

July–September

 * July 2 – Bach's Magnificat is first performed.
 * July 12 – Christian von Wolff holds a lecture for students and the magistrates at the end of his term as a rector, as a result of which he is banned from Prussia, on a charge of atheism.
 * July 18 – Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of his cantata Erforsche mich, Gott, und erfahre mein Herz, BWV 136, in Leipzig on the eighth Sunday after Trinity.
 * August 10 – Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who had served as the Regent of France to rule for King Louis XV from 1715 until the latter's attainment of majority on February 15, is appointed by the King to serve as his Prime Minister, but dies in office less than four months later.
 * August 11 – The Ostend Company is chartered by merchants and shipowners to establish trade for the Austrian Netherlands in the East Indies and West Indies. Over the next two days, 54 major investors in Antwerp purchase the shares of stock in the company.
 * August 15 – The Peterhof Palace is opened in a formal ceremony just outside Saint Petersburg, capital of the Russian Empire.
 * September 1 – The Treaty of Saint Petersburg is signed in Russia, ending the Russo-Persian War (1722–1723).
 * September 14 – Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller António Manoel de Vilhena lays down the first stone of Fort Manoel in Malta.

October–December

 * October 23 – Russia's Emperor Peter the Great authorizes an incentive for men of Serbia to join a new Russian Imperial Army unit, the Serbian Hussar Regiment. The Emperor sends Jovan Albanez to recruit new officers and troops with a grant of farmable land in Russia, and 1,070 take advantage of the offer over the next two years.
 * October 31 – Gian Gastone de' Medici becomes the new Grand Duke of Tuscany upon the death of his father Cosimo III; he will be the state's last ruler from the House of Medici. During his reign, the state treasury is depleted and Tuscany becomes one of the poorest nations in Europe.
 * November 23 – The Province of Carolina charters New Bern as Newbern (the town later becomes the capital of North Carolina until Raleigh is founded).
 * December 2 – Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, regent of France from 1715 to 1723, and Prime Minister since August 10, dies at the age of 49 at Versailles.
 * December 26 – Bach leads the first performance of Darzu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes, BWV 40, his first Christmas Cantata composed for Leipzig.

Date unknown

 * The Province of Carolina incorporates Beaufort, North Carolina, as the Port of Beaufort, making it the third incorporated town in the province.

Births

 * January 5 – Nicole-Reine Lepaute, French astronomer, mathematician (d. 1788)
 * January 11 – Prithvi Narayan Shah, First Monarch of Nepal (d. 1775)
 * January 12 – Samuel Langdon, American President of Harvard University (d. 1797)
 * January 31 – Petronella Johanna de Timmerman, Dutch poet, scientist (d. 1786)
 * February 15 – John Witherspoon, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1794)
 * February 17 – Tobias Mayer, German astronomer (d. 1761)
 * February 21 – Louis-Pierre Anquetil, French historian (d. 1808)
 * February 23 – Richard Price, Welsh philosopher (d. 1791)
 * March 22 – Charles Carroll, American lawyer, Continental Congressman (d. 1783)
 * March 25 – Catharina Mulder, Dutch organist (d. 1798)
 * March 31 – King Frederick V of Denmark (d. 1766)
 * April 5 – Catherine Charlotte De la Gardie, Swedish countess (d. 1763)
 * April 20 – Cornelius Harnett, American Continental Congressman (d. 1781)
 * April 30 – Mathurin Jacques Brisson, French naturalist (d. 1806)
 * June 3 – Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, Italian-born physician, naturalist (d. 1788)
 * June 11 – Johann Georg Palitzsch, German astronomer (d. 1788)
 * June 16 – (baptised) Adam Smith, Scottish economist, philosopher (d. 1790)
 * June 20
 * Adam Ferguson, Scottish philosopher, historian (d. 1816)
 * Theophilus Lindsey, English theologian (d. 1808)
 * July 1 – Pedro Rodríguez, Count of Campomanes, Spanish statesman, writer (d. 1802)
 * July 10 – William Blackstone, English jurist (d. 1780)
 * July 11 – Jean-François Marmontel, French historian, writer (d. 1799)
 * July 16 – Sir Joshua Reynolds, English painter (d. 1792)
 * September 11 – Johann Bernhard Basedow, German educational reformer (d. 1790)
 * October 4 – Nikolaus Poda von Neuhaus, German entomologist (d. 1798)
 * October 11 – Hedvig Strömfelt, Swedish psalm writer (d. 1766)
 * November 8 – John Byron, English admiral (d. 1786)
 * November 30 – William Livingston, American politician, journalist (d. 1790)
 * December 22 – Carl Friedrich Abel, German composer (d. 1787)
 * December 26 – Friedrich Melchior, baron von Grimm, German writer (d. 1807)
 * Date unknown
 * Carl Albert von Lespilliez, German draftsman, architect and printmaker (d. 1796)
 * Eva Merthen, Finnish political activist (d. 1811)

Deaths

 * January 14 – Charles Henri, Prince of Commercy (b. 1649)
 * January 23 – William Phippard, English politician (b. 1649)
 * February 23 – Anne Henriette of Bavaria, Duchess of Guise (b. 1648)
 * February 25 – Sir Christopher Wren, English architect, astronomer and mathematician (b. 1632)
 * February 26 – Thomas d'Urfey, English writer (b. 1653)
 * March 13 – René Auguste Constantin de Renneville, French writer (b. 1650)
 * March 15 – Johann Christian Günther, German poet (b. 1695)
 * March 30 – Filippo Bonanni, Italian Jesuit scholar (b. 1638)
 * March 31 – Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon, British Governor of New York and New Jersey (b. 1661)
 * April 5 – Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, Austrian architect (b. 1656)
 * April 11 – John Robinson, English diplomat (b. 1650)
 * May 2 – Christopher of Baden-Durlach, German prince (b. 1684)
 * May 11 – Jean Galbert de Campistron, French dramatist (b. 1656)
 * May 12 – Johannes Voorhout, Dutch painter (b. 1647)
 * May 29 – Jean de La Chapelle, French writer and dramatist (b. 1651)
 * June 4 – Léopold Clément, Hereditary Prince of Lorraine, French prince (b. 1707)
 * June 8 – Isaac Chayyim Cantarini, Italian rabbi (b. 1644)
 * June 14 – Richard Newport, 2nd Earl of Bradford, English politician (b. 1644)
 * July 14 – Claude Fleury, French historian (b. 1640)
 * July 26 – Robert Bertie, 1st Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, English statesman (b. 1660)
 * July 28 – Mariana Alcoforado, Portuguese nun (b. 1640)
 * August 4 – William Fleetwood, Anglican bishop (b. 1656)
 * August 10 – Guillaume Dubois, French cardinal, statesman (b. 1656)
 * August 14 – Edward Northey (barrister), British barrister and politician (b. 1652)
 * August 17 – Joseph Bingham, English scholar (b. 1668)
 * August 21 – Dimitrie Cantemir, Moldavian linguist and scholar (b. 1673)
 * August 23 – Increase Mather, American Puritan minister (b. 1639)
 * August 26 – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Dutch scientist (b. 1632)
 * September 19 – Robert Sutton, 2nd Baron Lexinton, English diplomat (b. 1662)
 * October 1 – Frédéric Maurice Casimir de La Tour d'Auvergne, French prince (b. 1702)
 * October 10 – William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper, Lord Chancellor of England (b. c. 1665)
 * October 13 – Praskovia Saltykova, Russian tsarina (b. 1664)
 * October 19 – Godfrey Kneller, German-born artist (b. 1646)
 * October 28 – Christopher Vane, 1st Baron Barnard, English politician and peer (b. 1653)
 * October 31 – Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1642)
 * November 19 – Antoine Nompar de Caumont, French courtier and statesman (b. 1632)
 * December 1 – Susanna Centlivre, English dramatist, actress (b. 1669)
 * December 2 – Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, regent of France (b. 1674)
 * December 7 – Jan Santini Aichel, Czech architect (b. 1677)
 * December 20 – Augustus Quirinus Rivinus, German physician, botanist (b. 1652)

title: 1723


text:
1750

Various sources, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, use the year 1750 as a baseline year for the end of the pre-industrial era.

1750 is commemorated as the year that started the industrial revolution, although the underpinnings of the industrial revolution could have started earlier.

January–March

 * January 13 – The Treaty of Madrid between Spain and Portugal authorizes a larger Brazil than had the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, which originally established the boundaries of the Portuguese and Spanish territories in South America.
 * January 24 – A fire in Istanbul destroys 10,000 homes.
 * February 15 – After Spain and Portugal agree that the Uruguay River will be the boundary line between the two kingdoms' territory in South America, the Spanish Governor orders the Jesuits to vacate seven Indian missions along the river (San Angel, San Nicolas, San Luis, San Lorenzo, San Miguel, San Juan and San Borja).
 * March 5 – The Murray-Kean Company, a troupe of actors from Philadelphia, gives the first performance of a play announced in advance in a newspaper, presenting Richard III at New York City's Nassau Street Theatre.
 * March 20 – The first number of Samuel Johnson's The Rambler appears.

April–June

 * April 7 – Maveeran Alagumuthu Kone, a polygar in Tamil Nadu raise slogans launches a rebellion against Company rule in India due to his opposition to the East India Company's tax collection policies.
 * April 13 – Dr. Thomas Walker and five other men (Ambrose Powell, Colby Chew, William Tomlinson, Henry Lawless and John Hughes) cross through the Cumberland Gap, a mountain pass through the Appalachian Mountains, to become the first white people to venture into territories that had been inhabited exclusively by various Indian tribes. On April 17, Walker's party continues through what is now Kentucky and locates the Cumberland River, which Walker names in honor of Prince William, Duke of Cumberland.
 * April 14
 * A group of West African slaves, bound for the Americas, successfully overpowers the crew of the British slave ship Snow Ann, imprisons the survivors, and then navigates the vessel back to Cape Lopez in Gabon. Upon regaining their freedom, the rebels leave the survivors on the Gabonese coast.
 * The Viceroy of New Spain, Juan Francisco de Güemes, issues a notice to the missionaries in Nuevo Santander (which includes parts of what are now the U.S. state of Texas, including San Antonio, and the Mexican state of Tamaulipas) to work peacefully to convert the indigenous Karankawa people to Roman Catholicism.
 * April 25 – The Acadian settlement in Beaubassin, Nova Scotia, is burnt by the French army, and the population is forcibly relocated, after France and Great Britain agree that the Missaguash River should be the new boundary between peninsular British Nova Scotia and the mainland remnant of French Acadia (now New Brunswick)
 * May 16 – Two weeks after police in Paris arrest six teenagers for gambling in the suburb of Saint-Laurent, rioting breaks out when a rumor spreads that plainclothes policemen are hauling off small children between the ages of five to ten years old, in order to provide blood to an ailing aristocrat. Over the next two weeks, rioting breaks out in other sections of Paris.  Police are attacked, including one who is beaten to death by the mob, until order is restored and police reforms are announced.
 * June 19 – At a time when mountain climbing is still relatively uncommon, Eggert Ólafsson and Bjarni Pálsson scale their first peak, the 4892 foot high Icelandic volcano, Hekla.
 * June 24 – Parliament passes Britain's Iron Act, designed to restrict American manufactured goods by prohibiting additional ironworking businesses from producing finished goods. At the same time, import taxes on raw iron from America are lifted in order to give British manufacturers additional material for production.  By 1775, the North American colonies have surpassed England and Wales in iron production and have become the world's third largest producer of iron.
 * June 29 – An attempt in Lima to begin a native uprising against Spanish colonial authorities in the Viceroyalty of Peru is discovered and thwarted. One of the conspirators, Francisco Garcia Jimenez, escapes to Huarochirí and kills dozens of Spaniards on July 25.

July–September

 * July 9 – Traveller Jonas Hanway leaves St. Petersburg to return home, via Germany and the Netherlands. Later the same year, Hanway reputedly becomes the first Englishman to use an umbrella (a French fashion).
 * July 11 – Halifax, Nova Scotia is almost completely destroyed by fire.
 * July 31 – José I takes over the throne of Portugal from his deceased father, João V. King José Manuel appoints the Marquis of Pombal as his Chief Minister, who then strips the Inquisition of its power.
 * August 8 – In advance of the Province of Georgia changing in status from a corporate-owned American settlement to a British colony, Royal Assent is given to an act that lifts the province's ban on slavery; effective January 1, "it shall and may be lawful to import or bring Black Slaves or Negroes in to the Province of Georgia of America and to keep and to use the same therein".
 * August 20 – French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille, by way of the Foreign Minister, the Marquis de Puisieulx and Netherlands ambassador to Paris Mattheus Lestevenon, sends a letter that ultimately persuades the States-General of the Dutch Republic to allow and partially finance Lacaille's stellar trigonometry mission to the Cape of Good Hope. The expedition departs Lorient on October 21
 * September 30 – Crispus Attucks, an African-American slave who will later become the first person killed in the Boston Massacre of 1770, escapes from the Framingham, Massachusetts estate of slaveowner William Brown.  In an unsuccessful attempt to recapture the fugitive, Brown runs an advertisement on October 2 in the Boston Gazette, but Attucks eludes recapture.

October–December

 * October 5 – Treaty of Madrid: Spain and Great Britain sign a treaty temporarily eliminating their hostility over their colonies in North and South America. In addition to both sides dropping their claims for damages against each other, Spain agrees to pay the South Sea Company £100,000 for damage claims.
 * October 14 – The Louvre Museum is created in Paris four years after art critic Lafond de Saint-Yenne calls on the King to allow the display of the royal art collection to the general public. Abel-François Poisson, the Marquis de Marigny, arranges for the display of 110 of the Crown's paintings at the Palais du Luxembourg.
 * November 11 – A riot breaks out in Lhasa after the murder of the regent of Tibet.
 * November 18 – Westminster Bridge is officially opened in London.
 * December 3 – What is described later as "The first documented presentation of a musical in New York" takes place one block east of Broadway, at the Nassau Street Theatre, when a resident company of actors stages The Beggar's Opera.
 * December 25 – Prussia and Russia break off diplomatic relations after the Russians refuse to stop assisting the Electorate of Saxony. Five years later, the two Empires fight the Seven Years' War.
 * December 29 – Two physicians in Jamaica, Dr. John Williams and Dr. Parker Bennet, fight a duel "with swords and pistols" after having had an argument the day before about the treatment of bilious fever.  Both are mortally wounded during the fight.

Date unknown

 * Hannah Snell reveals her sex to her Royal Marines compatriots.
 * The King of Dahomey has income of 250,000 pounds from the overseas export of slaves.
 * Maruyama Okyo paints The Ghost of Oyuki.
 * Britain produces c. 2% of the entire world's output of industrial goods, before the Industrial Revolution begins.
 * Galley slavery is abolished in Europe.
 * World population: 791,000,000
 * Africa: 106,000,000
 * Asia: 502,000,000
 * Europe: 163,000,000
 * Latin-America: 16,000,000
 * Northern America: 2,000,000
 * Oceania: 2,000,000

Births

 * January 24 – Nicolas Bergasse, French lawyer (d. 1832)
 * January 24 – Helen Gloag, Scottish-born slave Empress of Morocco (d. 1790)
 * March 16 – Caroline Herschel, German astronomer (d. 1848)
 * April – Joanna Southcott, British religious fanatic (d. 1814)
 * April 17 – François de Neufchâteau, French statesman, intellectual figure (d. 1828)
 * May 2 – John André, British Army officer of the American Revolutionary War (d. 1780)
 * May 20 – Stephen Girard, French-American banker, fourth richest American of all time (d. 1831)
 * May 23 – Adamson Tannehill, American general and politician (d. 1820)
 * May 28 – Diogo de Carvalho e Sampayo, Portuguese diplomat, scientist (d. 1807)
 * May 31 – Karl August von Hardenberg, Prussian politician (d. 1822)
 * June 6 – William Morgan, British statistician, actuary (d. 1833)
 * July 5 – Aimé Argand, Swiss physicist, inventor (d. 1803)
 * July 9 – Louise Marie Thérèse Bathilde d'Orléans, last princess of Condé (d.1822)
 * July 25 – Henry Knox, military officer of the Continental Army and later the United States Army, 1st United States Secretary of War (b. 1806)
 * August 18 – Antonio Salieri, Italian composer (d. 1825)
 * September 26 – Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood, British admiral (d. 1810)
 * October 7 – Abraham Woodhull, Patriot spy during the American Revolutionary War (d. 1826)
 * October 25 – Marie Le Masson Le Golft, French naturalist (b. 1826)
 * October 31 – Leonor de Almeida Portugal, 4th Marquise of Alorna, Portuguese painter and poet (d. 1839)
 * November 6 – Carlo Aurelio Widmann, Venetian nobleman and admiral (d. 1798)
 * November 7 – Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg, German poet (d. 1819)
 * November 10 – Tipu Sultan, Sultan of Mysore (d. 1799)
 * December 23 – Frederick Augustus I of Saxony (d. 1827)
 * date unknown
 * Toypurina, Medicine woman of the Tongva nation and rebel leader (d. 1799)
 * Adwaita, Oldest tortoise (d. 2006) (alleged birth year; awaiting C-14 verification)
 * Urszula Zamoyska, Polish noblewoman and socialite (d. 1808)
 * Elizabeth Ryves, Irish writer and translator (d. 1797)
 * Moulvi Syed Qudratullah, Bengali judge (d. 1839)

Deaths

 * January 16 – Ivan Trubetskoy, Russian field marshal (b. 1667)
 * January 22 – Franz Xaver Josef von Unertl, Bavarian politician (b. 1675)
 * January 23 – Ludovico Antonio Muratori, Italian historian and scholar (b. 1672)
 * January 26 – Albert Schultens, Dutch philologist (b. 1686)
 * January 29 – Sophia Schröder, Swedish soprano (b. 1712)
 * February 7 – Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset (b. 1684)
 * February 8 – Aaron Hill, English writer (b. 1685)
 * February 19 – Jan Frans van Bredael, Flemish painter (b. 1686)
 * March 6 – Domenico Montagnana, Italian luthier (b. 1686)
 * March 29 – James Jurin, British mathematician, doctor (b. 1684)
 * April 7 – George Byng, 3rd Viscount Torrington, British Army general (b. 1701)
 * May 3 – John Willison, Scottish minister, writer (b. 1680)
 * May 17 – Georg Engelhard Schröder, Swedish artist (b. 1684)
 * May 28 – Emperor Sakuramachi of Japan (b. 1720)
 * June 15 – Marguerite de Launay, baronne de Staal, French author (b. 1684)
 * July 15 – Vasily Tatishchev, Russian statesman, ethnographer (b. 1686)
 * July 28
 * Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer (b. 1685)
 * Conyers Middleton, English minister (b. 1683)
 * July 31 – King John V of Portugal (b. 1689)
 * August 8 – Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond, English aristocrat, philanthropist and cricket patron (b. 1701)
 * August 12 – Rachel Ruysch, Dutch painter (b. 1664)
 * September 15 – Charles Theodore Pachelbel, German composer (b. 1690)
 * October 3
 * Georg Matthias Monn, Austrian composer (b. 1717)
 * James MacLaine, Irish highwayman (b. 1724)
 * October 16 – Sylvius Leopold Weiss, German composer, lutenist (b. 1687)
 * November 1 – Gustaaf Willem van Imhoff, Dutch Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (b. 1705)
 * December 1 – Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr, German mathematician, astronomer, and cartographer (b. 1671)
 * December 13 – Philemon Ewer, English shipbuilder (b. 1702)
 * December 16
 * Nasir Jang Mir Ahmad, son of Turkic noble Nizam-ul-Mulk (b. 1712)
 * Nasir Jung, Head of Hyderabad State (b. 1712)

title: 1750


text:
332 BC

Year 332 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Calvinus and Arvina (or, less frequently, year 422 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 332 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Persian Empire

 * The Persian King Darius III twice sends on horseback to Alexander letters of friendship. The second time he offers a large ransom for his family, the ceding of all of the Persian Empire west of the Euphrates River, and the hand of his daughter in return for an alliance. Alexander rejects both letters and marches into Mesopotamia.
 * At the acropolis in Susa, an unidentified woman is buried in a bronze sarcophagus, wearing "a mass of finely-wrought and artistic gems and jewels" and two coins, one dating from 350 BC and the other from 332 BC. The tomb will remain unopened for more than 22 centuries, until French archaeologist Jacques de Morgan unearths it on February 10, 1901.

Macedonia

 * Alexander the Great occupies Damascus and, after a siege lasting seven months, destroys Tyre during which there is great carnage and the sale of the women and children into slavery.
 * Leaving Parmenion in Syria, Alexander advances south without opposition until he reaches Gaza where bitter resistance halts him for two months, and he sustains a serious shoulder wound during a sortie.
 * Alexander conquers Egypt from the Persians. The Egyptians welcome him as their deliverer, and the Persian satrap Mazaces wisely surrenders. Alexander's conquest of Egypt completes his control of the whole eastern Mediterranean coast.
 * November 14 – Alexander is crowned as pharaoh of Upper and Lower Egypt – god and king all at once – son of Ra and Osiris, Horus the "Golden One" and beloved of Amun.
 * Alexander spends the winter organizing the administration of Egypt. He employs Egyptian governors, while keeping the army under a separate Macedonian command.
 * Alexander founds the city of Alexandria near the western arm of the Nile on a site between the sea and Lake Mareotis, protected by the island of Pharos, and has the city laid out by the Rhodian architect Deinocrates.

Italy

 * After a victory over the Samnites and Lucanians near Paestum, Alexander of Epirus makes a treaty with the Romans.

title: 332 BC


text:
40s BC

This article concerns the period 49 BC – 40 BC.

Significant people

 * Julius Caesar, Roman dictator (lived 100–44 BC, term 46–44 BC)
 * Marcus Junius Brutus, Roman politician (85–42 BC)
 * Mark Antony, Roman politician and general (83–30 BC)
 * Pharaoh Cleopatra VII of Egypt (lived 70/69–30 BC, reigned 51–30 BC)—enters her twenties, has son Caesarion with Julius Caesar, before meeting Mark Antony
 * Gaius Iulius Caesar Octavianus, Roman politician and general (62 BC–AD 14)
 * Pharaoh Ptolemy XV Caesarion (lived 47–30 BC, reigned 44–30 BC)
 * Gaius Cassius Longinus, Roman politician (died 42 BC)

title: 40s BC


text:
49 BC

Year 49 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Lentulus and Marcellus (or, less frequently, year 705 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 49 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Roman Republic

 * Consuls: Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Crus, Gaius Claudius Marcellus.
 * Caesar's Civil War commences:
 * January 1 – The Roman Senate receives a proposal from Julius Caesar that he and Pompey should lay down their commands simultaneously. The Senate responds that Caesar must immediately surrender his command.
 * January – Caesar leads his army across the Rubicon, which separates his jurisdiction in Cisalpine Gaul from that of the Senate in Rome, and thus initiates a civil war.
 * February – Pompey's flight to Epirus (in Western Greece) with most of the Senate.
 * March 9 – Caesar advances against Pompeian forces in Spain.
 * April 19 – Siege of Massilia: Caesar commences a siege at Massilia against the Pompeian Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus. He leaves the newly raised legions XVII, XVIII and XIX to conduct the siege. Decimus Brutus – victor over the Veneti (see 56 BC) – is in charge of the fleet to blockade the harbor.
 * June – Caesar arrives in Spain; seizes the Pyrenees passes against the Pompeians L. Afranius and Marcus Petreius.
 * June 7 – Cicero slips out of Italy and goes to Thessaloniki.
 * July 30 – Caesar surrounds Afranius and Petreius's army in Ilerda.
 * August 2 – Pompeians in Ilerda surrender to Caesar and are granted pardon.
 * August 24 – Caesar's general Gaius Scribonius Curio is defeated in North Africa by the Pompeians under Attius Varus and King Juba I of Numidia (whom he defeated earlier in the Battle of Utica) in the Battle of the Bagradas, after which he commits suicide.
 * September – Brutus defeats the combined Pompeian-Massilian naval forces of the siege of Massilia, while the Caesarian fleet in the Adriatic Sea is defeated near Curicta (Krk).
 * September 6 – Massilia surrenders to Caesar, as he is coming back from Spain.
 * October – Caesar is appointed Dictator in Rome.

Births

 * Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, Roman consul (d. 25 AD)

Deaths

 * January 10 – Xuan of Han, emperor of the Han dynasty (b. 91 BC)
 * Aristobulus II, king and high priest of Judea
 * Gaius Memmius, Roman orator and poet (presumed).
 * Gaius Scribonius Curio, Roman politician
 * Jieyou, princess of the Han dynasty (b. 121 BC)
 * Marcus Perperna, Roman politician
 * Zheng Ji, general of the Han dynasty

title: 49 BC


text:
50s BC

This article concerns the period 59 BC – 50 BC.

Significant people

 * Julius Caesar, Roman politician and general (lived 100–44 BC)
 * Pharaoh Cleopatra VII of Egypt (lived 70/69–30 BC, reigned 51–30 BC)—meets Julius Caesar and later becomes teenager Pharaoh, after her brothers die young.
 * Pompey, Roman general (lived 106 BC–48 BC)
 * Marcus Licinius Crassus, Roman politician and general (lived 115–53 BC)
 * Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman politician (lived 106–43 BC)
 * Vercingetorix, Chieftain of the Arverni (d. 46 BC)
 * Cassivellaunus, British war-leader
 * Ariovistus, German king
 * Commius, Gaulish king
 * Phraates III, King of Parthia (reigned 70–57 BC)
 * Mithridates III, king of Parthia and Media (reigned 57–54 BC)
 * Orodes II, king of Parthia (reigned 57–38 BC)
 * Surena, Parthian general (lived 84–54 BC)
 * Bak Hyeokgeose, king of Silla in Korea (69 BC–AD 4, reigned 57 BC–AD 4)

title: 50s BC


text:
1778

January–March

 * January 18 – Third voyage of James Cook: Captain James Cook, with ships HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery, first views Oʻahu then Kauaʻi in the Hawaiian Islands of the Pacific Ocean, which he names the Sandwich Islands.
 * February 5 – In the United States:
 * South Carolina becomes the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.
 * General John Cadwalader shoots and seriously wounds Major General Thomas Conway in a duel after a dispute between the two officers over Conway's continued criticism of General George Washington's leadership of the Continental Army.
 * February 6 – American Revolutionary War: In Paris, the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France, signaling official French recognition of the new republic.
 * February 23 – American Revolutionary War: Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania and begins to train the American troops.
 * March 6–October 24 – Captain Cook explores and maps the Pacific Northwest coast of North America, from Cape Foulweather (Oregon) to the Bering Strait.
 * March 10 – American Revolutionary War: George Washington approves the dishonorable discharge of Lieutenant Frederick Gotthold Enslin, for "attempting to commit sodomy, with John Monhort a soldier".

April–June

 * April 7 – Former British Prime Minister William Pitt delivers his last speech to Parliament, and speaks to the House of Lords "passionately but incoherently against the granting of independence" to the American colonies, but collapses during the debate, and dies five weeks later.
 * April 12 – King George III appoints the five-member Carlisle Peace Commission to present peace terms to negotiate an end to the rebellion of Britain's 13 American colonies.
 * April 30 – The 1800 ft long Hudson River Chain, designed to prevent British ships from moving up the river toward West Point, New York is stretched across the river and anchored by an engineering team under the direction of Captain Thomas Machin.
 * May 12 – Heinrich XI, Prince Reuss of Greiz is elevated to Prince of the Principality of Reuss-Greiz by Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor. This year sees the first appearance of the modern-day national colors of Germany on a flag that closely resembles the modern flag of Germany, to occur anywhere within modern-day Germany.
 * May 30 – Benedict Arnold signs the U.S. Oath of Allegiance at Valley Forge.
 * June 24 – A total solar eclipse takes place across parts of North America, from Texas to Virginia.
 * June 28 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Monmouth – George Washington's Continental Army battles British general Sir Henry Clinton's army to a draw, near Monmouth County, New Jersey.
 * June – The Anglo-French War (1778–83) begins.

July–September

 * July 3 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Wyoming takes place near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, ending in a terrible defeat for the local colonists.
 * July 4 – American Revolutionary War: George Rogers Clark takes Kaskaskia.
 * July 10 – Louis XVI of France declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain.
 * July 26 – In the Russian Empire, the forced emigration of Christians from the Crimea to Pryazovia begins.
 * July 27 – American Revolutionary War: First Battle of Ushant – British and French fleets fight to a standoff.
 * August 3 – The La Scala Opera House opens in Milan, with the première of Antonio Salieri's Europa riconosciuta.
 * August 26 – Triglav, at 2,864 m above sea level the highest peak of Slovenia, is ascended for the first time by four men: Luka Korošec, Matevž Kos, Štefan Rožič, and Lovrenc Willomitzer, on Sigmund Zois' initiative.
 * August 29 – American Revolutionary War: The tactically inconclusive Battle of Rhode Island takes place, after which the Continental Army abandons its position on Aquidneck Island.
 * September – The Massachusetts Banishment Act, providing punishment for Loyalists, is passed.
 * September 7 – American Revolutionary War: Invasion of Dominica – The French capture the British fort there, before the latter is aware that France has entered the war in the Franco-American alliance.
 * September 17 – The Treaty of Fort Pitt is signed, the first formal treaty between the United States and a Native American tribe (the Lenape or Delaware).
 * September 19 – The Continental Congress passes the first budget of the United States.

October–December

 * October 12 – The Continental Congress advises the 13 member states to suppress "theatrical entertainments, horse-racing, gaming, and such other diversions as are productive of idleness, dissipation, and general depravity of principles and manners."
 * November 11 – American Revolutionary War: Cherry Valley massacre – British forces and their Iroquois allies attack a fort and the village of Cherry Valley, New York, killing 14 soldiers and 30 civilians.
 * November 26
 * In the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook becomes the first European to land on Maui.
 * New Jersey becomes the second state to agree to the Articles of Confederation.
 * December 10 – John Jay of New York is chosen as the sixth President of the Continental Congress.
 * December 29 – American Revolutionary War: Capture of Savannah – British forces under Archibald Campbell take the city of Savannah, Georgia.

Undated

 * The first settlement is made in the area of modern-day Louisville, Kentucky, by 13 families under Colonel George Rogers Clark.
 * Phillips Academy is founded in Massachusetts by Samuel Phillips Jr.
 * The term thoroughbred is first used in the United States, in an advertisement in a Kentucky gazette, to describe a New Jersey stallion called Pilgarlick.
 * Thomas Kitchin's The Present State of the West-Indies: Containing an Accurate Description of What Parts Are Possessed by the Several Powers in Europe is published in London.
 * The city of Ulaanbaatar is settled at its present location, having functioned as a mobile monastic settlement since 1639.

January–April

 * January 1
 * Tredwell Scudder, American politician (d. 1834)
 * Charles Alexandre Lesueur, French naturalist (d. 1846)
 * January 3 – Antoni Melchior Fijałkowski, Polish Catholic bishop (d. 1861)
 * January 4
 * Billy J. Clark, American politician (d. 1866)
 * Paolo Polidori, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 1847)
 * Jean-Antoine Alavoine, French architect (d. 1834)
 * January 5 – Charles-Guillaume Étienne, French writer (d. 1845)
 * January 6 – Thomas Lincoln, Farmer, Carpenter (d. 1851)
 * January 7 – Anthony Todd Thomson, British dermatologist (d. 1849)
 * January 9 – Thomas Brown, Scottish metaphysician (d. 1820)
 * January 10 – Teodoro Sánchez de Bustamante, Argentine politician (d. 1851)
 * January 11 – Agathon Jean François Fain, French historian (d. 1837)
 * January 12 – William Herbert, British politician (d. 1847)
 * January 13 – Sir Isaac Goldsmid, 1st Baronet, British financier and one of the leading figures in the Jewish emancipation in the United Kingdom (d. 1859)
 * January 15 – Joseph Adamy, Nassauian politician (d. 1849)
 * January 16
 * Teodoro Lechi, Italian general (d. 1866)
 * John Arbuthnott, 8th Viscount of Arbuthnott, Scottish peer and soldier (d. 1860)
 * January 17
 * Donald Macdonell, Canadian politician (d. 1861)
 * George Black, Canadian politician, businessman and important shipbuilder in Quebec, during the earlier part of the 19th century (d. 1854)
 * January 18 – George Bellas Greenough, British geologist (d. 1855)
 * January 20 – Louis Antoine François Baillon, French naturalist, collector (d. 1855)
 * January 21 – Jeremiah O'Brien, American politician (d. 1858)
 * January 23 – Alire Raffeneau Delile, French botanist (d. 1850)
 * January 24 – Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry, England (d. 1820)
 * January 25 – Matsudaira Norihiro, Japanese daimyō who ruled the Nishio Domain (d. 1839)
 * January 26
 * Jakob von Washington, Bavarian general (d. 1848)
 * Johann Georg Stauffer, Austrian luthier (d. 1853)
 * January 27
 * Christian Mathias Schröder, German politician (d. 1860)
 * Andrew Sterett, United States Navy officer (d. 1807)
 * January 28 – James Tallmadge, Jr., American politician (d. 1853)
 * January 29 – John Williams, Tennessee politician (d. 1837)
 * January 31 – Franz Anton von Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky, Austrian statesman (d. 1861)
 * February 1 – Joseph Richardson, American politician (d. 1871)
 * February 2 – Mary Anne Talbot, British wartime cross-dresser (d. 1808)
 * February 3
 * Cornelis Vollenhoven, Dutch politician (d. 1849)
 * John Ritchie, British newspaper founder (d. 1870)
 * February 4 – Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, Swiss botanist (d. 1841)
 * February 5 – Jan Nepomucen Umiński, Polish general (d. 1851)
 * February 6 – Ugo Foscolo, Italian writer, revolutionary and poet (d. 1827)
 * February 13 – William P. Van Ness, United States federal judge (d. 1826)
 * February 14 – Fernando Sor, Spanish musician (d. 1839)
 * February 16
 * John Colborne, 1st Baron Seaton of Great Britain (d. 1863)
 * Rosalie Stier Calvert, 19th century Maryland plantation owner, correspondent (d. 1821)
 * February 19
 * Friedrich Karl von Tettenborn, Russian military commander (d. 1845)
 * Henry Ashley, American politician (d. 1829)
 * Daniel Williams Harmon, American-born Canadian fur trader, diarist (d. 1843)
 * February 22
 * Sir Roger Martin, 5th Baronet of Great Britain (d. 1854)
 * Rembrandt Peale, American painter (d. 1860)
 * February 25 – José de San Martín, Argentine general (d. 1850)
 * March 1
 * Chrétien Géofroy Nestler, French botanist (d. 1832)
 * Amos Lane, American politician (d. 1849)
 * March 2
 * William Austin, American politician (d. 1841)
 * Vincent Moulac, French naval officer (d. 1836)
 * March 3
 * Princess Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (d. 1841)
 * Peter Laurie, British politician (d. 1861)
 * March 4
 * Sir Henry Bunbury, 7th Baronet, British Army general (d. 1860)
 * Robert Emmet, Irish rebel (d. 1803)
 * Florestano Pepe, Italian general (d. 1851)
 * March 6
 * Francis Ogilvy-Grant, 6th Earl of Seafield, British politician (d. 1853)
 * Carl Bernhard von Trinius, German botanist (d. 1844)
 * March 8 – Jean-Toussaint Arrighi de Casanova, French soldier, diplomat (d. 1853)
 * March 10
 * Hugh Hornby Birley, leading Manchester Tory, reputed to have led the fatal charge of the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry, at the Peterloo Massacre (d. 1845)
 * Anthony Van Egmond, Canadian rebel (d. 1838)
 * March 19 – Edward Pakenham, Irish-born British general (d. 1815)
 * March 22
 * Thomas de Trafford, British Baronet (d. 1852)
 * Aleksey Merzlyakov, Russian poet, critic, and professor (d. 1830)
 * March 23 – Paul Traugott Meissner, Austrian chemist (d. 1864)
 * March 24
 * Robert Fleming Gourlay, British statistician and activist (d. 1863)
 * Anton Edler von Gapp, Austrian lawyer (d. 1862)
 * March 25 – Sophie Blanchard, French aeronaut (d. 1819)
 * March 26 – Edward Blakeney, British Army officer (d. 1868)
 * March 28 – Ludvig Stoud Platou, Norwegian politician (d. 1833)
 * March 30 – Robert Moore, American politician (d. 1831)
 * March 31 – Coenraad Jacob Temminck, Dutch zoologist (d. 1858)
 * April 1 – Benjamin Jacob, British musician (d. 1829)
 * April 3 – Pierre Bretonneau, French physician (d. 1862)
 * April 7 – John J. Ely, Member of the New Jersey General Assembly (d. 1852)
 * April 9
 * John Sparks, English cricketer (d. 1854)
 * Louis de Beaupoil de Saint-Aulaire, French diplomat (d. 1854)
 * April 10
 * Heinrich Luden, German historian (d. 1847)
 * William Hazlitt, English writer (d. 1830)
 * Johann Arzberger, Austrian technologist (d. 1835)
 * April 12 – John Strachan, Bishop of Toronto (d. 1867)
 * April 14 – George Philipp Ludolf von Beckedorff, prominent Prussian Catholic convert, parliamentarian (d. 1858)
 * April 15
 * William Congreve Russell, British politician (d. 1850)
 * James Crooks, Canadian politician (d. 1860)
 * April 18
 * Mary Bruce, Countess of Elgin, Scottish countess (d. 1855)
 * Christian Friedrich Nasse, German physician, psychiatrist (d. 1851)
 * Sir Matthew White Ridley, 3rd Baronet, British politician (d. 1836)
 * April 19 – Elizabeth Wynne Fremantle, main author of the extensive Wynne Diaries, wife of Royal Navy officer Thomas Fremantle (1765–1819) (d. 1857)
 * April 23 – John Harvey, British Army general (d. 1852)
 * April 24 – John Graham, soldier notable for founding Grahamstown (d. 1821)
 * April 27 – Henry Drury, English educator (d. 1841)
 * April 28 – Adriaan van der Hoop, Dutch banker, politician (d. 1854)
 * April 29 – Thomas Bateman, British physician, pioneer in the field of dermatology (d. 1821)
 * April 30 – Arvid David Hummel, Swedish entomologist (d. 1836)

May–August

 * May 2 – Nathan Bangs, American Methodist theologian (d. 1862)
 * May 3 – Samuel Freeze, Canadian politician (d. 1844)
 * May 6 – Henry Phillpotts, English bishop (d. 1869)
 * May 8 – Marie-Louise Coidavid, Queen of the Kingdom of Haiti (1811–20) as the spouse of Henri I of Haiti (d. 1851)
 * May 9 – Eli Ayers, Liberian politician (d. 1822)
 * May 10 – William Ladd, American activist (d. 1841)
 * May 12 – August Zeune, German educator (d. 1853)
 * May 13 – Honoré V, Prince of Monaco (d. 1841)
 * May 17 – Benjamin Bowring, English watchmaker (d. 1846)
 * May 18
 * Andrew Ure, Scottish doctor and chemist (d. 1857)
 * Samuel Hoar, American politician (d. 1856)
 * Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, British politician (d. 1854)
 * May 19
 * Ruggero Settimo, Italian politician (d. 1863)
 * Ludwik Michał Pac, Polish general (d. 1835)
 * May 25 – Claus Harms, German clergyman, theologian (d. 1855)
 * May 29 – Charles Kemeys Kemeys Tynte, British politician (d. 1860)
 * May 30 – Richard Skinner, American politician (d. 1833)
 * May 31 – Horatio Seymour, American politician (d. 1857)
 * June 2 – Jean Julien Angot des Rotours, French colonial governor (d. 1844)
 * June 4 – Martin Parmer, American politician (d. 1850)
 * June 6 – Edmund Varney, American politician (d. 1847)
 * June 7 – David Willson, Canadian Quaker minister (d. 1866)
 * June 11 – John Robison, British inventor (d. 1843)
 * June 13 – Frederick Louis, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (d. 1819)
 * June 14 – John Cushing Aylwin, United States naval officer (War of 1812) (d. 1813)
 * June 16
 * Charles F. Mercer, American politician (d. 1858)
 * Harry Croswell, crusading American political journalist (d. 1858)
 * June 17
 * Philip Willem van Heusde, Dutch philosopher (d. 1839)
 * Gregory Blaxland, English pioneer farmer, explorer in Australia (d. 1852)
 * June 19 – Robert Allen, Tennessee politician (d. 1844)
 * June 20 – Jean Baptiste Gay, vicomte de Martignac, moderate royalist French statesman, during the Bourbon Restoration (1814–30) under King Charles X (d. 1832)
 * June 22 – George Percy, 5th Duke of Northumberland, British politician (d. 1867)
 * June 23 – Richard W. Meade, American merchant and art collector (d. 1828)
 * June 26 – Mariya Svistunova, lady-in-waiting at the Russian Court (d. 1866)
 * June 27 – Sir John Astley, 1st Baronet, British politician (d. 1842)
 * June 28
 * John Macbride, British historian (d. 1868)
 * William Dietz, American politician (d. 1848)
 * July 2 – Daniel Wilson, Bishop of Calcutta (d. 1858)
 * July 3 – Carl Ludvig Engel, German architect (d. 1840)
 * July 6 – Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent, French scientist (d. 1846)
 * July 7 – Beau Brummell, English man of fashion (d. 1840)
 * July 10
 * William Brockenbrough, American politician (d. 1838)
 * Laurent Cunin-Gridaine, French businessman, politician (d. 1859)
 * July 11 – Timothy Fuller, American politician (d. 1835)
 * July 12 – Maria Dalle Donne, Bolognese physician (d. 1842)
 * July 13 – Samuel Stevens, Jr., American politician (d. 1860)
 * July 15
 * Thomas James Maling, British Royal Navy officer (d. 1849)
 * Jasper Nicolls, British general (d. 1849)
 * July 17 – Benjamin Isaacs, Connecticut politician (d. 1846)
 * July 19
 * Thomas Foley, British politician (d. 1822)
 * Samuel Bent, American Mormon leader (d. 1846)
 * July 20 – Joshua Tetley, British brewer (d. 1859)
 * July 28 – Charles Stewart, American naval commander (d. 1869)
 * July 30
 * David Pattee, Canadian politician (d. 1851)
 * Henry, Duke of Anhalt-Köthen (d. 1847)
 * August 2 – Georg Anton Rollett, Austrian naturalist (d. 1842)
 * August 5 – Otto Christian Blandow, German bryologist (d. 1810)
 * August 8 – John Bonfoy Rooper, British landowner, MP (d. 1855)
 * August 11
 * Marcus Pløen, Norwegian businessperson (d. 1836)
 * Charles Pierrepont, 2nd Earl Manvers, British naval officer and politician (d. 1860)
 * Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, German-Prussian gymnastics educator, nationalist (d. 1852)
 * August 12
 * Francis Horner, British politician (d. 1817)
 * Joshua Vanneck, 2nd Baron Huntingfield, British politician (d. 1844)
 * August 19
 * Princess Sophie of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, German princess (d. 1835)
 * James Harris, 2nd Earl of Malmesbury, British politician (d. 1841)
 * August 20 – Bernardo O'Higgins, Supreme Director of Chile (d. 1842)
 * August 21 – Lewis Weston Dillwyn, British politician (d. 1855)
 * August 25 – Joseph Batten, British college principal (d. 1837)
 * August 31 – William Wilkins, English architect (d. 1839)

September–December

 * September 2 – Louis Bonaparte, sibling of Napoleon Bonaparte I, French army general, King of Holland (d. 1846)
 * September 7 – José Bernardo Sánchez, Spanish missionary (d. 1833)
 * September 8 – George Heneage Lawrence Dundas, British Royal Navy admiral (d. 1834)
 * September 9 – Clemens Brentano, German poet, novelist (d. 1842)
 * September 10 – Joshua Lawrence, American Baptist minister (d. 1843)
 * September 12 – William Davidson, American politician (d. 1857)
 * September 14
 * John Varnum, American politician (d. 1836)
 * John Barss, Canadian politician (d. 1851)
 * September 15 – Augustin Caron, Canadian politician (d. 1862)
 * September 19
 * Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux, British politician (d. 1868)
 * William Gaston, American politician (d. 1844)
 * September 20
 * James Mann, 5th Earl Cornwallis of Great Britain (d. 1852)
 * Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, Russian admiral (d. 1852)
 * September 21 – Carl Ludwig Koch, German entomologist (d. 1857)
 * September 24 – Michał Gedeon Radziwiłł, Polish-Lithuanian noble (d. 1850)
 * September 25
 * Sir Charles Oakeley, 2nd Baronet, 2nd Baronet in the Oakeley Baronets (d. 1829)
 * Prince Louis of Anhalt-Köthen, Duke of Anhalt-Köthen (d. 1802)
 * September 26 – Jonathan Fisk, American politician (d. 1832)
 * September 27
 * Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen, German composer, music teacher (d. 1851)
 * Damião Barbosa de Araújo, Brazilian composer (d. 1856)
 * September 28
 * Luther Lawrence, American politician (d. 1839)
 * Suzanne Douvillier, French-born American ballerina, mime & choreographer (d. 1826)
 * Catherine McAuley, Irish nun, saint (d. 1841)
 * September 29
 * Benjamin Hall, British politician (d. 1817)
 * Thomas Warsop, English cricketer (d. 1845)
 * October 5
 * Ernst Ludwig von Aster, Prussian and Russian Army general (d. 1855)
 * Jacques Joseph Champollion-Figeac, French archaeologist (d. 1867)
 * October 7
 * Charles Paget, British Royal Navy admiral (d. 1839)
 * Joseph Knight, English horticulturist (d. 1855)
 * Thomas Cranley Onslow, British politician (d. 1861)
 * October 8 – Hyacinthe-Louis de Quélen, French Catholic bishop (d. 1839)
 * October 9
 * Pierre-Denis, Comte de Peyronnet, President of the Bordeaux Court in France (1815) (d. 1854)
 * John FitzMaurice, Viscount Kirkwall, British politician (d. 1820)
 * Sir Lionel Smith, 1st Baronet, British Army general (d. 1842)
 * October 13 – William Marks, American politician (d. 1858)
 * October 14 – Francis Fane, British Royal Navy admiral (d. 1844)
 * October 19 – Valentine Blacker, Irish-born Surveyor General of India (d. 1826)
 * October 22 – Javier de Burgos, Spanish writer, politician and jurist (d. 1849)
 * October 23 – Kittur Chennamma, Indian queen regnant (d. 1829)
 * October 26 – Charles Grant, 1st Baron Glenelg, British politician (d. 1866)
 * October 28 – Ezekiel Blomfield, British minister (d. 1818)
 * October 29 – William Creighton, Jr., United States federal judge (d. 1851)
 * October 30 – Benjamin Ames, American politician (d. 1835)
 * October 31
 * Jacob Shibley, Canadian politician (d. 1862)
 * Charles Abraham Elton, English author (d. 1853)
 * John Black, Australian sailor (d. 1802)
 * November 1
 * James R. Caldwell, United States Navy officer (d. 1804)
 * Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden, King of Sweden (d. 1837)
 * November 3 – Karlo Lanza, Dalmatian politician (d. 1834)
 * November 5
 * Giovanni Battista Belzoni, Italian explorer (d. 1823)
 * Thomas Ritchie, American journalist (d. 1854)
 * November 8 – Joseph Signay, Canadian Catholic bishop (d. 1850)
 * November 11 – Nils Astrup, Norwegian politician (d. 1835)
 * November 14
 * Heinrich Gottlieb Tzschirner, German theologian (d. 1828)
 * Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Austrian composer, virtuoso pianist (d. 1837)
 * November 15
 * George Canning, 1st Baron Garvagh, British politician (d. 1840)
 * Giovanni Battista Belzoni, Italian antiquarian (d. 1823)
 * November 16 – Johann Joseph von Prechtl, Austrian technologist (d. 1854)
 * November 18 – Lord William Stuart, British politician (d. 1814)
 * November 19 – Charles de Salaberry, Canadian politician (d. 1829)
 * November 21
 * Richard Phillips, British chemist (d. 1851)
 * Thomas B. Cooke, American politician (d. 1853)
 * Joseph Warren Scott, American army officer (d. 1871)
 * Kunitomo Ikkansai, Japanese gunsmith (d. 1840)
 * November 22 – Aurora Wilhelmina Koskull, Swedish lady-in-waiting, politically active salonist (d. 1852)
 * November 23
 * Mariano Moreno, Argentine politician (d. 1811)
 * Samuel Humphreys, noted American naval architect and shipbuilder in the early 19th century (d. 1846)
 * November 24 – Salusbury Pryce Humphreys, British Royal Navy officer during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and the War of 1812 (d. 1845)
 * November 25
 * Joseph Lancaster, English Quaker, public education innovator (d. 1838)
 * Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck, British abolitionist (d. 1856)
 * November 26
 * Jean-Thomas Taschereau, Canadian politician (d. 1832)
 * Henry Fane, British Army general (d. 1840)
 * November 28
 * Filippo di Colloredo-Mels, leader of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (d. 1864)
 * Abd al-Rahman of Morocco, Alaouite dynasty member (d. 1859)
 * November 29 – Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko, Ukrainian writer, journalist, and playwright (d. 1843)
 * November 30 – Andrés Guazurary, Argentine general (d. 1825)
 * December 6 – Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, French chemist (d. 1850)
 * December 7 – Franz Naegele, German obstetrician (d. 1851)
 * December 9 – Vicente González Moreno, Spanish general (d. 1839)
 * December 10 – Antonio Francesco Orioli, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 1852)
 * December 13
 * George Townshend, 3rd Marquess Townshend of Great Britain (d. 1855)
 * Thomas Kendall, New Zealand missionary (d. 1832)
 * December 15
 * Godert van der Capellen, Dutch colonial governor (d. 1848)
 * Christiane Luise Amalie Becker, German actor (d. 1797)
 * December 16
 * John Ordronaux, French privateer (d. 1841)
 * Ludwig Robert, German dramatist (d. 1832)
 * José Colombres, Argentine Catholic bishop (d. 1859)
 * December 17
 * Humphry Davy, English physicist, chemist (d. 1829)
 * William Munroe, American cabinet maker (d. 1861)
 * Juan Martín de Veramendi, Governor of Mexican Texas (d. 1833)
 * December 18 – Joseph Grimaldi, English actor and comedian (d. 1837)
 * December 19 – Marie Thérèse of France, eldest child of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette (d. 1851)
 * December 20 – Thomas P. Grosvenor, American politician (d. 1817)
 * December 21 – Anders Sandøe Ørsted, Danish politician (d. 1860)
 * December 22 – James Haldane Stewart, British priest (d. 1854)
 * December 23 – François de Robiano, Belgian politician (d. 1836)
 * December 24
 * Inoue Masamoto, Japanese daimyō (d. 1858)
 * James Guyon, Jr., American politician (d. 1846)
 * Thomas Coventry, English cricketer (d. 1816)
 * December 25 – Caleb Atwater, American politician (d. 1867)
 * December 27 – Antoine François Eugène Merlin, French general (d. 1854)
 * December 28
 * Franz Xaver Heller, German botanist (d. 1840)
 * William Cowper, English-born Anglican cleric in Australia, who was the Archdeacon of Cumberland (d. 1858)
 * Charles Hanbury-Tracy, 1st Baron Sudeley, British politician (d. 1858)
 * Matthew Arbuckle, United States soldier (d. 1851)
 * December 29
 * Georg Anton Friedrich Ast, German philosopher (d. 1841)
 * Johann Simon Hermstedt, German musician (d. 1846)

Undated

 * Sardar Fath 'Ali Khan, Wazir-i-azam of Kabul (d. 1818)
 * Anna Maria Walker, Scottish botanist (d. 1852)
 * Sara Oust, Norwegian lay minister (d. 1822)
 * Marie-Madeleine Lachenais, Haitian de facto politician (d. 1843)

Deaths

 * January 3 – Paul Jacques Malouin, French chemist (b. 1701)
 * January 10 – Carl Linnaeus, Swedish botanist (b. 1707)
 * February 18 – Joseph Marie Terray, French statesman (b. 1715)
 * February 20 – Laura Bassi, Italian physicist and academic (b. 1711)
 * February 27 – Alexander Murray of Elibank, fourth son of Alexander Murray (b. 1712)
 * March 5 – Thomas Arne, English composer of Rule, Britannia! (b. 1710)
 * March 7 – Charles De Geer, Swedish industrialist and entomologist (b. 1720)
 * March 13 – Charles le Beau, French historian (b. 1701)
 * April 8 – Pieter Teyler van der Hulst, Dutch businessman (b. 1702)
 * April 22 – James Hargreaves, English weaver, carpenter, and inventor (b. 1720)
 * May 8 – Lorenz Christoph Mizler, German music historian, polymath (b. 1711)
 * May 11 – William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, Prime Minister of Great Britain (b. 1708)
 * May 12 – Paul-Joseph Le Moyne de Longueuil, seigneur and colonial army officer in New France, governor of Trois-Rivières (b. 1701)
 * May 16 – Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, English diplomat and politician (b. 1718)
 * May 30
 * José de la Borda, Spanish/Mexican mining magnate (b. c. 1699)
 * Voltaire, French philosopher (b. 1694)
 * June 12 – Philip Livingston, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1716)
 * June 16 – Konrad Ekhof, German actor (b. 1720)
 * June 19 – Francesca Cuzzoni, Italian operatic soprano (b. 1696)
 * June 24 – Pieter Burman the Younger, Dutch philologist (b. 1714)
 * July 3
 * Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher (b. 1712)
 * Bathsheba Spooner, American murderer (b. c. 1746)
 * July 3 – Anna Maria Mozart, Austrian mother to the Mozarts (b. 1720)
 * July 4 – Ebenezer Kinnersley, American scientist (b. 1711)
 * August 5 – Charles Clémencet, French historian (b. 1703)
 * August 7 – Sir Thomas Cave, 5th Baronet of England (b. 1712)
 * August 12 – Peregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, British general, politician (b. 1714)
 * October 1 – Washington Shirley, 5th Earl Ferrers, British Royal Navy admiral (b. 1722)
 * October 6 – George Hay, British politician (b. 1715)
 * October 11 – Saliha Sultan, daughter of Ottoman Sultan (b. 1715)
 * October 24 – Henry Ernest of Stolberg-Wernigerode, German politician, provost and author (b. 1716)
 * November 9
 * Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Italian artist (b. 1720)
 * Lydia Taft, American suffragist (b. 1712)
 * November 11 – Anne Steele, English hymnwriter and essayist (b. 1717)
 * November 20 – Francesco Cetti, Italian Jesuit scientist (b. 1726)
 * December 26 – Pedro Antonio de Cevallos, Spanish military Governor of Buenos Aires (1757–1766) (b. 1715)
 * December 30 – Constantine, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg (b. 1716)
 * date unknown – Thomas Johnson, English furniture maker (b. 1714)

title: 1778