• March 22 - The British Parliament passes the Stamp Act which is the first direct tax levied from England on the American colonies.
• March 24 - American Revolutionary War: Great Britain passes the Quartering Act[?] that requires the 13 American colonies to house British troops
• May 18 - Fire destroys one quarter of town of Montreal, Quebec.
• June 21 - The Isle of Man is brought under British control.

Births

• January 11 - Antoine Alexandre Barbier - French librarian
• March 27 - Franz Xaver von Baader - A German philosopher and theologian.
• April 1 - Luigi Schiavonetti - Italian engraver
• April 6 - Duke Charles Felix of Savoy
• June 15 - Henry Thomas Colebrooke, English orientalist
• August 21 - King William IV of the United Kingdom.
• September 18 - Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari, the later Pope Gregory XVI
• October 8 - Harman Blennerhassett, Irish-American lawyer
• October 24 - James Mackintosh, Scottish publicist
• November 14 - Robert Fulton - inventor, perfected the steamboat.
• December 8 - Eli Whitney, American inventor
• Charles Hatchett, English chemist who discovered niobium.
• James Smithson, founder of the Smithsonian Institute
• Peter Bagration - Russian general
• Nicéphore Nièpce - French inventor

Deaths

• March 3 - William Stukeley, English antiquary
• April 15 - Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian author and scientist
• May 17 - Alexis Claude Clairault, French mathematician
• August 18 - Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor
• October 31 - Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland
• December 25 - Vaclav Prokop Divis, Czech scientist