• The Iron Bridge is completed across the Severn river in Shropshire; the first all cast-iron bridge ever constructed.
• The city of Tampere is founded in Finland.
• May 13 - War of Bavarian Succession[?]: Russian and French mediators at the Congress of Teschen[?] negotiate an end to the war. In the agreement Austria receives the a part of its territory that was taken from them (the Inn District[?]).

Births

• January 5 - Stephen Decatur, American naval officer
• January 18 - Peter Roget, lexicographer (+ 1869)
• March 15 - Lord Melbourne, British Prime Minister.
• May 28 - Thomas Moore, poet (+ 1852)
• August 20 - Jons Jacob Berzelius, Swedish chemist.
• November 14 - Adam Oehlenschlager, Danish poet

Deaths

• January 20 - David Garrick, actor
• February 14 - James Cook, explorer is killed by the natives of the Sandwich Islands.
• December 6 - Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, French painter
• Emperor Go-Momozono of Japan