- Jan 20 Marie-Anne Paulze Lavoisier, French chemist (worked with husband Antoine Lavoisier), born in Montbrison, France (d. 1836)
- Jan 24 Johann Chrysostomus Drexel, German composer, born in Epfenhausen, Bavaria (d. 1801)
- Feb 1 Agustín de Betancourt, Spanish civil engineer (steam engines, hot air balloons), born in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife (d. 1824)
- Feb 4 Pierre-Gabriel Gardel, French ballet dancer and choreographer (In L'Offrande à la Liberté), born in Nancy, France (d. 1840)
- Feb 7 Benedikt Emanuel Schack, composer
- Feb 12 Christian Ignatius Latrobe, English clergyman and composer (Selection of Sacred Music), born in the Fulneck Moravian Settlement, Yorkshire (d. 1836)
- Feb 17 John Pinkerton, Scottish anti-Celtic historian, born in Edinburgh, Scotland (d. 1826)
- Mar 9 Franz Joseph Gall, German-French physician (phrenology), born in Tiefenbronn, Germany (d. 1828)
- Mar 12 Leopold earl of Limburg Stirum, Dutch general and politician [or March 22]
- Mar 26 Johann Daniel Ferstenberg, American composer
- Apr 4 John Hoppner, English portrait painter, born in Whitechapel, London (d. 1810)
- Apr 4 Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, French Romantic painter and draughtsman - allegorical paintings and portraits, born in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire (d. 1823)
James Monroe (1758-1831)
Apr 28 5th US President (1817-25), born in Monroe Hall, Virginia
- Apr 29 Georg Carl von Döbeln, Swedish Lieutenant General and war hero, born in Stora Torpa, Västergötland, Sweden (d. 1820)
Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794)
May 6 French revolutionary (President of the National Convention, Member of Committee of Public Safety), born in Arras, France
- May 17 John St Aubyn, British fossil collector, born in Golden Square, London (d. 1839)
- Jun 2 Cornelis R T Krayenhoff, Dutch fortress engineer/cartographer
- Jun 18 Quint Ondaatje, Dutch jurist and politician, born in Colombo (d. 1818)
- Jul 25 Elizabeth Hamilton, Scottish author (The cottagers of Glenburnie), born in Belfast, Ireland (d. 1816)
- Jul 29 Antonius van Gils, Dutch RC theologist (opposed Enlightenment)
- Aug 9 Bruno Dalberg [Petrus the Wacker van Zon], Dutch writer and lawyer, born in Amsterdam (d. 1818)
- Aug 14 Carle Vernet, French painter and lithographer, born in Bordeaux, France (d. 1836)
- Aug 24 Sophia Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Queen of Denmark and Norway, born in Schwerin, Germany (d. 1794)
- Aug 25 Franz Teyber, Austrian composer, born in Vienna, Austria (d. 1810)
- Sep 1 Wilhelmus Kist, writer/director of Dutch Staatscourant
- Sep 10 Hannah Webster Foster, American author (The Coquette; or, The History of Eliza Wharton), born in Salisbury, Massachusetts (d. 1840)
- Sep 21 Christopher Gore, American lawyer and politician (8th Governor of Massachusetts), born in Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay (d. 1827)
- Sep 26 Cosme Argerich, Argentine physician and founder of the Medicine School of Buenos Aires, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina (d. 1820)
Horatio Nelson (1758-1805)
Sep 29 British admiral and hero of Trafalgar, born in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk
Noah Webster (1758-1843)
Oct 16 American lexicographer (Webster's Dictionary), born in West Hartford, Connecticut
- Oct 26 Louis-Charles-Joseph Rey, French classical cellist and composer, born in Lauzerte, France (d. 1811)
- Nov 7 Edouard viscount de Walckiers, South Netherland banker and politician, born in Brussels, Belgium (d. 1837)
- Nov 16 Peter Andreas Heiberg, Danish author and philologist, born in Vordingborg, Denmark (d. 1841)
- Dec 3 Joseph Gelinek, Czech composer, born in Beroun, Czech Republic (d. 1825)
- Dec 11 Carl Friedrich Zelter, German composer, born in Berlin, Germany (d. 1832)
- Dec 20 Othon Joseph Vandenbroek, Flemish horn player and composer, born in Ypres, Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium) (d. 1832)
- Dec 23 Nathan Wilson, U.S. Representative from New York, born in Bolton, Massachusetts (d. 1834)