James Cook (1728-1779)
Feb 14 British explorer, navigator and cartographer, discovered and explored Australia, Pacific Islands and New Zealand for Britain, killed in a fight with Hawaiians near Kealakekua at 50
- Feb 20 Johannes Burman, Dutch botanist, plant author and physician, dies at 71
- Feb 24 Paul Daniel Longolius, German encylopedist (editor of Grosses vollständiges Universal-Lexicon), dies at 74
- Feb 27 Jan Nepveu, Dutch governor of Suriname (1769-79), dies at 59
- Apr 6 Tommaso MFS Traetta, Italian opera composer (Farnace), dies at 52
- Apr 24 Eleazar Wheelock, American founder of Dartmouth College, dies at 68
- May 3 John Winthrop, American astronomer (b. 1714)
- May 11 John Hart, American farmer, politician, delegate from New Jersey to the Continental Congress and signer of the Declaration of Independence, dies at about 68
- Jun 7 William Warburton, English critic and Bishop of Gloucester (b. 1698)
- Jun 16 Sir Francis Bernard, Governor of New Jersey and Massachusetts (b. 1712)
- Jun 23 Ras Mikael Sehul, warlord of Ethiopia (b. about 1691)
- Jun 29 Anton Raphael Mengs, German Bohemian painter and one of the precursors to Neoclassical painting, dies at 51
- Jul 14 George Ross, American judge and signer of the US Declaration of Independence, dies at 49
- Aug 3 Henry Kobell, Dutch painter and cartoonist, dies at 27
- Aug 24 Saint Cosmas of Aetolia, Greek Orthodox martyr (b. 1714)
- Sep 2 Onno Zwier van Hairs, Fries poet (Agon), dies at 66
- Sep 12 Richard Grenville-Temple, 2nd Earl Temple, English politician, dies at 67
Casimir Pulaski (1747-1779)
Oct 11 Polish Military Leader, known as "the father of American cavalry', dies of battle wounds at 34
- Oct 28 Raphael Weiss, German composer and priest, dies at 66
- Nov 10 Joseph Hewes, American merchant/signer (Declaration of Independence), dies at 49
- Nov 13 Thomas Chippendale, English furniture maker, dies at 61
- Nov 16 Pehr Kalm, Finnish explorer and naturalist (b. 1716)
- Dec 6 Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, French painter, dies at 80
- Dec 8 Nathan Alcock, English physician (b. 1707)
- Dec 15 Manuel Jeronimo Romero de Avila, Spanish theorist and composer, dies at 62
- Dec 18 Jan Punt, Dutch engraver, painter, illustrator and actor (Gideonschool), dies at 68
- Dec 23 Augustus Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol, British admiral and politician (b. 1724)
- Dec 28 Gennaro Manna, Italian composer, dies at 64