- Jan 5 Friedrich Wilhelm Reidt, composer, dies on 73rd birthday
- Jan 7 William Tans'ur, English hymnist, dies at 76
- Jan 15 William Alexander, Lord Stirling, American general (American Revolutionary War leader), dies at 57
- Jan 31 Caffarelli [Gaetano Majorano], Italian castrato soprano, dies at 72
- Feb 6 Lancelot "Capability" Brown, English landscape architect who designed over 170 parks, dies at about 67
- Feb 10 James Nares, British organist, harpsichord player and scared music composer, dies at 67
- Mar 23 Gaspard Fritz, Swiss composer and violinist, dies at 67
- Mar 30 William Hunter, Scottish anatomist and physician, dies at 64
- Apr 7 Ignaz Jakob Holzbauer, Austrian composer, dies at 71
- Apr 10 František Václav Habermann, Czech composer, dies at 76
- Apr 11 Nikita I Panin, Russian earl/ambassador in Denmark, dies at 64
- Apr 16 Christian Mayer, Czech Catholic priest and astronomer, dies at 63
- May 3 Pieter Valck(x), South Netherlands sculptor, dies at 49
- May 23 James Otis, American lawyer, dies
- Jul 27 Johann Philipp Kirnberger, German music theorist and violist, dies at 62
- Aug 6 Willem Bachiene, Dutch vicar, theologist, geographer and astronomer, dies at 70
- Sep 6 Carlo Bertinazzi, Italian actor and writer (commedia dell'arte), dies at 72
Leonhard Euler
Sep 18 Leonhard Euler, Swiss mathematician (Euler's Constant), dies of a brain hemorrhage at 76
Jean-Baptiste Le Rond d'Alembert
Oct 29 Jean-Baptiste Le Rond d'Alembert, French philosopher and mathematician (Encyclopédie), dies at 66
- Nov 22 John Hanson, American Continental Congressman and 1st US President under Articles of Confederation, dies at 68
- Dec 13 Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin, Swedish astronomer (b. 1717)
- Dec 16 Johann Adolf Hasse, Dutch operatic composer (Sesostrate), dies at 84
- Dec 16 Yoriyuki Arima, Japanese mathematician (approximated the value of pi and its square, pi^2), dies at 68
- Dec 16 Sir William James, British naval commander (b. 1720)
- Dec 20 Antonio Soler, Spanish Catalan composer (Fandango), dies at 54
- Dec 31 Gualtherus van Doeveren, Zealand-Flanders physician, dies at 53