- Jan 1 First traveler's cheques go on sale in London, can be used in 90 European cities
- Feb 12 Yves de Kerguelen of France discovers Kerguelen Archipelago, India
- Feb 17 1st Partition of Poland signed in Vienna by Austria, Prussia and Russia
- Mar 13 Gotthold Lessing's "Emilia Galotti" premieres in Brunswick
Event of Interest
Apr 9 Philosopher and mathematician Jean-Baptiste Le Rond d'Alembert becomes permanent secretary of the French Academy of Sciences
Jean-Baptiste Le Rond d'Alembert
- Apr 30 John Clais patents 1st scale
- May 11 Amsterdam theater destroyed by fire, 18 killed
- Jun 6 Haitian explorer Jean Baptiste-Pointe Dusable settles in Chicago
- Jun 9 1st Protestant church west of Pennsylvania (in Ohio) holds communion
- Jun 9 1st naval attack of Revolutionary War takes place in Providence, Rhode Island
- Jun 10 Burning of British revenue cutter Gaspée by Rhode Islanders
- Jun 12 Marion du Fresne is killed at Tacoury's Cove, Bay of Islands, New Zealand, by local Māori
- Jun 22 Somerset v Stewart court case finds slavery unsupported by English common law, encouraging the abolitionist movement
Event of Interest
Jul 13 Captain James Cook begins 2nd voyage aboard the Resolution to the South Seas to search for Terra Australis (Southern continent)
James Cook
Event of Interest
Aug 4 English poet and artist William Blake aged 14 is first apprenticed to engraver James Basire in London
William Blake
Event of Interest
Aug 19 King Gustav III seizes effective control of Swedish government and restores full power of monarchy, which had been subordinate to parliament since 1720
Gustav III
- Aug 21 King Gustav III of Sweden completes a coup d'etat by adopting a new Constitution and installing himself as an enlightened despot, ending 50 years of parliamentary rule
- Aug 31 Hurricane destroy ships off Dominica
- Sep 1 Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa forms in California
- Sep 22 1st Partition of Poland is ratified by Austria, Prussia and Russia
- Sep 26 New Jersey passes bill requiring a license to practise medicine
- Oct 30 Captain James Cook arrives with ship Resolution in Capetown
- Nov 2 Boston: anti-English Committee of Correspondence forms
- Dec 22 Moravian missionary constructs 1st schoolhouse west of Allegheny