- Jan 11 Prithvi Narayan Shah, began the unification of modern Nepal (d. 1774)
- Jan 12 Samuel Langdon, American college educator (d. 1797)
- Jan 27 Johann Andreas Cramer, German preacher (Court Preacher to King Frederick V of Denmark), born in Jönstadt (d. 1788)
John Witherspoon (1723-1794)
Feb 5 Scottish-American president of the College of New Jersey who signed the Declaration of Independence, born in Gifford, Scotland
- Feb 17 Tobias Mayer, German astronomer "method of lunars" for longitude determination, born in Marbach (d. 1762)
- Feb 21 Louis-Pierre Anquetil, French historian (d. 1808)
- Feb 23 Richard Price, Welsh philosopher (d. 1791)
- Feb 24 John Burgoyne, British general (surrendered at Saratoga during the American Revolutionary War), born in Sutton, England (d. 1792)
- Mar 5 Princess Mary of Great Britain (d. 1773)
- Mar 23 Agha Mohammad Khan Ghajar, King of Iran (d. 1771)
- Mar 25 Kaat Mussel [Catharina Mulder], Dutch political protester in Rotterdam (orangism), born in Rotterdam, Netherlands (d. 1798)
- Mar 31 Frederick V, King of Denmark-Norway (1746-66), born in Copenhagen Castle, Copenhagen (d. 1766)
- Apr 20 Cornelius Harnett, American delegate to the Continental Congress, born in Edenton, Chowan County, North Carolina (d. 1781)
- Apr 30 Mathurin Jacques Brisson, French zoologist and naturalist (Ornithologie), born in Fontenay-le-Comte (d. 1806)
- Jun 3 Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, Italian-born naturalist (d. 1788)
- Jun 11 Johann Georg Palitzsch, German astronomer, 1st saw Halley's comet on return, born in Prohlis, Dresden, Germany (d. 1788)
Adam Smith (1723-1790)
Jun 16 Scottish economist (Wealth of Nations) and moral philosopher (date of baptism), born in Kirkaldy, Fife, Scotland
- Jun 20 Adam Ferguson, Scottish sociologist and historian, born in Logierait, Perthshire, Scotland (d. 1816)
- Jun 20 Theophilus Lindsey, English theologian and clergyman, born in Middlewich, Cheshire (d. 1808)
- Jul 1 Pedro Rodríguez de Campomanes y Pérez, 1st Count of Campomanes, Spanish economist and literary, born in Tineo, Asturias, Kingdom of Spain (d. 1803)
William Blackstone (1723-1780)
Jul 10 English jurist (Blackstone's Commentaries), born in London, England
- Jul 11 Jean-François Marmontel, French historian and writer, born in Bort-les-Orgues, France (d. 1799)
- Jul 16 Joshua Reynolds, English portrait painter (Simplicity), born in Plympton, Devon, England (d. 1792)
- Aug 2 Nicolas de Pigage, French classical builder (Schloss Benrath), born in Lunéville, France (d. 1796)
- Sep 11 Johann Bernhard Basedow, German educational reformer, born in Hamburg, Germany (d. 1790)
- Sep 13 François Joseph Paul de Grasse, French admiral (commanded the French fleet at the Battle of the Chesapeake), born in Le Bar-sur-Loup, France (d. 1788)
- Oct 4 Nikolaus Poda von Neuhaus, Austrian entomologist, born in Vienna (d. 1798)
- Nov 8 John Byron, British Royal Navy officer (d. 1786)
- Nov 30 William Livingston, American politician and 1st revolutionary Governor of New Jersey, born in Albany, Province of New York (d. 1790)
- Dec 19 Susanne von Klettenberg, German abbess and correspondent of Goethe (d. 1774)
- Dec 26 Friedrich Melchior, baron von Grimm, German writer (d. 1807)