- Jan 2 Louis di Belgioioso, Austrian count, diplomat and field marshal under the Habsburgs, born in Belgioioso (d. 1801)
- Jan 6 Domingos dos Reis Quita, Portuguese playwright & poet, born in Lisbon, Portugal (d. 1770)
- Jan 9 Thomas Warton, critic and poet (Pleasures of Melancholy) British Poet Laureate (1785-90), born in Basingstoke (d. 1790)
- Feb 12 Étienne-Louis Boullée, French architect (d. 1799)
- Feb 13 John Hunter, Scottish surgeon and founder of pathological anatomy in England, born in Long Calderwood, Scotland (d. 1793)
- Feb 21 Peter III, German-born Russian Tsar (1762) and husband of Catherine the Great, born in Kiel, Duchy of Holstein-Gottorp (d. 1762)
- Feb 29 Robert Bage, English writer (Criticism by Peter Faulkner), born in Darley Abbey, England (d. 1801)
- Mar 19 Pieter-Jozef Verhaghen, Flemish court painter, born in Aarschot (d. 1811)
- Mar 22 Anton Raphael Mengs, German Bohemian painter and one of the precursors to Neoclassical painting, born in Ústí nad Labem, Bohemia (d. 1779)
- Apr 16 Joseph Black, Scottish chemist and physicist known for his discoveries of magnesium, latent heat and carbon dioxide, born in Bordeaux, France (d. 1799)
- Apr 19 Francisco Albergati Capacelli, Italian writer and playwright, born in Bologna (d. 1804)
- Apr 23 Samuel Wallis, English explorer (Wallis Island), born in Camelford, Cornwall (d. 1795)
- Jun 25 Shah Alam II, 17th Mughal Emperor (1760-1806), born in Shahjahanabad, Mughal Empire (d. 1806))
- Jul 3 Robert Adam, Scottish architect and designer (Adelphi Terrace, London), born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland (d. 1792)
- Aug 26 Johann Heinrich Lambert, German scientist (d. 1777)
- Aug 28 John Stark, American military officer (Battle of Bennington), born in Londonderry, New Hampshire (d. 1822)
- Aug 29 Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony, Electress of Bavaria, born in Dresden Castle, Dresden, Germany (d. 1797)
- Oct 5 Chevalier d'Éon [Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée d'Éon de Beaumont], French spy, diplomat, and transvestite, born in Tonnerre, France (d. 1810)
- Oct 7 Caesar Rodney, Delaware, judge/signer (Declaration of Independence)
James Cook (1728-1779)
Nov 7 British explorer, navigator and cartographer who was the first European to explore much of Australia, the Pacific Islands and New Zealand, born in Marton, Yorkshire, England
- Dec 2 Ferdinando Galiani, Italian economist (Della Moneta), born in Chieti, Italy (d. 1787)
- Dec 8 Johann Georg von Zimmermann, Swiss philosophical author and physician, born in Brugg, Aargau, Switzerland (d. 1795)
- Dec 22 Charles Frederick, Margrave, Elector and later Grand Duke of Baden, born in Baden-Württemberg, Germany (d. 1811)