- Feb 5 Court Lambertus van Beyma, Frisian regent and leader of the Frisian patriots (d. 1820)
- Feb 6 Évariste de Parny, French poet, born in Saint-Paul, France (d. 1814)
- Feb 7 Rhijnvis Feith, Dutch poet and writer (Thirsci), born in Zwolle (d. 1824)
- Feb 12 François-Paul Brueys D'Aigalliers, French admiral (d. 1798)
- Feb 20 Louis Alexandre Berthier, French marshal (d. 1815)
- Mar 9 Jean-Baptiste Kléber, French general, born in Strasbourg, France (d. 1800)
- Mar 26 Benjamin Thompson, American physicist and inventor (Royal Institution of Great Britain), born in Woburn, Massachusetts (d. 1814)
- Apr 1 Joseph de Maistre, French diplomat and writer (d. 1821)
- Apr 9 Pieter Paulus, Dutch Patriot and President of the First National Assembly in The Hague, born in Axel, Netherlands (d. 1796)
- Apr 28 Franz K. Achard, German physicist and chemist, born in Berlin (d. 1821)
- May 8 Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Spanish Catholic priest, and leader of Mexican independence, born in Pénjamo, Guanajuato, Viceroyalty of New Spain (d. 1811)
Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784)
May 8 American poet who was both the second published African-American poet and first published African-American woman, born in West Africa
- May 13 Lazare Carnot, French politician, engineer and mathematician known as the Organizer of Victory in the French Revolutionary Wars, born in Nolay, Côte-d'Or (d. 1823)
- May 24 Oliver Cromwell, decorated African American soldier who served with Washington in US War of Independence, born in Burlington, New Jersey
- May 31 Pierre-Victurnien Vergniaud, French politician and police leader, born in Limoges, France (d. 1793)
- Jun 10 William Eustis, 12th Governor of Massachusetts (1823-25), born in Cambridge, Massachusetts Bay, British America (d. 1825)
- Jul 4 Jean-Pierre Blanchard, French ballonist (1st balloon flights in England and U.S.), born in Les Andelys, France (d. 1809)
- Jul 6 John H Midderigh, Rotterdam patriot, baptized
- Jul 9 William Waldegrave, 1st Baron Radstock, Governor of Newfoundland, born in England (d. 1825)
- Aug 3 Charles Stanhope, 3rd earl Stanhope, English radical politician and scientist, born in London (d. 1816)
Edmund Randolph (1753-1813)
Aug 10 US Founding Father, 1st US Attorney General (1789-94) and 2nd US Secretary of State (1794-95), born in Williamsburg, Virginia, British America
- Aug 12 Thomas Bewick, England, artist (British Birds, Aesop's Fables)
- Aug 17 Josef Dobrovský, Czech linguist (d. 1828)
- Sep 2 Marie Josephine Louise of Savoy, queen of France (d. 1810)
- Sep 10 John Soane, English architect (Bank of England, Soane Museum), born in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England (d. 1837)
- Nov 3 August Gottlieb Meißner, German Enlightenment author who helped develop the detective story genre in German literature, born in Bautzen, Electorate of Saxony, Holy Roman Empire (d. 1807)
- Nov 6 Mikhail Kozlovsky, Russian sculptor, born in St. Petersburg, Russia (d. 1802)
- Nov 22 Dugald Stewart, Scottish philosopher and mathematician (Scottish common sense), born in Edinburgh, Scotland (d. 1828)
- Dec 3 Samuel Crompton, English inventor (mule-jenny spinning machine), born in 10 Firwood Fold, Bolton, Lancashire, England (d. 1827)
- Dec 19 John Taylor, American philosopher (Jeffersonian Democracy), born in Virginia, (d. 1824)