- Jan 21 Mustafa III, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1717). Reigns 1757 to 1774. Dies at 56
- Feb 4 Charles Marie de La Condamine, French mathematician and geographer (b. 1701)
- Apr 4 Oliver Goldsmith, Irish novelist and dramatist (She Stoops to Conquer), dies at 45
- Apr 23 Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich, German painter, dies at 61
- May 4 Anthony Ulrich II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, dies at 59
- May 10 Louis XV, king of France (1715-74), dies at 64
- Jul 1 Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, English corrupt politician (Chiswick), dies at 68
- Jul 11 Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet, Irish-born New York pioneer
- Jul 14 James O'Hara, 2nd Baron Tyrawley and Kilmaine, British field marshal (b. 1682)
- Aug 11 Tiphaigne de la Roche, French writer (b. 1722)
- Aug 14 Johann Jakob Reiske, German physician (b. 1716)
- Sep 22 Pope Clement XIV [Giovanni Ganganelli], Pope (1769-74), dies at 68
- Sep 25 John Bradstreet, Canadian-born soldier (b. 1714)
- Oct 13 Willem Bentinck, mister of Rhoon/Pendrecht/Orangist, dies at 69
- Oct 16 Robert Fergusson, Scottish poet (Scottish Poems), dies at 24
- Oct 23 Michel Benoist, French Jesuit missionary and scientist, dies at 59
- Dec 13 Susanne K von Klettenberg, German friend of Goethes mother, dies at 50
- Dec 16 Francois Quesnay, French personal physician of Louis XIV, dies at 80