- Jan 26 Stanislaw I of Poland abdicates his throne
- Feb 5 Methodists John and Charles Wesley arrive in Savannah, Georgia
- Mar 31 Bellevue Hospital founded in a New York City almshouse - 1st public hospital in the US
Historic Expedition
Apr 20 French mathematician Pierre Louis Maupertuis begins Lapland expedition to measure latitude and shape of the earth, joined by fellow scientists Anders Celsius, Charles Etienne Louis Camus, Alexis Clairaut, and Pierre-Charles Le Monnier
- May 26 Battle of Ackia (Louisiana), British & Chickasaw Indians defeat French
- Dec 3 Astronomer Anders Celsius takes measurements that confirm Newton's theory that the earth was an ellipsoid rather than the previously accepted sphere