Events

• January 8 - Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Stirling
• April 16 - Battle of Culloden brings an end to the Jacobite Risings
• October 22 - The College of New Jersey is founded (it becomes Princeton University in 1896)
• October 28 - An earthquake demolishes Lima and Callao, in Peru
• Catharine de Ricci (born 1522) canonized.

Births

• January 12 - Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Swiss pedagogue (died 1827)
• January 24 - King Gustav III of Sweden (died 1792)
• February 4 - Tadeusz Kosciuszko, Polish general and nationalist (died 1817)
• February 5 - Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, American Federalist politician and soldier (died 1825)
• March 7 - André Michaux, French botanist (died 1802)
• March 30 - Francisco Goya, painter (died 1828)
• July 3 - Henry Grattan, Irish politician (died 1820)
• September 28 - Sir William Jones, discoverer of the Indo-European languages family (died 1794)
• November 27 - Robert R. Livingston, American public official and diplomat (died 1813)

Deaths

• May 22 - Thomas Southerne, Irish playwright (born 1660)
• June 14 - Colin Maclaurin, Scottish mathematician (born 1698)
• July 9 - Philip V of Spain (born 1683)
• July 28 - John Peter Zenger, American printer (born 1697)
• August 6 - Christian VI of Denmark (born 1699)
• November 14 - Georg Steller, German naturalist (born 1709)
• December 6 - Lady Grizel Baillie, Scottish poet (born 1665)