Events

• April 24 - A congress assembles at Aix-la-Chapelle with the intent to conclude the struggle known as the War of Austrian Succession - at October 18 - The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle is signed to end the war
• Adam Smith begins to deliver public lectures in Edinburgh
• Building of Sveaborg begins near Helsinki
• Henry Fielding organizes forerunner of the Bow Street Runners – eight men at first

Births

• January 1 - Gottfried August Bürger, German poet (died 1794)
• January 9 - Stefan Paluselli , composer (died 1805)
• February 2 - Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Order of the Illuminati (died 1811)
• February 9 - Luther Martin, American politician (died 1826)
• February 15 - Jeremy Bentham, English philosopher and writer (died 1832)
• February 22 - Timothy Dexter, American businessman (died 1806)
• February 27 - Anders Sparrman, Swedish naturalist (died 1820)
• March 5 - William Shield, English violinist and composer (died 1829)
• March 5 - Jonas C. Dryander, Swedish botanist (died 1810)
• March 8 - Prince William V of Orange (died 1806)
• March 10 - John Playfair, Scottish scientist (died 1819)
• April 12 - Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, French botanist (died 1836)
• April 27 - Pierre-Louis Ginguené, French author (died 1815)
• April 27 - Adamantios Korais, humanist scholar, the father of Modern Greek literature (died 1833)
• May 3 - Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, French cleric and constitutional theorist (died 1836)
• May 7 - Olympe de Gouges, Woman playwright (died 1793)
• May 28 - Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle (died 1825)
• June 8 - William Few, American politician (died 1828)
• June 30 - Jacques Dominique, comte de Cassini, French astronomer (died 1845)
• August 8 - Johann Friedrich Gmelin, German naturalist (died 1804)
• August 30 - Jacques-Louis David, French painter (died 1825)
• October 7 - King Charles XIII of Sweden (Charles II of Norway) (died 1818)
• October 13 - Johann Dominicus Fiorillo, German painter and art historian (died 1821)
• October 19 - Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, Wife of 3rd President Thomas Jefferson (died 1782)
• November 11 - King Charles IV of Spain (died 1819)
• December 9 - Claude Louis Berthollet, French chemist (died 1822)
• December 14 - William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire (died 1811)
• Sweeney Todd, serial killer (died 1802)
• Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot, French ornithologist (died 1831)
• James Sayers, English caricaturist (died 1823)
• William Leeves , English reverend and composer (died 1828)
• Peniston Lamb, 1st Viscount Melbourne (died 1829)
• Francis Needham, 1st Earl of Kilmorey (died 1832)
• James Cecil, 7th Earl of Salisbury (died 1823)
• William Chalmers, Swedish merchant (died 1811)
• Richard Howard, 4th Earl of Effingham (died 1816)
• Richard Nassau Molesworth, 4th Viscount Molesworth (died 1793)
• Thomas de Grey, 2nd Baron Walsingham (died 1818)
• John Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale (died 1830)

Deaths

• January 1 - Johann Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (born 1667)
• March 14 - George Wade, Hanoverian soldier (born 1673)
• March 23 - Johann Gottfried Walther , German composer (born 1684)
• April 12 - William Kent, architect (born 1685)
• May 12 - Thomas Lowndes, British astronomer (born 1692)
• July 12 - Boštjan Steiner , Slovenian mathematician (born 1680)
• August 27 - James Thomson, Scottish poet (born 1700)
• September 21 - John Balguy, English philosopher (born 1686)
• November 25 - Isaac Watts, English hymn writer (born 1674)
• December 2 - Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset (born 1662)
• Francesco Antonio Bonporti, Italian priest and composer (born 1672)
• Price Devereux, 10th Viscount Hereford (born 1694)
• John Perceval, 1st Earl of Egmont (born 1683)
• William Herbert, 3rd Marquess of Powis (born 1698)
• Alexander Fraser, 12th Lord Saltoun (born 1684)
• George Mackay, 3rd Lord Reay (born 1678)
• John Monson, 1st Baron Monson (born 1693)