| January 1 | 1st traveller's checks issued (London) |
| February 12 | Yves de Kerguelen of France discovers Kerguelen Archipelago, India |
| February 17 | 1st partition of Poland-Russia and Prussia, joined later by Austria |
| March 13 | Gotthold Lessing's "Emilia Calotti," premieres in Brunswick |
| April 30 | John Clais patents 1st scale |
| May 11 | Amsterdam theater destroyed by fire, 18 killed |
| June 6 | Haitian explorer Jean Baptiste-Pointe Dusable settles Chicago |
| June 9 | 1st naval attack of Revolutionary War takes place in Providence, RI |
| June 9 | 1st Protestant church west of Penn (in Ohio) holds communion |
| June 10 | Burning of Gaspee, British revenue cutter, by Rhode Islanders |
| June 22 | Slavery outlawed in England |
| July 13 | Captain James Cook begins 2nd trip (Resolution) to South Seas |
| August 5 | 1st partition of Poland, between Austria, Prussia and Russia |
| August 11 | Explosive eruption blows 4,000' off Papandayan Java, kills 3,000 |
| August 19 | Gustav III seizes effective control of Swedish government and restores full power of monarchy, which had been subordinate to parliament since 1720 |
| August 31 | Hurricane destroy ships off Dominica |
| September 1 | Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa forms in California |
| September 26 | New Jersey passes bill requiring a license to practice medicine |
| October 30 | Captain Cook arrives with ship Resolution in Capetown |
| November 2 | Boston: anti-English Committee of Correspondence forms |
| December 22 | Moravian missionary constructs 1st schoolhouse west of Allegheny |
BrainyHistory
