| January 11 | Francis Salvador becomes 1st Jew elected to office in America (SC) |
| January 17 | 9 old women burnt as witches for causing bad harvests, Kalisk, Pol |
| January 17 | R B Sheridan's "Rivals," premieres in London |
| January 22 | Marshal Oscar von Lubomirski expels Jews from Warsaw Poland |
| January 25 | Americans drag cannon up hill to fight British (Gun Hill Road, Bronx) |
| February 9 | English Parliament declares Massachusetts colony is in rebellion |
| February 15 | Angelo Braschi chosen as Pope Pius VI |
| February 22 | 1st U.S. joint stock company (to make cloth) offers shares at 10 cents |
| February 22 | Jews expelled from outskirts of Warsaw Poland |
| March 19 | 4 people buried by avalanche for 37 days, 3 survive (Italy) |
| March 19 | Poland and Prussia sign trade agreement |
| March 22 | Edmund Burke presents his 13 articles to the English parliament |
| March 23 | Patrick Henry proclaims "Give me liberty or give me death" |
| April 14 | 1st abolitionist society in U.S. organizes in Philadelphia |
| April 18 | Paul Revere and William Dawes warn "British are coming!" |
| April 18 | Paul Revere rides from Charleston to Lexington |
| April 19 | Minutemen Captain John Parker orders not to fire unless fired upon |
| April 19 | Revolution begins-Lexington Common, shot "heard round the world" |
| April 20 | British begin siege of Boston |
| April 23 | Opera "Il Re Pastore" is produced (Salzburg) |
| May 7 | Turkish state of Bukovina secedes from Austria |
| May 10 | 2nd Continental Congress convenes in Pennsylvania issues paper currency for 1st time |
| May 10 | 2nd Continental Congress names George Washington, supreme commander |
| May 10 | Green Mountain Boys capture Ft. Ticonderoga NY-American Revolution |
| May 20 | Citizens of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina declare independence of Britain |
| June 7 | United Colonies change name to United States |
| June 12 | 1st naval battle of Revolution-Unity (U.S.) captures Margaretta (Br) |
| June 14 | U.S. Army founded |
| June 15 | George Washington appointed commander-in-chief of American Army |
| June 16 | Battle of Bunker Hill (actually it is Breed's Hill) |
| June 16 | Liberty Bell rang for the 2nd Continental Congress |
| June 17 | Battle of Bunker Hill, actually it was Breed's Hill |
| June 22 | 1st Continental currency issued ($3,000,000) |
| June 23 | 1st regatta held on Thames, England |
| July 3 | Washington takes command of Continental Army at Cambridge, Mass |
| July 6 | Congress issues "Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms," listing grievances but denying intent to be independent |
| July 10 | Horatio Gates, issues order excluding blacks from Continental Army |
| July 16 | John Adams graduates Harvard |
| July 17 | 1st military hospital approved |
| July 22 | George Washington takes command of U.S. troops |
| July 25 | Maryland issues currency depicting George III trampling Magna Carta |
| July 26 | 1st Postmaster General: Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania takes office |
| July 30 | Captain Cook with Resolution returns to England |
| August 5 | 1st Spanish ship, San Carlos, enters San Francisco Bay |
| August 22 | King George III proclaims colonies to be in open rebellion |
| September 13 | Gotthold Lessing's "Die Juden," premieres in Frankfurt-am-Main |
| September 25 | American Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen captured |
| October 8 | Officers decide to bar slaves and free blacks from Continental Army |
| October 12 | U.S. Navy forms |
| October 13 | Continental Congress orders construction of a naval fleet |
| October 16 | Portland, Maine burned by British |
| October 23 | Continental Congress approves resolution barring blacks from army |
| October 27 | U.S. Navy forms |
| November 7 | Lord Dunmore, promises freedom to male slaves who join British army |
| November 10 | Congress forms U.S. Marine Corps |
| November 12 | General Washington forbids recruiting officers enlisting blacks |
| November 13 | American Revolutionary forces capture Montreal |
| November 14 | Floods ravage Dutch coast provinces |
| November 28 | 2nd Continental Congress formally establishes U.S. Navy |
| November 29 | Sir James Jay invents invisible ink |
| December 3 | 1st official U.S. flag raising (aboard naval vessel Alfred) |
| December 22 | Continental Navy organized with 7 ships |
| December 25 | Pope Pius VI encyclical on the problems of the pontificate |
| December 31 | Battle of Quebec; Americans unable to take British stronghold |
