1760s

The 1760s (pronounced "seventeen-sixties") was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1760, and ended on December 31, 1769.

Marked by great upheavals on culture, technology, and diplomacy, the 1760s was a transitional decade that effectively brought on the modern era from Baroqueism. The Seven Years' War – arguably the most widespread conflict of its time – carried trends of imperialism outside of European reaches, where it would head on to countless territories (mainly in Asia and Africa) for decades to come under colonialism.

1760

January–March

January 9 – Battle of Barari Ghat: Afghan forces defeat the Marathas.
January 22 – Seven Years' War – Battle of Wandiwash, India: British general Sir Eyre Coote is victorious over the French under the Marquis de Bussy-Castelnau.^[1]
January 28 – Benning Wentworth creates the New Hampshire Grant of Pownal, Vermont.
February 15 – The British Royal Navy ship HMS Royal Katherine runs aground off Bolt Head in England, with the loss of 699 lives.
February 21–26 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Carrickfergus in the north of Ireland – A force of French troops, under the command of privateer François Thurot, captures and holds the town and castle of Carrickfergus before retiring; the force is defeated (and Thurot killed) in a naval action in the Irish Sea, on February 28.^[2]
February 27 – Seven Years' War: French and Indian War & Anglo-Cherokee War – Cherokee natives attack a North Carolina militia stationed at Fort Dobbs, in the western part of the province. The attack is repelled by the militia, under the command of General Hugh Waddell.
March 20 – The Great Fire of Boston, Massachusetts, destroys 349 buildings and marks the biggest conflagration in the American colonies up to this time.^[3]

April–June

April 3 – Great Britain and Prussia agree to begin peace negotiations to end the Seven Years' War.^[4]
April 7 – 'Tacky's War', a slave rebellion, begins in Jamaica and lasts for 18 months. During the uprising, 60 white residents are killed and more than 400 black rebels die in the suppression of the revolt. Another 500 are deported to British Honduras.^[5]
April 10 – France's Minister of the Navy Nicolas René Berryer finally receives permission to send ships to assist French forces at Quebec, and a fleet of six ships under the command of Captain François Chenard de la Giraudais of the French frigate Machault departs Bordeaux, albeit too late to prevent the loss of New France to the British.^[6]
April 11 – The Burmese Army, under the command of King Alaungpaya, reaches the outskirts of Siam's capital, Ayutthaya, but then retreats rather than laying siege to the city.^[7]
April 12 – Two of six French ships run into a British blockade led by Britain's Admiral Edward Boscawen. Of the remaining four, one sinks before it can reach North America.^[6]
April 20 – France's Marshal François Gaston de Lévis departs from Montreal up the St. Lawrence River with 7,000 troops on a plan to retake Quebec City from the British.^[8]
April 22 – Belgian entertainer Joseph Mervin is said to have given the first demonstration of roller skates, in a performance at the Carlisle House in London, but the stunt ends in disaster.^[9]
April 26 – Marshal Lévis and his troops land at Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, adjacent to Quebec City, and prepares to lay siege to the British occupying force.^[8]
April 27 – British Army Brigadier General James Murray marches a force of 3,500 men toward Saint-Augustin to confront Marshal Lévis and the French Army.^[8]
April 28 – British defenders and the French Army clash at the Battle of Sainte-Foy to determine the future control of Quebec. General Murray is forced to retreat after the British suffer 259 deaths and 845 wounded, while the French under Marshal Lévis suffer 193 deaths and 640 wounded.^[10]
April 29 – Representatives of the remaining Penobscot Indian tribes in Maine and New Brunswick make peace with the British at Fort Pownal in Newfoundland.^[11]
April 30 – Swiss mathematician Daniel Bernoulli presents a paper at the French Academy of Sciences in Paris in which "a mathematical model was used for the first time to study the population dynamics of infectious disease."^[12]
May 11 – King Alaungpaya of Burma dies during a retreat from Ayutthaya after stopping at the village of Kinywa while en route to Martaban. His son Naungdawgyi becomes the new King of Burma.^[7]
May 16 – Three British Royal Navy ships under the command of Commodore Robert Swanton on HMS Vanguard arrive to break the siege of Quebec before Marshal Lévis can recapture the city from the British.
May 17 – Captain Giraudais's French fleet reaches the Gaspé Peninsula of northeast Quebec and captures seven British merchant ships, but Giraudais learns that the British have already preceded him up the St. Lawrence River and diverts to Chaleur Bay at Newfoundland.^[6]
June 4 – Expulsion of the Acadians: New England planters arrive to claim land in Nova Scotia taken from the Acadians.
June 11 – Robert Rogers and his Rangers launch a strike from Lake Champlain against French military posts along the Richelieu River – they strike at Fort Sainte Thérèse and destroy the settlement.
June 19 – The British create Cumberland County and Lincoln County in Maine.^[11]
June 22 – Britain's Captain John Byron, commanding HMS Fame, locates France's Captain Giraudais but runs aground on June 25 before it can attack.^[6]

July–September

July 3 – A lightning strike causes a major fire at Portsmouth Royal Dockyard in England.^[13]^[14]
July 8 – Seven Years' War: French and Indian War – Battle of Restigouche: The British defeat French forces, in the last naval battle in New France.
July 19 – A formal request is made to the Spanish government, to allow the founding of the later city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.
July 31 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Warburg – The Anglo-Hanoverian army of Ferdinand of Brunswick storms Warburg, with a heroic role being played by the English commander Lord Granby.
August 21 – The church (later cathedral) of Our Lady of Candlemas of Mayagüez (Puerto Rico) is founded, establishing the basis for the founding of the city in the following month.
August 30 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Legnica – By a series of brilliant maneuvers, Frederick the Great manages to defeat the Austrian army of Marshal Laudon before it can unite with that of Marshal Daun.
September 8 – Seven Years' War: Jeffery Amherst and his British troops capture Montreal from the French, effectively bringing Canada completely under British control.^[15]
September 18 – The town (later city) of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, is founded.

October–December

October 5 – The wedding of Princess Isabella of Parma and Prince Joseph of Austria takes place at Hofburg Palace's Redoute Hall (Redoutensaele), at the former imperial palace in Vienna.^[16]
October 9 – Seven Years' War: Russian troops enter Berlin.
October 16 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Kloster-Kamp – Ferdinand of Brunswick is beaten back from the Rhine by a French army.
October 25 – George II of Great Britain dies; his 22-year-old grandson George, Prince of Wales, succeeds to the throne as King George III and reigns for 59 years until his death on January 29, 1820.
November 3 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Torgau – In another extremely hard battle, Frederick defeats Daun's Austrians, who withdraw across the Elbe.
November 29 – French Army Colonel François-Marie Picoté de Belestre formally surrenders Detroit to British Army Major Robert Rogers, and the British Union Jack is raised over Fort Detroit.^[17]
December 4 – For the first time since the surrender of Fort Detroit by France, British authorities meet nearby at a Native American council house with delegates from various Indian tribes that had fought as allies of the French Army, such as the Wyandot and Ottawa Indians, and with tribes that had formerly been allies of the British. The European and Native American representatives open the peace conference with the presentation by the Indians to the British of a wampum belt, and the pronouncement from the principal chief that "The ancient friendship is now renewed, and I wash the blood off the earth that had been shed during the present war, that you may bury the war hatchet in the bottomless pit."^[18]
December 6 – The siege of Pondicherry, a stronghold of France in India, is begun by British Army Lieutenant General Eyre Coote. The French commander, General Thomas Lally, is finally forced to surrender Pondicherry to the British on January 15, 1761.^[19]
December 18 – In the wake of Tacky's War by African-born rebels, the Assembly of the British colony of Jamaica outlaws the African religious practice of obeah, with penalties ranging from banishment from the colony to execution. The legislation specifically bans use of contraband associated with obeah, including "animal blood, feathers, parrots' beaks, dogs' teeth, alligators' teeth, broken bottles, grave dirt, rum, and eggshells".^[20]

Date unknown

Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée opens a school for deaf education in Paris which becomes the Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris, the world's first free school for the deaf; Thomas Braidwood establishes Braidwood's Academy for the Deaf and Dumb in Edinburgh, the first school for the deaf in Britain.
Western countries pay 3,000,000 ounces of silver for Chinese goods.
approximate date – Abu Dhabi is founded.^[21]

1760

January 11
- Zofia Potocka, Greek slave courtesan, agent for Russia and Polish noble (d. 1822)
February 3 – John Storm, American Revolutionary soldier (d. 1835)
March 1 – François Nicolas Leonard Buzot, French Revolutionary leader (suicide 1794)
March 10 – Leandro Fernández de Moratín, Spanish dramatist, translator and neoclassical poet (d. 1828)
March 28 – Thomas Clarkson, English abolitionist (d. 1846)^[198]
April 16 – Sigismund Friedrich Hermbstädt, German pharmacist, chemist (d. 1833)
April 30 – Joseph Souham, French general (d. 1837)
May 10 – Johann Peter Hebel, German poet (d. 1826)
May 28 – Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais, French politician, general (d. 1794)
May 29 – Charlotte Slottsberg, Swedish ballerina (d. 1800)
June 12 – Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai, French novelist, playwright, journalist, politician and diplomat (d. 1797)
June 16 – Louise Contat, French actress (d. 1813)
July 13 – István Pauli (Pável), Hungarian Slovene priest, writer (d. 1829)
August 3 – Jacques Réattu, French artist 9d. (1833)
August 22 – Pope Leo XII, (b. Annibale Francesco Clemente Melchiore Girolamo Nicola Sermattei della Genga), Italian priest (d. 1829)
September 14 – Luigi Cherubini, Italian composer (d. 1842)
September 21 – Olof Swartz, Swedish botanist (d. 1818)
September 30 – Michele Cachia, Maltese architect and military engineer (d. 1839)
October 7 (bapt.) – Fredrica Löf, Swedish actress (d. 1813)
October 17 – Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon, French economist, political theorist (d. 1825)
October 27 – August von Gneisenau, Prussian field marshal (d. 1831)
October 31? – Hokusai, born Katsushika Tokitarō, Japanese Edo period artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker (died 1849)

November 13 – Jiaqing Emperor of China (d. 1820)
November 21 – Joseph Plumb Martin, American Revolutionary soldier and narrative author (d. 1850)
November 28 – Maria Teresa Poniatowska, Polish noblewoman (d. 1834)
December 17 – Deborah Sampson, first American female soldier (d. 1827)
date unknown
- Adam Gillies, Lord Gillies, Scottish judge (d. 1842)
- Emma Jane Greenland, English painter, writer, singer (d. 1843)
- Clelia Durazzo Grimaldi, Italian botanist (d. 1830)
- Moscho Tzavela, Greek-Souliote heroine (d. 1803)
probable date – Lemuel Francis Abbott, English portrait painter (d. 1802)

1761

January 17 – James Hall, Scottish geologist (d. 1832)
February 1 – Christian Hendrik Persoon, South African mycologist (d. 1836)
February 3 – Dorothea von Medem, Latvian diplomat, duchess of Courland (d. 1821)
February 16 – Charles Pichegru, French general (d. 1804)
February 22 – Erik Tulindberg, Finnish composer (d. 1814)
March 6 – Antoine-Francois Andreossy, French general (d. 1828)
May 3 – August von Kotzebue, German dramatist (d. 1819)
June 3 – Henry Shrapnel, British Army officer and inventor (d. 1842)

June 7 – John Rennie the Elder, Scottish-born civil engineer (d. 1821)
October 21 – Louis Albert Guislain Bacler d'Albe, French painter and cartographer (d. 1824)
October 27 – Matthew Baillie, Scottish physician and pathologist (d. 1823)
November 4 – Bertrand Andrieu, French engraver of medals (d. 1822)
November 13 – John Moore, British general (d. 1809)
November 20 – Pope Pius VIII (d. 1830)
December 1 – Marie Tussaud, French wax modeller (d. 1850)
December 24 – Jean-Louis Pons, French astronomer (d. 1831)

December 27 – Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly, Russian military commander (d. 1818)
Date unknown – Dido Elizabeth Belle, British slave heiress (d. 1804)

1762

January 31 – Molly Morgan, British convict and settler in Australia (d. 1835)
February 17 – John Cooke, English captain (d. 1805)
March 11 – Robert Gray, British bishop (d. 1834)
March 22 – William Robert Broughton, British explorer (d. 1821)
April 29 – Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, French marshal (d. 1833)
May 6 – William Hargood, British admiral (d. 1839)
May 19 – Johann Gottlieb Fichte, German philosopher (d. 1814)
May 20 – Eyre Coote, Irish soldier and politician (d. 1823)
May 22 – Henry Bathurst, 3rd Earl Bathurst, British politician (d. 1834)
June 5 – Bushrod Washington, American politician and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1829)
July 17 – Alexander Macdonell, Scottish bishop in Canada (d. 1840)
August 12
- King George IV of the United Kingdom (d. 1830)
- Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland, German physician (d. 1836)
August 13 – Théroigne de Méricourt, French revolutionary (d. 1817)
September 11 – Joanna Baillie, Scottish writer (d. 1851)
October 1 – Anton Bernolák, Slovak linguist (d. 1813)
October 9 – Charles de Suremain, French military and diplomat (d. 1835)
October 12 – Jan Willem Janssens, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (d. 1838)
October 16 – Paul Hamilton, American politician (d. 1816)
October 21
- George Colman the Younger, British playwright (d. 1836)
- Herman Willem Daendels, governor-general of the Dutch East Indies (d. 1818)
October 23 – Samuel Morey, American inventor (d. 1843)
October 30 – André Chénier, French writer (d. 1794)
November 1 – Spencer Perceval, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1812)
November 27 – Sir Samuel Hood, 1st Baronet, British admiral (d. 1814)
November – Manuel Torres, first Colombian ambassador to the United States (d. 1822)
December 22 – Dudley Ryder, 1st Earl of Harrowby, British politician (d. 1847)
December 25 – Michael Kelly, Irish composer and singer (d. 1826)

Andrew Hay, British general (d. 1814)
Birgithe Kühle, Norwegian journalist (d. 1832)
Natalia Shelikhova, Russian business person (d. 1810)

1763

January 8 – Edmond-Charles Genêt, French ambassador to the United States during the French Revolution (d. 1834)
January 8 – Jean-Baptiste Drouet, French revolutionary politician
January 24 – Louis Alexandre Andrault de Langeron, Russian general (d. 1831)

January 26 – Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Marshal of France, King Charles XIV John of Sweden and Charles III John of Norway (d. 1844)
February 14 – Jean Victor Marie Moreau, French general (d. 1813)
February 20 – Adalbert Gyrowetz, Bohemian composer (d. 1850)
March 9 – William Cobbett, English journalist, author (d. 1835)
March 13 – Guillaume-Marie-Anne Brune, Marshal of France (d. 1815)
March 20 – Charles Sturt, English politician (d. 1812)
March 21 – Jean Paul, German writer (d. 1825)
May 7 – Józef Antoni Poniatowski, Polish prince, Marshal of France (d. 1813)
June 20 – Theobald Wolfe Tone, Irish patriot (d. 1798)

June 23 – Empress Joséphine, born Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie, Martinique-born French empress consort (d. 1814)
July 17 – John Jacob Astor, German-born American entrepreneur (d. 1848)
August 5 – Bill Richmond, American-born British boxer (d. 1829)
August 13 – Christoph Johann von Medem, German courtier (d. 1838)
August 16 – Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, second son of George III of Great Britain
August 17 – Dmitry Senyavin, Russian admiral (d. 1831)
September 2 – Caroline Schelling, German scholar, intellectual (d. 1809)
December 25 – Claude Chappe, French telecommunication pioneer (d. 1805)
December 28 – John Molson, Canadian entrepreneur (d. 1836)
December 31 – Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, French admiral (d. 1806)
Date unknown – Huang Pilie, Chinese bibliophile (d. 1825)^[199]

1764

January 6 – John Gray, last verified American Revolutionary War veteran (d. 1868)
January 17 – Princess Maria Carolina of Savoy, crown princess of Saxony, died of smallpox (d. 1782)
February 11 – Joseph Chénier, French poet (d. 1811)^[200]
March 13 – Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, 26th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1845)
April 3 – John Abernethy, English surgeon (d. 1831)
April 13 – Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr, French marshal (d. 1830)
April 20 – Rudolph Ackermann, German-born English entrepreneur (d. 1834)

May 3 – Princess Élisabeth of France, sister of Louis XVI (executed 1794)^[201]
May 5 – Robert Craufurd, Scottish general (k. 1812)
May 7 – Therese Huber, German writer and scholar (d. 1829)^[202]
May 26 – Edward Livingston, American jurist, statesman (d. 1836)
June 5 – James Smithson, British mineralogist, chemist and posthumous founder of the Smithsonian Institution (d. 1829)
June 19 – José Gervasio Artigas, Uruguayan hero of independence (d. 1850)
June 21 – Sidney Smith, British admiral (d. 1840)
July 9 – Ann Radcliffe, English Gothic novelist (d. 1823)^[203]
August 13 – Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers, French general (d. 1813)
August 18 – Judah Leib Ben-Ze'ev, Galician Jewish modern Hebrew philologist, lexicographer, Biblical scholar and poet (d. 1811)
September 5 – Henriette Herz, German salonnière (d. 1847)
September 7 – Pierre Lorillard II, American businessman, real estate tycoon (d. 1843)
September 17 – John Goodricke, English astronomer (d. 1786)
September 25 – Fletcher Christian, English sailor and mutineer (d. 1793)
November 1 – Frederick Reynolds, English playwright (born (d. 1841)
December 7
- Pierre Prévost, French panorama painter (d. 1823)
- Claude Victor-Perrin, Duc de Belluno, Marshal of France (d. 1841)
Date unknown – Maria Medina Coeli, Italian physician (d. 1846)
Approximate date – Alexander Mackenzie (explorer), Scottish explorer of northern Canada (d. 1820)
Circa 1764- Bennelong, Aboriginal Australian leader and translator, (d. 1819)

1765

January 11 – Antoine Alexandre Barbier, French librarian (d. 1825)
January 23 – Thomas Todd, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1826)
February 1 – Charles Hatchett, English chemist (d. 1847)
February 8 – Joseph Leopold Eybler, Austrian composer (d. 1846)
February 22 – Meta Forkel-Liebeskind, German writer, scholar (d. 1853)

March 7 – Nicéphore Niépce, French inventor (d. 1833)
March 27 – Franz Xaver von Baader, German philosopher, theologian (d. 1841)
April 1 – Luigi Schiavonetti, Italian engraver (d. 1810)
April 6 – Duke Charles Felix of Savoy (d. 1831)
April 11 – Gertrudis Bocanegra, Mexican national heroine (d. 1817)
April 26 – Emma, Lady Hamilton, English mistress of Horatio Nelson (d. 1815)
June 15 – Henry Thomas Colebrooke, English orientalist (d. 1831)
July 14 – Abigail Adams Smith, firstborn daughter of Abigail Adams and John Adams (d. 1813)
July 26 – Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Comte d'Erlon, French marshal (d. 1844)
August 4 – Claire Lacombe, French actress, political activist
August 6 – Petrobey Mavromichalis, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1848)

August 21 – King William IV of the United Kingdom (d. 1837)
August 24 – Thomas Muir, Scottish advocate, revolutionary (d. 1799)
September 16 – Harry Burrard-Neale, British Royal Navy officer and politician (d. 1840)
September 18 – Pope Gregory XVI (d. 1846)
September 25 – Michał Kleofas Ogiński, Polish-Lithuanian, and later Russian imperial statesman and composer
September 29 – Karl Ludwig Harding, German astronomer (d. 1834)
September 30 – José María Morelos, leader of Mexican War of Independence (d. 1815)^[204]
October 8 – Harman Blennerhassett, Irish-American lawyer (d. 1831)
October 17 – Henri Jacques Guillaume Clarke, duc de Feltre, French marshal and politician (d. 1818)
October 18 – Josefa Joaquina Sánchez, Venezuelan embroiderer and independence heroine (d. 1813)
October 24 – James Mackintosh, Scottish publicist (d. 1832)

November 14 – Robert Fulton, American inventor (d. 1815)
November 17 – Jacques MacDonald, French marshal (d. 1840)
November 19 – Filippo Castagna, Maltese politician (d. 1830)^[205]
November 20 – Sir Thomas Fremantle, British captain and politician (d. 1819)
November 28 – George William Manby, English author and inventor (d. 1854)
December 8 – Eli Whitney, American inventor (d. 1825)
December 22 – Johann Friedrich Pfaff, German mathematician (d. 1825)
date unknown
- Mary Bryant, one of the first successful escapees from the fledgling Australian penal colony
- James Smithson, British mineralogist, chemist and posthumous founder of the Smithsonian Institution (d. 1829)^[206]

1766

January 1 – Magdalena Rudenschöld, Swedish conspirator (d. 1823)
January 3 – Nguyễn Du, Vietnamese poet (d. 1820)
January 6 – José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, Supreme Leader of Paraguay (d. 1840)
January 17 – Joseph Kinghorn, Particular Baptist Minister (d. 1832)
February 11 – Henry Fourdrinier, British engineer, inventor (d. 1854)
February 14 – Thomas Malthus, English demographer, economist (d. 1834)^[207]
February 24 – Samuel Wesley, English organist and composer (died 1837)^[208]
April 1 – François-Xavier Fabre, French painter of historical subjects (d. 1837)^[209]
April 6 – Charles-Louis de Fourcroy, French Consul at A Coruña, Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (d. 1824)
April 22 – Anne Louise Germaine de Staël, French author (d. 1817)^[210]
May 11 – Isaac D'Israeli, English literary scholar (died 1848)^[211]
May 30 – Robert Darwin, medical doctor and father of Charles Darwin (d. 1848)
June 13 – Jean-Frédéric Waldeck, French cartographer (d. 1875)
July 8 – Dominique Jean Larrey, French surgeon, innovator in battlefield medicine (d. 1842)
July 9 – Jacob Perkins, American physicist, inventor and engineer (d. 1849)
July 21 – Thomas Charles Hope, Scottish chemist, discoverer of strontium (d. 1844)

August 6 – William Hyde Wollaston, English chemist (d. 1828)

September 6 – John Dalton, English chemist and physicist (d. 1844)^[212]
September 25 – Armand-Emmanuel de Vignerot du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu, Prime Minister of France (d. 1822)
October 3 – John Walbach, French baron and officer in the United States Army, with a military career spanning over 57 years (d. 1857)
October 23 – Emmanuel de Grouchy, Marquis de Grouchy, French marshal (d. 1847)
November 2 – Joseph Radetzky von Radetz, Austrian field marshal (d. 1858)
November 9 – Edward Abbott, Australian soldier, politician and judge (d. 1832)
November 12 – Daniel Sykes, English politician (d. 1832)
November 16 – Rodolphe Kreutzer, violinist and composer (d. 1831)^[213]
December 3 – Barbara Fritchie, U.S. patriot in the Civil War (d. 1862)
December 23 – Wilhelm Hisinger, Swedish physicist and chemist (d. 1852)^[214]
December 29 – Charles Macintosh, Scottish inventor of a waterproof fabric (died 1843)^[215]
date unknown – Lolotte Forssberg, Swedish courtier (d. 1840)

1767

January 8 – Jean-Baptiste Say, French economist, originator of Say's law (d. 1832)
February 2 – Johann Heinrich Friedrich Link, German naturalist, botanist (d. 1851)

March 15 – Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the United States (d. 1845)
March 25 – Joachim Murat, French marshal, King of Naples (d. 1815)
April 21 – Elisabeth of Württemberg, Archduchess of Austria (d. 1790)
April 25 – Nicolas Oudinot, French marshal (d. 1847)
May 4 – Tyagaraja, Indian Carnatic music composer (d. 1847)
May 12 – Manuel Godoy, Spanish statesman (d. 1851)
May 13 – John VI of Portugal, King of Portugal (d. 1826)
May 15 – Ezekiel Hart, Canadian entrepreneur, politician (d. 1843)
June 24 – Jean-Baptiste Benoît Eyriès, French geographer, author and translator (d. 1846)
July 4 – Kyokutei Bakin, Japanese author (d. 1848)
July 11 – John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the United States, son of John Adams and Abigail Adams (d. 1848)
July 28 – James A. Bayard (elder), U.S. Senator from Delaware (d. 1815)
August 24 – Bernhard Meyer, German physician, ornithologist (d. 1836)
August 25 – Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, French revolutionary (d.1794)^[216]
September 20 – José Maurício Nunes Garcia, Brazilian composer (d. 1830)
October 25 – Benjamin Constant, Swiss writer (d. 1830)
November 2 – Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, member of the British Royal Family (d. 1820)
November 20 – Andreas Hofer, Austrian national hero (d. 1810)
December 3 – Antoine Fabre d'Olivet, French writer (d. 1825)
date unknown
- Black Hawk, Sauk Indian Chief, autobiographer (b. Saukenuk village, now Rock Island, Illinois) (d. 1838)
- Marianna Malińska, Polish ballerina (d. 1797)

1768

January 1 – Maria Edgeworth, Irish novelist (d. 1849)
January 7 – Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples and Spain (d. 1844)^[217]
January 17 – Smith Thompson, American politician, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1843)
January 28 – King Frederick VI of Denmark (d. 1839)
February 12 – Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1835)
February 13 – Édouard Mortier, Duke of Trévise, French marshal (d. 1835)
March – Tecumseh, Native American (Shawnee) chief (d. 1813)
March 21 – Joseph Fourier, French mathematician, physicist (d. 1830)
March 22 – Melesina Trench, Irish born writer and socialite (d. 1827)
May 3 – Charles Tennant, Scottish chemist, industrialist (d. 1838)
May 17
- Caroline of Brunswick, queen of George IV of the United Kingdom (d. 1821)
- Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, English general (d. 1854)
June 9 – Samuel Slater, American industrialist (d. 1835)
June 20 – William Findlay, American politician (d. 1846)
June 24 – Lazare Hoche, French general (d. 1797)
June 29 – Vincenzo Dimech, Maltese sculptor (d. 1831)
July 4 – Adam Karl August von Eschenmayer, German philosopher (d. 1852)
July 20 – Praskovia Kovalyova-Zhemchugova, Russian serf, actress and opera soprano (d. 1803)
July 27 – Charlotte Corday, French murderer of Jean-Paul Marat (d. 1793)
August 6 – Jean-Baptiste Bessières, French marshal (d. 1813)
August 29 – – John Fawcett, British actor (d. 1837)
September 4 – François-René de Chateaubriand, French writer, diplomat (d. 1848)
September 23 – William Wallace, Scottish Mathematician (d. 1843)
September 28 – Pauline Léon, French feminist, radical (d. 1838)
October 2 – William Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford, British general and politician (d. 1854)
October 6 – Josef Madersperger, Austrian tailor, inventor and sewing machine pioneer (d. 1850)
October 31 – María Isidra de Guzmán y de la Cerda, Spanish scholar (b. 1803)
Karađorđe
November 3 – Karađorđe Petrović, leader of the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire, founder of the Serbian Karađorđević dynasty (d. 1817)
November 18
- Zacharias Werner, German religious poet (d. 1823)
- José Marchena Ruiz de Cueto, Spanish writer (d. 1821)
November 21 – Friedrich Schleiermacher, German theologian (d. 1834)
date unknown – Marie-Jeanne de Lalande, French astronomer, mathematician (d. 1832)
- Wang Zhenyi, Chinese astronomer
- María Remedios del Valle, Argentine soldier and patriot (d. 1847)
- Amelia Griffiths, British phycologist (d. 1858)

1769

January 1
- Marie Lachapelle, French obstetrician (d. 1821)
- Jane Marcet, British science writer (d. 1858)
January 2 – Nannette Streicher, German piano maker, composer, music educator and writer (d. 1833)
January 10 – Michel Ney, French marshal (d. 1815)
February 23 – Princess Pauline of Anhalt-Bernburg; German regent and social reformer (d. 1820)
March 1 – François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers, French general (d. 1796)
March 2 – DeWitt Clinton, American politician and naturalist, 6th Governor of New York (d. 1828)
March 4 – Muhammad Ali of Egypt, Egyptian ruler (d. 1849)
March 8 – Samuel Richards, American ironmaster (d. 1842)
March 10 – Joseph Williamson, English philanthropist, builder of the Williamson Tunnels (d. 1840)
March 23 – William Smith, English geologist, cartographer (d. 1839)
March 29 – Jean-de-Dieu Soult, French marshal (d. 1851)
April 3 – Christian Günther von Bernstorff, Danish and Prussian statesman and diplomat (d. 1835)
April 9 – Jakob Heinrich Laspeyres, German lepidopterist (d. 1809)
April 10 – Jean Lannes, French marshal (d. 1809)
April 13 – Thomas Lawrence, English painter (d. 1830)
April 14 – Barthélemy Catherine Joubert, French general (d. 1799)
April 25 – Marc Isambard Brunel, French-British engineer (d. 1849)
May 1 – Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, British general, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1852)
May 6 – Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1824)
June 5 – Marianne Kirchgessner, German musician (d. 1808)
June 18 – Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, British statesman, diplomat, and soldier (suicide 1822)
July 28 – Hudson Lowe, Irish-born soldier and future jailer of Napoleon on Saint Helena (d. 1831)
August 15 – Napoleon Bonaparte, French Emperor (d. 1821)^[218]
August 23 – Georges Cuvier, French naturalist and zoologist; known as the Father of Paleontology (d. 1832)
August 31 – David Hosack American physician and botanist, a Hamilton family doctor (d. 1835)
September 14
- Alexander von Humboldt, German explorer, scientist (d. 1859)
- Karl Salomo Zachariae von Lingenthal, German jurist (d. 1843)
October 6 – Isaac Brock, British general, administrator (d. 1812)
December 13 – James Scarlett Abinger, English judge (d. 1844)
December 23 – Martin Archer Shee, Irish painter (d. 1850)
December 26 – Ernst Moritz Arndt, German writer, poet (d. 1860)
date unknown
- James Dadford, English canal engineer
- John Bellingham, assassin of British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval (d. 1812)
- Howqua, Chinese merchant (d. 1843)
probable
- John Henry Colclough, Irish revolutionary (d. 1798)