Events

• While in debtor's prison, John Cleland writes Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure). Released from prison, the book was published in London. Immediately, the Church of England asked the British Secretary of State to "stop the progress of this vile Book, which is an open insult upon Religion and good manners." As a result, Cleland was arrested and charged with "corrupting the King's subjects."
• April 27 - The first official performance of George Frideric Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks finished early due to the outbreak of fire.
• May 19 - King George II of Great Britain grants the Ohio Company a charter of land around the forks of the Ohio River.
• July 9 - Naval settlement of Halifax, Nova Scotia founded as British answer to Louisbourg.

Births

• January 13 - Friedrich Müller , painter, narrator, lyricist and dramatist, also known as Maler Müller (died 1825)
• January 24 - Charles James Fox, English Whig politician (died 1806)
• January 29 - King Christian VII of Denmark (died 1808)
• March 9 - Honore Mirabeau, politician (died 1791)
• March 23 - Pierre Simon de Laplace, mathematician and astronomer (died 1827)
• May 17 - Edward Jenner, inventor of the vaccine (died 1823)
• June 15 - Georg Joseph Vogler, (known as Abbé Vogler) German composer, teacher and theorist (died 1814)
• August 28 - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet, novelist and dramatist (died 1832)
• 30 September - Comte Siméon Joseph Jérôme , French jurist and politician.
• November 23 - Edward Rutledge, U.S. statesman (died 1800)
• December 17 - Domenico Cimarosa, Italian composer (died 1801)
• Abraham Gottlob Werner, German geologist (died 1817)
• Lorenzo da Ponte, Italian librettist (died 1838)
• Adelaide Labille-Guiard , French portrait painter (died 1803)
• Vittorio Alfieri, Italian dramatist (died 1803)

Deaths

• June 19 - Ambrose Philips, English poet (born 1675)
• September 10 - Emilie du Chatelet, French scientific writer and translator into French of Isaac Newton's Principia (born 1706)
• December 19 - Francesco Antonio Bonporti, Italian priest and composer (born 1672)
• Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de la Vérendrye, French-Canadian explorer (born 1685)
• Louis Nicolas Clérambault , French organist and composer (born 1676)
• Jan van Huysum, Dutch flower painter (born 1682)