• Irish politician Robert Emmet.
• Austrian composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel, in Bratislava.
• English chemist Humphrey Davy.
• Spanish guitar composer Fernando Sor.
• French chemist Joesph Guy-Lassac.
• English art writer William Hazlitt.
• Scottish  author Mary Brunton.
• Australian pioneer Gregory Blaxland, in Kent.
• The future King Gustav IV of Sweden.

• Sewdish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus, often called the "father of taxonomy".
• French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
• Francois Arouet, better known as Voltaire.
• Italian illustrator Giovanni Battista Piranesi.
• English composer Thomas Arne.
• English composer Thomas Linley.
• Former British Prime Minister William Pitt the Elder, Earl of Chatham.
• Indian painter Nainsukh of Guler.

• War of American Independence:
• Political activity
• The United States and France conclude two important treaties:
• (February 6) A Treaty of Amity and Commerce which stated that any "favor" either country granted to a third country would immediately be granted to the other. The phrase "Nations most favoured" actually appears in the text.
• (May 4) A Treaty of Alliance which states that if France enters a state of war with Great Britain¹, it and the US will act in concert.
• (March 13) French diplomats inform King George III that France recognizes the United States.
• Fighting
• (February 23) Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge and begins training troops there.
• General William Howe resigns his command. Great Britain decides to change its strategy in the war; focusing on the South where there are more Loyalists.  General Henry Clinton replaces General Howe as commander of British forces
• (May-June) Clinton moves the British army from Philadelphia to New York. New Jersey militia harass them all the way.
• (June 28) the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse doesn't accomplish much, but Washington's forces aren't routed, so that's something.
• (July 3) The Battle of Wyoming Valley along the Susquehanna River.  Americans and Oneida and Tuscarora Indians are massacred by Loyalists, Seneca, Onandaga, and other Iroquois.  Colonel John Butler is driven from Kingston, Pennsylvania.
• (July 4) George Rogers Clark captures Vincennes, Cahokia, and Kaskaskia, now in Illinois. (The fort that Clark built for this campaign eventially grew into the city of Louisville, Kentucky.
• (July-August) the French fleet under the Comte d'Estang and American general John Sullivan attempt to drive the British out of Newport, Rhode Island.  The attack is unsuccesful; however, the British scuttle several ships, among them the prison ship Lord Sandwich.  This was the same ship, then named Endeavour, which James Cook had used to circumnagivate the globe on his first voyage.
• (August 31) a company of Stockbridge Mohican indians are massacred in the Bronx by grenadiers under Colonel Simcoe and cavalry under Colonel Banastre Tarleton.
• (November-December) General Clinton sends a force of 3,000 men by sea from New York to invade Souh Carolina and Georgia.
• (September 8) The French capture the Carribean island Dominica from the British.
• (Decembr 18) The British capture the Carribean island St. Lucia from the French.
• Austrian troops march into southern Bavaria to enforce the claims granted in a secret treaty a year earlier.  King Frederick of Prussia objects. This is the closest thing to fighting that happened in the War of Bavarian Succession.
• Spain enacts a Free Trade Act which opens its American ports.
• Captain James Cook's third voyage:
• (January 18) the Hawaiian Islands are sighted for the first time.
• (March 29) Cook anchors off Vancouver Island.
• Cook sails along the Pacific coast of North America, eventually reaching Alaska.  Weather forces him to abandon his attempt to sail through the Bering Strait.

1777 - 1778 - 1779