• Irish poet Thomas Moore.
• English mathematician Benjamin Gompertz
• English inventor Lewis Gompertz, founder of the RSCPA.
• Swedish chemist Jöns Berzelius.
• German biologist Lorenz Oken.
• American poet and lawyer Francis Scott Key.
• Swiss military writer Antoine Henri Jomini.
• English circus pioneer Joseph Grimaldi, father of clowning.
• Mexican revolutionary leader Ignacio de Allende.
• Japanese artist Matsumura Keibun.
• American military hero and jingoist Stephen Decatur.
• Italian ballet choreographer Jean Coralli.

• Count Casimir Pulaski.
• (February 14) Captain James Cook killed and then eaten¹ by angry² Hawaiian Islanders.
• English composer William Boyce.
• English cabinetmaker Thomas Chippendale.
• Eleazar Wheelock, founder of Dartmouth College.
• French painter Jean-Baptiste Chardin.
• Italian composer Tommaso Traetta.
• Italian painter Luigi Crespi.

• War of American Independence:
• Political Activity:
• The Continental Congress and Southern military leaders recommend the raising of black regiments, offering slaves their freedom if they fight in the Continental army.  The governments of Georgia and South Carolina reject this.
• Slaves in Connecticut petition the state assembly for the abolition of slavery. Both houses reject this.
• Thomas Jefferson introduces a bill establishing religious freedom into the Virginia legislature. This bill is not voted on until 1786.
• Military activity:
• (February 3) British forces take Augusta, Georgia.
• (February 13) British forces evacuate Augusta on the approach of the Continental army.
• (February 14) British forces defeated at the Battle of Kettle Creek in Georgia.
• (May-June) British General Henry Clinton begins advancing up the Hudson River Valley. Stony Point and Verplanek's Point taken.
• (June 21) Spain declares war on Great Britain (for refusing to return Gibraltar).
• (June-July) former Royal governor William Tryon raids the coast of Connecticut by sea.
• General John Sullivan leads retaliatory raids against the Iroqouis in Pennsylvania.
• (July 15) American forces re-take Stony Point.
• (August) The disastrous Penobscot Expedition results in the worst American naval defeat until Pearl Harbor.
• (August 29) General Sullivan defeats the Iroqouis at Newtown, PA.
• (September 23) Spanish troops under Louisiana governor Bernardo de Galvez and Gilberto St. Maxent take Baton Rouge from the British. Natchez falls soon after.
• (September 23) John Paul Jones captures the British frigate Serapis off Flamborough Head in the North Sea, although his own ship  Bonhomme Richard is sunk in the process.
• (October) American troops and a French fleet under the Comte d'Estang attempt to take Savannah, Georgia from the Britih but fail. Pulaski is mortally wounded. The fleet sails back to France.
• (October) British forces evacuate Rhode Island.
• (December) Henry Clinton and his army sail for the invasion of Charleston, South Carolina.
• Jean-Baptiste Point du Sable is the first permanent settler in the Chicago, Illinois area.
• David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion published posthumously.
• The first bridge built entirely of iron spans the River Severn near Coalbrookdale in England.

1778 - 1779 - 1780