- Jan 14 Princess Mary of Great Britain, dies at 48
- Feb 8 Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Princess of Wales by marriage to Frederick, Prince of Wales, dies at 52
- Feb 10 Joseph Wenzel I, Prince of Liechtenstein and general, dies at 75
- Feb 15 Christian Gottlieb Ziegler, German organist, kapellmeister, and composer, dies at 69
- Feb 18 Johann Hartwig Ernst, Count von Bernstorff, Danish statesman (b. 1712)
- Mar 2 Robert Joseph Pothier, French lawyer (influential writer on French Law), dies at 73
- Mar 11 Johann George Reutter, composer, dies at 63
- Mar 21 Jacques-Nicolas Bellin, French cartographer (b. 1703)
- Mar 22 John Canton, English physicist, dies at 53
- Mar 26 Charles Pinot Duclos, French writer and historian, dies at 68
- Mar 29 Emanuel Swedenborg, Swedish philosopher, mathematician, and mystic (The New Church), dies at 84
- Apr 19 Johann Peter Kellner, German organist and composer, dies at 66
- Apr 28 Johann Friedrich Struensee, German physician of Christian VII of Denmark, dies at 34
- May 1 Gottfried Achenwall, German lawyer, pioneering statistician and economist, dies at 52
- May 22 Durastante Natalucci, Italian historian (specialized in history of Trevi, in Umbria), dies at 84
- Jun 12 Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, French explorer (made important discoveries in the south Indian Ocean, in Tasmania and in New Zealand), killed by local Maori in New Zealand at 48 (b. 1724)
- Jun 15 Louis-Claude Daquin [d'Acquin], French organist and composer (La Rose), dies at 77
- Jun 18 Gerard van Swieten, Dutch-Austrian physician (Austrian Empress Maria Theresa's personal physician), dies at 72
- Jun 18 Johann Ulrich von Cramer, German judge and philosopher, dies at 65
- Aug 21 Alessandro Felici, Italian composer, dies at 29
- Aug 21 Johann Andreas Joseph Giulini, German composer (Canticum Zacharia), and priest dies at 48
- Aug 31 William Borlase, English naturalist (b. 1695)
- Sep 30 James Brindley, English engineer (canals and watermills), dies at about 76
- Oct 7 John Woolman, American Quaker preacher and abolitionist, dies of smallpox at 51
- Oct 8 Jean-Joseph Cassenea de Mondonville, French composer and violinist, dies at 60
- Nov 5 Johannes Schmidlin, Swiss composer, dies at 50
- Nov 5 Pieter Steyn, Dutch grand pensionary (1749-72), dies at 66
- Nov 10 Pedro Antonio Joaquim Correa da Serra Garção, Portuguese poet (b. 1724)
- Nov 11 Jan Maurits Quinkhard, Dutch portrait painter, dies at 84
- Nov 19 William Nelson, American colonial governor of Virginia (b. 1711)
- Dec 12 Johann Gottfried Seyfert, German composer and violinist, dies at 41
- Dec 28 Ernst Johann van Biron, Russian duke of Courland, regent for Ivan VI, dies at 82
Assassination
Drug Overdose
Gunshot Wound
Murder
Plane Crash
Suicide