- Jan 4 Charles D J Eisen, French engraver/painter, dies at 57
Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778)
Jan 10 Swedish botanist, explorer and the Father of Taxonomy, dies at 70
Thomas Arne (1710-1778)
Mar 5 British composer (Rule Britannia, A-Hunting We Will Go), dies at 67
- Mar 7 Charles De Geer, Swedish industrialist and entomologist, dies at 58
- Mar 13 Charles le Beau, French historian (b. 1701)
- Apr 7 Johann Balthasar Kehl, German composer and organist, dies at 52
- Apr 8 Pieter Teyler van der Hulst, Dutch silk merchant (founded Teyler Museum), dies at 76
- Apr 22 James Hargreaves, British inventor (spinning jenny), dies at 57
William Pitt the Elder (1708-1778)
May 11 British Prime Minister (Whig, 1756-61, 66-68) known as the `Great Commoner', dies at 69
- May 16 Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, English diplomat and politician, dies at 59
Voltaire (1694-1778)
May 30 French writer, philosopher and playwright (Candide), dies at 83
- Jun 7 Johann Georg Zechner, Austrian composer, dies at 62
- Jun 12 Philip Livingston, American businessman and politician (signed Declaration of Independence), dies at 62
- Jun 16 Konrad Ekhof [Hans Konrad Dieterich Eckhof], German actor and director, dies at 57
- Jun 24 Pieter Burman the Younger, Dutch philologist, dies at 64
- Jun 26 Angelo Antonio Caroli, Italian composer, dies at 77
- Jul 2 Bathsheba Spooner, American first woman executed after US Independence for arranging husband's murder, hanged while pregnant at 32
- Jul 2 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, French philosopher, political theorist, and writer (Confessions) whose works inspired French Revolution leaders and Romantic academics, dies of cerebral bleeding from a stroke at 66
- Jul 3 Anna Maria Pertl Mozart, mother of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (b. 1720)
- Jul 28 Arvid Niclas von Höpken, Swedish nobleman, soldier, and composer (Il Re Pastore), dies at 68
- Aug 4 Pierre de Rigaud, Canadian-born French Governor of New France, dies at 79
- Aug 5 Charles Clémencet, French historian (b. 1703)
- Aug 5 Thomas Linley the younger, English composer and musician "English Mozart", drowns in a boating accident at 22
- Aug 11 Augustus Montague Toplady, British hymn writer (Rock of Ages), dies at 37
- Aug 12 Peregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, British general and politician (b. 1714)
- Aug 28 Jacob Wallenberg, Swedish writer and naval chaplain (My Son on the Galley), dies at 32
- Sep 23 Balthazar Huydecoper, Dutch translator and historian, dies at 83
- Nov 9 Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Italian etcher, dies at 58
- Nov 20 Francesco Cetti, Italian Jesuit priest and scientist, dies at 52
- Nov 26 Jean-Noël Hamal, Walloon composer, and music director (Saint-Lambert Cathedral), dies at 68
Assassination
Drug Overdose
Gunshot Wound
Murder
Plane Crash
Suicide