Feb 15 Johann Gottlieb Gorner, German composer, dies at 80 Feb 18 Joseph Marie Terray, French statesman (b. 1715) Feb 20 Laura Bassi, Italian physicist and scholar, dies at 66 Jan 1778 Famous Deaths by Year Mar 1778 Famous People by Cause of Death Assassination Drug Overdose Gunshot Wound Murder Plane Crash Suicide