- Dec 6 Marie Jeanne Becu, Comtesse du Barry, last mistress of Louis XV, beheaded at 50
- Dec 7 Joseph Bara, French revolutionary (b. 1780)
- Dec 9 Yolande de Polastron, Duchess de Polignac, French aristocrat, dies at 44
- Dec 13 Johann Joachim Christoph Bode, German literary translator, dies at 63
- Dec 20 Joseph Legros, French singer and composer who was the most prominent haute-contres (operatic tenor) of his generation, dies at 54
- Dec 23 Abbé Prévost, French author and novelist (Manon Lescaut), dies at 66
- Dec 23 Johann Adolph Hasse, German composer (Antonio e Cleopatra), dies at 74
- Dec 28 Louis earl of Bylandt, Dutch admiral, dies at about 75
Assassination
Drug Overdose
Gunshot Wound
Murder
Plane Crash
Suicide