- Aug 4 Timothy Ruggles, American-born Tory politician (b. 1711)
- Aug 19 Friedrich Hartmann Graf, German composer, dies at 67
- Aug 26 Alessandro Cagliostro [Giuseppe Balsamo], Italian adventurer and magician (Prince of Quacks), dies while serving a life imprisonment for being a freemason in Castel Sant'Angelo at 52
- Aug 31 François-André Danican Philidor, French composer and chess champion, dies at 68
Assassination
Drug Overdose
Gunshot Wound
Murder
Plane Crash
Suicide