December 14 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, German composer (b. 1714)
Events
January 1 - First edition of The Times of London, previously The Daily Universal Register, is published.
January 2 - Georgia becomes the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
January 9 - Connecticut becomes the fifth state to be admitted to the United States.
January 18 - The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia arrives at Botany Bay.
January 19 - Second group of ships of the First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay.
January 20 - The third and main part of First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay. Arthur Phillip decides Botany Bay is unsuitable for location of a penal colony, and decides to move to Port Jackson.
January 26 - The British First Fleet, led by Arthur Phillip, sails into Sydney Harbour to establish Sydney, the first permanent European settlement on the continent. Commemorated as Australia Day
February 6 - Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
February 9 - The Habsburg Empire joins the Russo-Turkish War in the Russian camp.
March 6 - The First Fleet arrives at Norfolk Island in order to found a convict settlement.
March 21 - A fire in New Orleans leaves most of the town in ruins.
April 7 - American Pioneers to the Northwest Territory arrive at at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers, establishing Marietta, Ohio as the first permanent American settlement of the new United States in the Northwest Territory, and opening the westward expansion of the new country.
April 28 - Maryland becomes the seventh state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.
June 11 - Russian explorer Gerasim Izmailov reaches Alaska.
June 21 - New Hampshire ratifies the Constitution of the United States and is admitted as the 9th state in the United States.
June 25 - Virginia becomes the 10th state to ratify the United States Constitution.
July 26 - New York ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 11th state of the United States.
September 13 - The United States' Philadelphia Convention sets the date for the country's first presidential election, and New York City becomes the temporary capital of the U.S..
