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The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the town of Morgansborough, named for Daniel Morgan. The town is designated as the county seat for Burke County, North Carolina and is subsequently renamed Morgantown, which is later shortened to Morganton.

The North Carolina General Assembly changes the name of Kingston, North Carolina, originally named for King George III of Great Britain, to Kinston.

The Japanese famine continues as 300,000 die of starvation

Benjamin Franklin tries in vain to persuade the French to alter their clocks in winter to take advantage of the daylight

Benjamin Franklin invents bifocal spectacles

Antoine Lavoisier pioneers quantitative chemistry

Britain receives its first bales of imported American cotton

Emperor Josef II suspends the Hungarian Constitution because of a Revolution in Transylvania

Huge locust swarm in South Africa

Cholesterol was isolated

Carl Friedrich Gauss pioneers the field of summation with the formula, (n(n+1))/2, at the age of seven

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January

January 6 - the Turks agree to Russia's annexation of the Crimea in the Treaty of Constantinople
January 14 - The US Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain to end the American Revolutionary War

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February

February 27 – Count of St Germain dies of pneumonia in Schleswig-Holstein
February 28 - John Wesley charters the Methodist Church

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August

August 10 - Jeanne de la Motte fools Cardinal de Rohan - Queen's Necklace Affair begins
August 16 - Britain creates the colony of New Brunswick

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September

September 22 - Russia establishes a colony at Kodiak, Alaska.

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December

December 25 - Methodist Episcopal Church in USA officially formed at so-called "Christmas Conference", led by Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury

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Births

January 17 - Philippe Antoine d’Ornano, Marshal of France (d. 1863)
January 28 - George Hamilton Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1860)
March 13 - Jean Moufot, French philosopher and mathematician (d. 1842)
April 5 - Louis Spohr, German violinist and composer (d. 1859)
April 13 - Friedrich Graf von Wrangel, Prussian field marshal (d. 1877)
July 22 - Friedrich Bessel, German mathematician and astronomer (d. 1846)
July 27 - Denis Davydov, Russian general and poet (d. 1839)
October 13 - King Ferdinand VII of Spain (d. 1833)
October 19 - John McLoughlin, Canadian fur trader (d. 1857)
October 20 - Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1865)
October - Sarah Biffen, English painter (d. 1850)
November 24 - Zachary Taylor, 12th President of the United States (d. 1850)

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Deaths

April 26 - Nano Nagle, Irish convent founder (b. 1718)
May 12 - Abraham Trembley, Swiss naturalist (b. 1710)
June 13 - Henry Middleton, American president of the Continental Congress (b. 1717)
June 26 - Caesar Rodney, American lawyer and signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1728)
July 1 - Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, German composer (b. 1710)
July 31 - Denis Diderot, French philosopher and encyclopedist (b. 1713)
August 4 - Giovanni Battista Martini, Italian musician (b. 1706)
August 10 - Allan Ramsay, Scottish painter (b. 1713)
August 14 - Nathaniel Hone, Irish-born painter (b. 1718)
August 28 - Junípero Serra, Spanish Franciscan missionary (b. 1713)
September 4 - César-François Cassini de Thury, French astronomer (b. 1714)
September 8 - Ann Lee, American religious leader (b. 1736)
December 4 - Wiseman Claget, English classical scholar (b. 1721)
December 13 - Samuel Johnson, English writer and lexicographer (b. 1709)
December 25 - Yosa Buson, Japanese poet and painter (b. 1716)
December 26 - Seth Warner, American revolutionary leader (b. 1743)
Le Quy Don, Vietnamese philosopher, poet, encyclopedist, and government official (b. 1726)