1758
Events
January–March
- January 1 - Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus publishes in Stockholm the first volume of the 10th edition of Systema Naturae, the starting point of modern zoological nomenclature, introducing binomial nomenclature for animals to his established system of Linnaean taxonomy. Among the first examples of his system of identifying an organism by genus and then species, Linnaeus identifies the lamprey with the name Petromyzon marinus. He introduces the term Homo sapiens.
- January 20 - At Cap-Haïtien in Haiti, former slave turned rebel François Mackandal is executed by the French colonial government by being burned at the stake.
- January 22 - Russian troops under the command of William Fermor invade East Prussia and capture Königsberg with 34,000 soldiers; although the city is later abandoned by Russia after the Seven Years' War ends, the city again comes under Russian control in 1945 during World War II and is now named Kaliningrad.
- February 22 - A fleet of 158 British Royal Navy warships, under the command of Admiral Edward Boscawen, departs from Plymouth toward North America in an effort to conquer the French Canadian territories of New France. Many of the sailors die of nutritional deficiencies along the way, including the scurvy that kills 26 of the crew of HMS Pembroke, captained by future world explorer James Cook on his first long voyage.
- February 23 - Jonathan Edwards, the famed English theologian who had assumed the presidency of what is now Princeton University only a week earlier, sets an example for students and faculty by publicly receiving an inoculation against smallpox. Unfortunately, the vaccine contains live smallpox; Edwards develops the disease and dies on March 22 at the age of 54.
- March 16 - Members of the Comanche Nation loot and destroy the Spanish Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá and kill eight of the people there, including the mission leader, Father Alonso Giraldo de Terreros.
April–June
- April 29 - Battle of Cuddalore: A British fleet under Sir George Pocock engages the French fleet of Anne Antoine, Comte d'Aché indecisively near Madras.
- May 21 - Seven Years' War - French and Indian War: Mary Campbell is abducted from her home in Pennsylvania by members of the Lenape Nation.
- June 8 - Seven Years' War - French and Indian War: Siege of Louisbourg: James Wolfe's attack at Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, commences.
File:Schlacht-bei-krefeld.jpg|thumb|right|June 23: Battle of Krefeld
File:Frederick The Great at Zorndorf.jpg|thumb|right|August 25: Battle of Zorndorf
File:Menzelhochkirch.jpg|thumb|right|October 14: Battle of HochkirchOctober–December
- October 14 - Seven Years' War: Battle of Hochkirch: Frederick loses a hard-fought battle against the Austrians under Marshal Leopold von Daun, who besieges Dresden.
- November 25 - Seven Years' War: French and Indian War: French forces abandon Fort Duquesne to the British, who then name the area Pittsburgh.
- December 13 - The ship Duke William sinks in the North Atlantic, with the loss of over 360 lives, while deporting Acadians from Prince Edward Island to France.
- December 25 - Halley's Comet is sighted by Johann Georg Palitzsch, confirming Edmund Halley's 1705 prediction of its periodicity.
Date unknown
- The French build the first European settlement in what becomes Erie County, New York, at the mouth of Buffalo Creek.
- Rudjer Boscovich publishes his atomic theory, in Theoria philosophiae naturalis redacta ad unicam legem virium in nalura existentium.
- A fire destroys parts of Christiania, Norway.
- Marquis Gabriel de Lernay, a French officer captured during the Seven Years' War, establishes a military lodge in Berlin, with the help of Baron de Printzen, master of The Three Globes Lodge at Berlin, and Philipp Samuel Rosa, a disgraced former pastor.
- Okadaya, predecessor of AEON, a multiple retailer group, founded in Yokkaichi, Japan.
- J. R. Geigy, predecessor of Novartis, a global pharmaceutical brand, founded in Basel, Switzerland.
Births
- January 6 - Charles Ganilh, French economist, politician
- January 9 - George Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland, born Viscount Trentham, British politician and landowner
- January 11 - François Louis Bourdon, French Revolutionary politician
- January 17 - Marie Anne Simonis, Belgian textile industrialist
- January 20 - Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze, French chemist
- January 24 - Frederick Ponsonby, 3rd Earl of Bessborough
- February 1 - David Ochterlony, Massachusetts-born general with the East India Company
- February 3
- * Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier of Great Britain
- * Vasily Kapnist, Ukrainian poet, playwright
- February 4 - George Thicknesse, 19th Baron Audley, English peer
- February 10 - Amalia Holst, German writer, intellectual and feminist
- February 17 - John Pinkerton, British antiquarian
- February 28 - Nicolas François, Count Mollien, French financier
- March 9 - Franz Joseph Gall, German pioneering neuroanatomist
- March 12 - Leopold Karel, Count of Limburg Stirum
- March 15 - Magdalene Sophie Buchholm, Norwegian poet
- April 4
- * John Hoppner, English portrait-painter
- * Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, French painter
- April 16 - Christian Karl August Ludwig von Massenbach, Prussian soldier
- April 22 - Francisco Javier Castaños, 1st Duke of Bailén, Spanish general
- April 23
- * Alexander Hood, British Royal Navy officer
- * Alexander Cochrane, British Royal Navy officer
- * Philip Gidley King, British Royal Navy officer, colonial administrator
- April 27 - Charles Dumont de Sainte-Croix, French zoologist
- April 28 - James Monroe, fifth President of the United States
- April 29 - Georg Carl von Döbeln, Swedish officer, general and war hero
- April 30
- * Emmanuel Vitale, Maltese military leader
- * Jane West, English writer
- May 6
- * Maximilien de Robespierre, French revolutionary
- * André Masséna, Napoleonic general, Marshal of France
- May 8 - John Heath, U.S. Representative for Virginia
- May 15 - Thomas Taylor, English neoplatonist translator
- May 17
- * Sir John St Aubyn, 5th Baronet, English fossil collector
- * Honoré IV, Prince of Monaco
- June 19 - Raffaello Sanzio Morghen, Italian engraver
- June 29 - Clotilde Tambroni, Italian philologist, linguist
- July 25 - Elizabeth Hamilton, English writer
- July 31 -, Swiss naturalist
- July 31 - Jeremiah Colegrove, U.S. farmer, manufacturer and soldier
- August 5 - Emperor Go-Momozono of Japan
- August 14 - Carle Vernet, French painter
- August 24 - Thomas Picton, British soldier, colonial governor
- August 25 - Israel Pellew, English naval officer
- September 9 - Alexander Nasmyth, Scottish portrait and landscape painter
- September 10 - Hannah Webster Foster, U.S. novelist
- September 18 - Louis Friant, French Napoleonic soldier
- September 20 - Jean-Jacques Dessalines, leader of the Haitian Revolution
- September 21
- * Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy, French linguist, orientalist
- * Christopher Gore, U.S. lawyer, politician
- September 25 - Maria Anna Thekla Mozart called Marianne, known as Bäsle, cousin of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- September 26 - Cosme Argerich, Argentine Surgeon General
- September 29
- * Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, British admiral
- * Fanny von Arnstein, Austrian salonnière
- October 5 - Seymour Fleming, British noblewoman
- October 6 - Watkin Tench, British Marine officer
- October 11 - Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers, German astronomer
- October 15 - Johann Heinrich von Dannecker, German sculptor
- October 16 – Noah Webster, U.S. lexicographer
- October 22/6 - Vincenzo Dandolo, Italian chemist, agriculturist
- October 28 - John Sibthorp, English botanist
- October 28 - Joseph-François-Louis-Charles de Damas, French general
- October 31 - Thomas Gisborne, Anglican priest, abolitionist
- November 5 - Louis-Marie Aubert du Petit-Thouars, French botanist
- November 11
- * Carl Friedrich Zelter, German composer
- * Caleb P. Bennett, U.S. soldier, politician
- November 14 - William Bradley, British Royal Navy officer and cartographer
- November 16 - Peter Andreas Heiberg, Danish author, philologist
- December 5 - George Beauclerk, 4th Duke of St Albans
- December 9 - Richard Colt Hoare, English antiquarian, archaeologist
- December 21 - Jean Baptiste Eblé, French general