1771

Events 
 January 17 – Johann Friedrich Struensee and Queen Caroline Matilda are arrested, leading to his execution and her banishment from Denmark
 July 17 – Massacre at Bloody Falls: Chipewyan chief Matonabbee traveling as the guide to Samuel Hearne on his Arctic overland journey, massacre a group of unsuspecting Inuit.
 September 8 – In California, Fathers Pedro Cambon and Angel Somera found Mission San Gabriel Arcangel in what is now San Gabriel, California.
 October 9 – The Dutch merchant ship Vrouw Maria sinks near the coast of Finland. Captain Raymund Lourens and his crew escape unharmed.
 November 16 – During the night the Tyne floods, destroying many bridges and killing several people; the main bridge at Newcastle upon Tyne is not completed until 1781
Discovery of Oxygen.
The territory of Baden-Baden is inherited by the Margrave of Baden-Durlach, forming Baden.
Emperor Go-Momozono ascends to the throne of Japan
 Plague in Moscow – 57,000 dead
 The trade monopoly with Iceland is transferred to the Danish crown.
 Births 
April 13 – Richard Trevithick, English inventor (d. 1833)
April 18 – Karl Philipp Fürst zu Schwarzenberg, Austrian field marshal (d. 1820)
April 27 – Jean Rapp, French general (d. 1821)
June 5 – Prince Ernest Augustus of Great Britain, King of Hanover (d. 1851)
August 14 – Sir Walter Scott, Scottish writer (d. 1832)
September 5 – Archduke Charles of Austria, Austrian general and statesman (d. 1847)
September 23 – Emperor Kokaku of Japan (d. 1840)
October 9 – Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick (d. 1815)
October 23 – Jean-Andoche Junot, French general (d. 1813)
November 14 – Marie François Xavier Bichat, French anatomist and physiologist (d. U momma)

 Deaths