1770
Events
- March 5 - Boston Massacre: 5 Americans killed by British troops in an event that would help start the American Revolutionary War 5 years later.
- May 14 - Marie Antoinette arrives to French Court.
- May 16 - 14-year old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year old Louis-Auguste (who later becomes Louis XVI King of France). (marriage is consummated four years later)
- May 16 – Fireworks in the wedding of the crown prince of France in Paris cause a fire – 800 dead
- July 1 – Lexell Comet passes the Earth
- August 22 - James Cook claimed for Great Britain the eastern coast of New Holland (Australia)
- Joseph Priestley, British chemist, recommends the use of a rubber to remove pencil marks
Births
- March 20 - Friedrich Hölderlin, German poet, novelist, and dramatist
- April 7 - William Wordsworth, English poet (+ 1850)
- April 30 - David Thompson, English-Canadian explorer, the first European to explore the Columbia River from source to mouth.
- May 22 - Princess Elizabeth of Great Britain, third daughter of King George III
- August 3 - King Frederick William III of Prussia
- August 27 - Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, German philosopher.
- December 17 - Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer (baptized)
Deaths
- March 27 - Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Venetian artist (born 1696)
- August 24 - Thomas Chatterton, English poet (born 1752)
- October 18 - John Manners, Marquess of Granby, British soldier (born 1721)
- Giuseppe Tartini, Italian composer and violinist (born 1692)