| 1730–1807 | UK [newspapers] | The Daily Advertiser is launched in London, England. With its dependence on advertisements, this may be regarded as the first modern newspaper. |
| 1750–1777 | Portugal [law and government] | Sebastião José de Carvalho e Mello, the Marquis of Pombal, virtual ruler of Portugal during the reign of José I, carries out a series of extensive reforms aimed at breaking the power of the nobility and revitalizing Portugal's finances, industry, agriculture, and education system. |
| 1760–1770 | North America [statistics and demography] | The estimated population of the North American colonies is 1,593,625 including 325,806 black slaves. |
| 7 May 1763 - 24 July 1766 | America [wars] | The Ottawa chief Pontiac leads a loose confederation of Indian tribes in an assault against British forts and settlements all along the western frontier of the American colonies. Before the Treaty of Oswego ends the rebellion three years later, 2,000 Americans die, impressing royal authorities with the need for regular troops in the colonies. |
| 1764 | Austria [music] | The Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completes his Symphonies No. 1 (K 16), No. 2 (lost), No. 3 (lost), and No. 4 (K 19), and his Sonatas for Piano and Violin Nos. 1 to 4 (K 6 to K 9). |
| 1764 | England [technology] | English inventor James Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny, which allows one individual to spin several threads simultaneously. The first model can spin 8 yarns at once but later models could spin 80. |
| 1764 | Italy [thought and scholarship] | The Italian jurist and philosopher Cesare Beccaria publishes Dei delitti e delle pene/On Crimes and Punishments. A denunciation of capital punishment and torture, it has a wide influence on penal reform. |
| 1764 | Germany [aesthetics and criticism] | The German archaeologist and art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann publishes Geschichte der Kunst des Altertums/A History of the Art of Antiquity, the last of his pioneering studies of Greek art. His ideal of ‘noble simplicity and calm grandeur’ becomes one of the key principles of 18th-century neoclassicism. |
| 1764 | France [dictionaries and encyclopedias] | The French writer and satirist Voltaire publishes his Dictionnaire philosophique/Philosophical Dictionary. |
| 5 April 1764 | America, UK [legislation] | The British Parliament passes the Sugar Act to help defray the cost of protecting Britain's expanded American empire. The act levies duties on molasses, sugar, indigo, pimento, wine, and textiles. It mandates an elaborate system of paperwork to aid enforcement. It also denies a jury trial to those accused of violating its decrees. |
| May 1764 | America [American Revolution] | Boston lawyer James Otis repudiates the Sugar Act as ‘taxation without representation’. He declares ‘absurd’ the notion that a parliament sitting in England can ‘virtually’ represent colonial interests. |
| 7 September 1764 | Poland [political events] | Stanislas Augustus Poniatowski, the protégé of Russia and former lover of Catherine the Great, is elected king of Poland. |
| 22 October 1764 | India [colonization] | The victory of British East India Company forces at Buxar, in Bihar, eastern India, over the forces of Mir Kasim (the deposed nawab of Bengal), the nawab of Oudh, and the titular Mogul emperor, leads to the establishment of British control over the Indian provinces of Bengal and Bihar. |
| 26 October 1764 | England [births and deaths] | William Hogarth, celebrated English satirical painter and engraver, whose works include the series A Rake's Progress (from 1732), dies in London, England (67). |
