| 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. |
| 1766–1777 | UK [canals] | English engineer James Brindley begins work on the Grand Trunk Canal linking the Trent and Mersey rivers. It crosses the Pennines by the Harecastle tunnel and will establish a water route between the North Sea and the Irish Sea. |
| 1769–1770 | India [famines] | Famine kills 10 million in Bengal, India; it is the worst famine to date. |
| c. 1769 | Austria [orchestral music] | The Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn completes his Symphony No. 48, the Maria Theresa. |
| 1769 | England [technology] | English inventor Richard Arkwright patents a spinning machine (or ‘water frame’ because it operates by water) that produces cotton yarn suitable for warp; it is one of the key inventions of Britain's Industrial Revolution. |
| 1769 | France [transport] | French engineer Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot designs a steam tractor intended for pulling artillery. It is never developed. |
| 10 January 1769 | France [births and deaths] | Michel Ney, French marshal during the Napoleonic Wars, born in Paris, France (–1815). |
| 1 May 1769 | Ireland [births and deaths] | Arthur Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington), British army commander and Tory prime minister 1828–30, born in Dublin, Ireland (–1852). |
| 19 May 1769 | Rome [religion] | Lorenzo Ganganelli is elected as Pope Clement XIV after a three-month struggle in the College of Cardinals between those who supported the Jesuits, and those who opposed them (his supporters). |
| 1 August 1769 | France [births and deaths] | Napoleon I (Napoleon Bonaparte), French general, First Consul 1799–1804, and emperor of France 1804–15, born in Ajaccio, Corsica (–1821). |
| November 1769 | Russia, Moldavia-Ottoman, Wallachia-Ottoman [Russian–Ottoman Wars (1768–1878)] | Russian troops overrun the Ottoman client-states of Moldavia and Wallachia (modern Romania), occupying the Wallachian capital, Bucharest. |
