| 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. |
| 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. |
| 1770–1780 | America [statistics and demography] | The estimated population of the American colonies is 2,780,369 including 575,420 black slaves. |
| 1774 | France [chemistry] | French chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier demonstrates the conservation of mass in chemical reactions. |
| 1774 | Germany [fiction] | The German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe publishes Die Leiden des jungen Werther/The Sorrows of Young Werther, a short novel about a tragic love affair and suicide that embodies the mood of early Romanticism. |
| 1774 | England [literature and language] | The English writer and statesman Lord Chesterfield publishes Letters to his Son, a guide to good manners and success in society. |
| 31 March 1774 | America, UK [legislation] | In the Boston Port Act, the British Parliament responds to the Boston Tea Party by closing the port of Boston. Americans regard this as the first of the so-called Intolerable Acts. |
| 21 July 1774 | Ottoman Empire, Russia [treaties] | Under the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainardzhi, the Ottoman Empire cedes the Black Sea coast from the River Bug to the River Dnieper to Russia, and also the Crimean ports of Yenikale and Kertch. Moldavia and Wallachia are returned to the Ottoman Empire, and the Khanate of the Crimea is recognized as independent. |
| 1 August 1774 | England [chemistry] | English chemist Joseph Priestley discovers the element oxygen (atomic number 8). |
| 5 September - 27 October 1774 | America [American Revolution] | The first Continental Congress of the 13 American colonies meets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with representatives from each colony except Georgia. It agrees to economic sanctions against Britain and urges the payment of colonial taxes to a ‘government of Massachusetts’ until the Intolerable Acts are repealed. |
