| 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. |
| 1770–1780 | America [statistics and demography] | The estimated population of the American colonies is 2,780,369 including 575,420 black slaves. |
| 1776–1779 | Pacific [exploration] | English explorer James Cook explores the Pacific Ocean. In 1778, he discovers Hawaii, where the indigenous population treat him as a god. Later that year, he passes through the Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean, searching for the northwest passage to the Atlantic. |
| 1779 | France [opera] | The opera Iphigénia en Tauride/Iphigenia in Tauris by the German composer Christoph Gluck is first performed, in Paris, France. The success of this opera settles the heated debate between the supporters of Gluck's French style of opera and the supporters of Nicola Puccini's Italian style in favour of Gluck. |
| 1779 | UK [plays] | The comedy The Critic by the Irish writer Richard Brinsley Sheridan is performed, in London, England. |
| 1779 | Germany [plays] | The German writer Gotthold Ephraim Lessing publishes his verse play Nathan der Weise/Nathan the Wise, a plea for religious tolerance. |
| 1779 | Scotland [religion] | Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion by the Scottish philosopher David Hume are published posthumously. Though he wrote them in the 1750s, Hume was unwilling during his lifetime to publish these attacks on the arguments for God's existence. |
| 1779 | Italy, UK [solo and chamber music] | The Italian-born British composer Muzio Clementi publishes his early keyboard sonatas (Opus 2). |
| 1779 | UK [transport] | Work begins on the first iron bridge to cross the River Severn near Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, England. Final design and construction are the work of English iron master Abraham Darby III. |
| 1779 | France [transport] | French inventors Jean Blanchard and M Masurier construct a velocipede, a type of early bicycle (but with four wheels), in Paris, France. |
| 1779 | England [manufacturing] | English inventor Samuel Crompton devises the spinning mule, a cross between a spinning jenny and a water-frame spinning machine. It makes possible the large-scale manufacture of thread. |
| 13 February 1779 | Pacific [exploration] | English explorer James Cook returns to Hawaii, where his crew have a disagreement with some of the indigenous population. After a hasty departure, Cook's ship, the Resolution, is damaged, and he is forced to land again, where he is killed in an argument over a stolen boat. |
| 13 February 1779 | England, Pacific [births and deaths] | James Cook, the English naval captain and navigator who explored Canada's coasts and the Pacific, is killed in Hawaii (50). |
| 13 May 1779 | Bavaria, Prussia, Habsburg Monarchy [treaties] | The Treaty of Teschen ends the War of the Bavarian Succession. The Habsburg Monarchy obtains the Inn district of Bavaria and agrees to support the reversion of the Hohenzollern principalities of Ansbach and Bayreuth to Prussia. |
| 16 June 1779 | UK, Spain, France [American Revolutionary War (1775–83)] | Spain declares war on Britain, following an undertaking by France to assist in recovering Gibraltar and Florida. Spanish forces begin a siege of Gibraltar. |
