February - Thomas Malthus is born. Malthus' most well known work "An Essay on the Principle of Population" was published in 1798. He argued that increases in population would eventually diminish the ability of the world to feed itself and based this conclusion on the thesis that populations expand in such a way as to overtake the development of sufficient land for crops.
March - Parliament repeals the Stamp Act. On the same day the House of Commons adopts the Declaratory Act, "An Act for the Better Securing the Dependency of his Majesty's Dominions in America upon the Crown and Parliament of Great Britain."
August - Captain Philip Carteret, English navigator, sets sail on a Royal Navy voyage of exploration around the world (returns in 1769). Discovers and names at least 20 islands, including Pitcarin. Carteret Island, off Papua-New Guinea, is projected to be the first island to disappear as sea-levels rise due to global warming.
November - Rutgers University, established as Queen's College, is established. It is one of two private colonial colleges that later becomes a public University. The other is the College of William and Mary.
December - Barbara Fritchie is born. She died nearly a year before the poem that made her name famous was published in 1863. Poet John Greenleaf Whittier presented her as a Union heroine for supposedly defying Confederate General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson during his brief occupation of Frederick, Maryland. A variety of patriotic stories grew around Fritchie, a woman who lived to be 95.
