freedom of the press, making Sweden the first country of the world to introduce constitutional protection of press freedom, and to pass wide-ranging freedom of information legislation. December 5 – James Christie holds the first sale at Christie's auction house in London. December 25 – Mapuches in Chile launch a series of surprise attacks against the Spanish starting the Mapuche uprising of 1766. Date unknown Childsburgh, the Orange County, North Carolina seat laid out as Corbin Town in 1754, and renamed in 1759, is renamed Hillsborough, in honor of Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire, Earl of Hillsborough. Dr. James Fordyce's two-volume compendium Sermons to Young Women is published in London. Births January 1 – Magdalena Rudenschöld, Swedish conspirator (d. 1823) January 3 – Nguyễn Du, Vietnamese poet (d. 1820) January 6 – José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, Supreme Leader of Paraguay (d. 1840) January 17 – Joseph Kinghorn, Particular Baptist Minister (d. 1832) February 11 – Henry Fourdrinier, British engineer, inventor (d. 1854) February 14 – Thomas Malthus, English demographer, economist (d. 1834) February 24 – Samuel Wesley, English organist and composer (died 1837) April 1 – François-Xavier Fabre, French painter of historical subjects (d. 1837) April 6 – Charles-Louis de Fourcroy, French Consul at A Coruña, Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (d. 1824) April 22 – Anne Louise Germaine de Staël, French author (d. 1817) May 11 – Isaac D'Israeli, English literary scholar (died 1848) May 30 – Robert Darwin, medical doctor and father of Charles Darwin (d. 1848) June 13 – Jean-Frédéric Waldeck, French cartographer (d. 1875) July 8 – Dominique Jean Larrey, French surgeon, innovator in battlefield medicine (d. 1842) July 9 – Jacob Perkins, American physicist, inventor and engineer (d. 1849) July 21 – Thomas Charles Hope, Scottish chemist, discoverer of strontium (d. 1844) August 6 – William Hyde Wollaston, English chemist (d. 1828) September 6 – John Dalton, English chemist and physicist (d. 1844) September 25 – Armand-Emmanuel de Vignerot du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu, Prime Minister of France (d. 1822) October 3 – John Walbach, French baron and officer in the United States Army, with a military career spanning over 57 years (d. 1857) October 23 – Emmanuel de Grouchy, Marquis de Grouchy, French marshal (d. 1847) November 2 – Joseph Radetzky von Radetz, Austrian field marshal (d. 1858) November 9 – Edward Abbott, Australian soldier, politician and judge (d. 1832) November 16