wins the Longitude prize, for his invention of the marine chronometer. Hilaire Rouelle discovers urea. Istanbul Technical University is established (under the name of Royal School of Naval Engineering) as the world's first comprehensive institution of higher learning dedicated to engineering education. Marsala wine first shipped to England. In China, written work begins on the Siku Quanshu, the largest literary compilation of books in China's history (surpassing the Yongle Encyclopedia of the 15th Century). Upon completion in 1782, the books are bound in 36,381 volumes (册) with more than 79,000 chapters (卷), comprising about 2.3 million pages, and approximately 800 million Chinese characters. Scottish judge James Burnett, Lord Monboddo, begins publication of Of the Origin and Progress of Language, a contribution to evolutionary ideas of the Enlightenment. Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock publishes the last five cantos of his epic poem Der Messias in Hamburg.</onlyinclude> Births January 14 – William Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst, British ambassador to China, Governor-General of India (d. 1857) January 16 – Robert Fullerton, governor of Penang, first governor of British Straits Settlements (d. 1831) January 27 – Prince Augustus of Great Britain, Duke of Sussex (d. 1843) January 29 – Friedrich Mohs, German geologist, mineralogist (d. 1839) February 9 – William Henry Harrison, American military leader and ninth President of the United States (d. 1841) March 14 – John Holmes, American politician (d. 1843) March 16 – Juan Ramón Balcarce, Argentine military leader and politician (d. 1836) March 26 – Nathaniel Bowditch, American mathematician (d. 1838) April 4 – Étienne Maurice Gérard, Prime Minister and Marshal of France (d. 1852) April 9 Étienne Aignan, French writer, librettist, and playwright (d. 1824) Marie Boivin, French midwife, inventor and obstetrics writer (d. 1841) April 14 – Jean-Baptiste de Villèle, Prime Minister of France (d. 1854) April 24 – Edmund Cartwright, English inventor, Fellow of the Royal Society (d. 1823) May 2 – Henrik Steffens, Norwegian philosopher (d. 1845) May 3 – Giuseppe Acerbi, Italian explorer (d. 1846) May 15 – Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, Austrian statesman (d. 1859) May 19 – Arthur Aikin, English chemist and mineralogist (d. 1854) May 31 – Ludwig Tieck, German writer (d. 1853) June 13 – Thomas Young, English scientist (d. 1829) July 23 – Thomas Brisbane, Scottish astronomer, Governor of New South Wales (d. 1860) August 12 – Karl Faber, German historian (d. 1853) August 22 – Aimé Bonpland, French explorer, botanist