June 8 - The volcanoLaki, in Iceland, begins an eight-month eruption until February 1784 which kills 9350 people and starts a seven-year famine. Eruption causes deaths of livestock when they eat contaminated grass and also widespread crop failure.
July 16 - Grants of land in Canada to American loyalists announced.
November 21 - In Paris, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent, the marquis d'Arlandes, make the first untethered hot air balloon flight (flight time: 25 minutes, Maximum height: 5½ miles).