Events of 1766

January–June

• January 1 – Bonnie Prince Charlie becomes the new Stuart claimant to the throne of Great Britain as King Charles III and figurehead for Jacobitism.

• January 14 – Christian VII becomes King of Denmark.

• February 5 – An observer in Wilmington, North Carolina reports to the Edinburgh newspaper Caledonian Mercury that 3 ships were seized by British men-of-war on the charge of carrying official documents without stamps. The strict enforcement causes 7 other ships to leave Wilmington for other ports.

• February 20 – The Pennsylvania Gazette reports that a British sloop outside of Wilmington, North Carolina seized 1 sloop sailing from Philadelphia and 1 sloop sailing from Saint Christopher on the charge of carrying official documents without stamps. In response, local residents threaten to burn a Royal Man-of-War attempting to deliver stamps to Wilmington, forcing the ship to return to the mouth of the Cape Fear River.

• February – Ferocious wolf attacks occur in France, such as the Beast of Gevaudan or Wolves of Périgord.

• March 5 – Antonio de Ulloa, the first Spanish governor of Louisiana, arrives in New Orleans.

• March 18 – American Revolution: The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act which is very unpopular in the British colonies. The persuasion of Benjamin Franklin is considered partly responsible. The Declaratory Act asserts the right of Britain to bind the colonies in all other respects.

July–December

• November 10 – The last Colonial governor of New Jersey, William Franklin, signs the charter of Queen's College (later renamed Rutgers University).

• November 27 – An observer in New York City, New York reports to the Pennsylvania Gazette that a British Sloop of War is searching all vessels passing near Cape Lookout, North Carolina and that some vessels have been seized.

• December 2 – Sweden introduces its Freedom of the Press Act, becoming the first country of the world to protect freedom of the press in the Constitution, and the first country in the world to grant a wide-ranging freedom of information.

Undated

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart returns to Salzburg after touring Paris and London with his father.

• Lorraine becomes French again on the death of Stanislaus I Leszczyński, King of Poland.

• The Burmese begin to invade the Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya.

• What is now England's oldest surviving Georgian theatre is constructed in Stockton-on-Tees.

• Childsburgh, the Orange County, North Carolina county seat laid out as Corbin Town in 1754 and renamed in 1759, is renamed Hillsborough in honor of Wills Hill, Earl of Hillsborough.

Ongoing events

• War of the Regulation (1764–1771).

Births

• February 14 – Thomas Malthus, English demographer and economist (d. 1834)

• April 6 – Charles Louis de Fourcroy, Chevalier de la Légion D'honneur, French mathematician and scholar (death unknown)

• April 22 – Anne Louise Germaine de Stael, French author (died 1817)

• May 30 – Robert Darwin, medical doctor and father of Charles Darwin (d. 1848)

• June 13 – Jean-Frédéric Waldeck (d. 1875)

• July 8 – Dominique Jean Larrey, French surgeon (d. 1842)

• July 21 – Thomas Charles Hope, Scottish chemist and discoverer of strontium (d. 1844)

• August 6 – William Hyde Wollaston, English chemist (d. 1828)

• September 6 – John Dalton, English chemist and physicist (d. 1844)

• October 23 – Emmanuel, marquis de Grouchy, French marshal (d. 1847)

• November 2 – Joseph Radetzky von Radetz, Austrian field marshal (d. 1858)

• December 3 – Barbara Fritchie, U.S. patriot in the Civil War (d. 1862)

Deaths

• January 1 – James Francis Edward Stuart, "The Old Pretender" (b. 1688)

• January 9 – Thomas Birch, English historian (b. 1705)

• January 13 – King Frederick V of Denmark (b. 1723)

• January 19 – Giovanni Niccolò Servandoni, French architect and painter (b. 1695)

• January 21 – James Quin, English actor (b. 1693)

• February 5 – Leopold Josef Graf Daun, Austrian field marshal (b. 1705)

• February 23 – Stanislaus I Leszczyński, King of Poland (b. 1677)

• April 4 – John Taylor, English classical scholar (b. 1704)

• April 7 – Tiberius Hemsterhuis, Dutch philologist and critic (b. 1685)

• May 5 – Jean Astruc, French physician and scholar (b. 1684)

• May 8 – Samuel Chandler, English non-conformist minister (b. 1693)

• June 24 – Adrien-Maurice, 3rd duc de Noailles, French soldier (b. 1678)

• July 9 – Jonathan Mayhew, American minister and patriot (b. 1720)

• July 11 – Elizabeth Farnese, queen of Philip V of Spain (b. 1692)

• July 14 – František Maxmilián Kaňka, Czech architect (b. 1674)

• September 3 – Archibald Bower, Scottish historian (b. 1686)

• September 13 – Benjamin Heath, English classical scholar (b. 1704)

• November 9 – Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer, Dutch composer (b. 1692)

• December 12 – Johann Christoph Gottsched, German writer (b. 1700)