Events of 1772

January–June

• January 17 – Johann Friedrich Struensee and Queen Caroline Matilda are arrested, leading to his execution and her banishment from Denmark.

• February 17 – The first partition of Poland is agreed to by Russia and Prussia, later including Austria.

• May – The Watauga Association is formed in East Tennessee.

• June 9 – The British vessel Gaspee is burned off of Rhode Island.

• June 22 – Lord Mansfield delivers the decision that leads to the end of slavery in England.

July–December

• August 5 – The First Partition of Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth begins.

• August 21 – The coup d'état by King Gustav III is completed by adopting a new Constitution, ending half a century of parliamentary rule in Sweden and making him an enlightened despot.

• September 1 – Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa is founded in San Luis Obispo, California.

• November 2 – American Revolutionary War: Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren form the first Committee of Correspondence.

Births

• March 10 – Friedrich von Schlegel, German poet (d. 1829)

• April 7 – Charles Fourier, French philosopher (d. 1837)

• April 19 – David Ricardo, British economist (d. 1823)

• May 2 – Novalis, German poet (d. 1801)

• May 20 – William Congreve, British rocket pioneer (d. 1828)

• May 22 – Ram Mohan Roy, Hindu religious and social reformer (d. 1833)

• August 2 – Louis-Antoine-Henri de Bourbon-Condé (d. 1804)

• August 15 – Johann Nepomuk Mälzel, German inventor (d. 1838)

• August 24 – King William I of the Netherlands (d. 1843)

• October 21 – Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet and philosopher, (d. 1834)

• October 25 – Geraud Duroc, French general (d. 1813)

• November 18 – Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, German prince (d. 1806)

• date unknown – Tuanku Imam Bonjol, Indonesian religious and military leader (d. 1864)

Deaths

• February 8 – Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Princess of Wales (b. 1719)

• February 18 – Johann Hartwig Ernst, Count von Bernstorff, Danish statesman (b. 1712)

• March 21 – Jacques-Nicolas Bellin, French cartographer (b. 1703)

• March 22 – John Canton, English physicist (b. 1718)

• March 26 – Charles Pinot Duclos, French writer (b. 1704)

• March 29 – Emanuel Swedenborg, Swedish philosopher and mathematician (b. 1688)

• May 1 – Gottfried Achenwall, German statistician (b. 1719)

• May 22 – Durastante Natalucci, Italian historian (b. 1687)

• June 15 – Louis Claude Daquin, French composer (b. 1694)

• June 18 – Johann Ulrich von Cramer, German judge and philosopher (b. 1706)

• June 18 – Gerard van Swieten, Dutch-born physician (b. 1700)

• August 31 – William Borlase, English naturalist (b. 1695)

• September 30 – James Brindley, British canal builder (b. 1716)

• October 7 – John Woolman, American Quaker preacher and abolitionist (b. 1720)

• October 8 – Jean Joseph de Mondonville, French violinist and composer (b. 1711)

• November 10 – Pedro Antonio Joaquim Correa da Serra Garção, Portuguese poet (b. 1724)

• November 19 – William Nelson, American colonial governor of Virginia (b. 1711)

• December 7 – Martín Sarmiento, Spanish writer and scholar (b. 1695)

• date unknown – Madhavrao Peshwa, ruler of India (b. 1745)