Chesma Column in Tsarskoe Selo, commemorating the end of the Russo-Turkish War.

Events of 1774

January–June

• January 21 – Mustafa III, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire dies and is succeeded by his brother Abd-ul-Hamid I.

• January 27 – An angry crowd in America seizes a British customs collector and then tars and feathers him.

• March 31 – Intolerable Acts: The British Parliament passes the Boston Port Act, closing the port of Boston, Massachusetts as punishment for the Boston Tea Party.

• April 17 – The first avowedly Unitarian congregation, Essex Street Chapel, is founded in London by Theophilus Lindsey.

• May 10 – Louis XVI becomes King of France following the death of Louis XV.

• June 2 – Intolerable Acts: A new Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to provide better housing for British soldiers upon demand, is passed.

July–December

• July 21 – Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774): Russia and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji, ending six years of war. The treaty does give Russia the right to intervene in Ottoman politics to protect its Christian subjects.

• 1 August – The element oxygen is discovered for the third (and last) time – the second quantitatively following the somewhat earlier work of Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1771–1772) – by Joseph Priestley, who publishes the fact in 1775 and so names the element and usually gets all the credit.

• September 5 – The First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

• September 21 – George Mason and George Washington found the Fairfax County Militia Association, a military unit independent of British control.

• October 10 – Dunmore's War – Battle of Point Pleasant: Cornstalk is forced to make peace with Dunmore at the Treaty of Camp Charlotte, ceding Shawnee land claims south of the Ohio (modern Kentucky) to Virginia.

• October 21 – The word "Liberty" is first displayed on a flag raised by colonists in Taunton, Massachusetts, in defiance of British rule in Colonial America.

Undated

• The British pass the Quebec Act, setting out rules of governance for the colony of Quebec in British North America.

• To avoid severe flooding, Martinsborough, North Carolina is moved to higher ground west. The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates Martinsborough as the new county seat of Pitt County, 3 years after its founding.

• German cobbler Johann Birkenstock creates the first Birkenstock sandals.

Births

• February 11 – Hans Jarta, Swedish political activist and administrator (d. 1847)

• February 24 – Prince Adolphus, 1st Duke of Cambridge (d. 1850)

• March 9 – Mayhew Folger, whaler, captain of Topaz (ship), rediscovered Pitcairn Islands in 1808 (d. 1828)

• March 16 – Captain Matthew Flinders, English explorer (d. 1814)

• July 20 – Auguste Marmont, French marshal (d. 1852)

• August 12 – Robert Southey, English poet and biographer (d. 1843)

• August 18 – Meriwether Lewis, American explorer, soldier and public administrator (d. 1809)

• August 28 – Elizabeth Ann Seton, co-founder of Mount Saint Mary's University, founder of the Sisters of Charity (d. 1821)

• September 5 – Caspar David Friedrich, German artist (d. 1840)

• September 26 – Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman), nurseryman/missionary planted apple-tree nurseries in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois (d. 1847)

• date unknown – Sergei Nikolayevich Glinka – Russian author, brother of Fedor Nikolaevich Glinka (d. 1847)

• date unknown – Lalon Fakir – Undivided Indian Mystic, song composer who influenced Rabindranath Tagore (d. 1890)

Deaths

• January 21 – Mustafa III, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1717)

• January 30 – Frantisek Ignac Antonin Tuma, Czech composer (b. 1704)

• February 4 – Charles Marie de La Condamine, French mathematician and geographer (b. 1701)

• February 10 – Florian Leopold Gassmann, German composer (b. 1729)

• April 4 – Oliver Goldsmith, English writer (b. 1730)

• May 4 – Anthony Ulrich II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (b. 1714)

• May 10 – King Louis XV of France (b. 1710)

• July 1 – Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, English statesman (b. 1705)

• July 11 – Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet, Irish-born New York pioneer

• July 14 – James O'Hara, 2nd Baron Tyrawley and Kilmaine, British field marshal (b. 1682)

• August 11 – Tiphaigne de la Roche, French writer (b. 1722)

• August 14 – Johann Jakob Reiske, German scholar and physician (b. 1716)

• August 25 – Niccolò Jommelli, Italian composer (b. 1714)

• September 22 – Pope Clement XIV (b. 1705)

• September 25 – John Bradstreet, Canadian-born soldier (b. 1714)

• October 23 – Michel Benoist, French Jesuit missionary and scientist (b. 1715)

• October 26 – Roemer Vlacq II, Dutch vice-admiral (b. 1712)

• November 22 – Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, British general and statesman (b. 1725)

• December 2 – Johann Friedrich Agricola, German composer (b. 1720)

• December 16 – François Quesnay, French economist (b. 1694)