1765 in science

Astronomy

• February 8 – Nevil Maskelyne becomes Astronomer Royal in England.

  Technology

• May – James Watt makes a breakthrough in the development of the steam engine by constructing a model with a separate condenser.
• October 15 – Gribeauval system for manufacture of cannon introduced in France by royal decree.
• Timișoara Fortress construction completed by the Habsburg Empire.

  Zoology

• Saverio Manetti begins publication of his Storia naturale degli uccelli, trattata con metodo e adornata di figure intagliate in rame e miniate al naturale. Ornithologia methodice digesta atque iconibus aeneis ad vivum illuminatis ornate in Florence.

  Awards

• Copley Medal: Not awarded

  Births

• March 7 – Nicéphore Niépce, French inventor
• November 14 – Robert Fulton, American engineer
• December 8 – Eli Whitney, American inventor

  Deaths

• April 15 – Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian scientist
• May 7 – Alexis Clairaut, French mathematician
• September – Richard Pococke, English anthropologist and explorer
• December 25 – Václav Prokop Diviš, Czech theologian, natural scientist and pioneer in the field of electricity