•
May 10 –
Charles Macklin unintentionally kills another actor,
Thomas Hallam, during a fight at Drury Lane Theatre, in front of witnesses; Macklin is later convicted of manslaughter. •
August 4 – A jury finds
John Peter Zenger not guilty of seditious
libel in
The New York Weekly Journal. •
September 3 –
Samuel Johnson marries Elizabeth "Tetty" Porter, twenty years his senior, at
St Werburgh's Church, Derby. •
Jesuit scholar
Jean-Baptiste Du Halde publishes ''Description Géographique, Historique, Chronologique, Politique et Physique de l'Empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie Chinois'' in
Paris, including Father
Joseph Henri Marie de Prémare's translation of
The Orphan of Zhao ("L'Orphelin de la Maison de Tchao";
13th century), the first Chinese play to have been published in any European language. • The
Sublime Society of Beef Steaks is established by
John Rich at the
Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, London, as a dining club mainly for literary men. ==New books==