* 1726 – Francesco Cetti, Italian scientist ( d. 1778 )

* 1697 – Johann Gottlieb Görner, German composer and organist ( d. 1778 )

* 1720 – Konrad Ekhof, German actor ( d. 1778 )

* 1778 – American Revolutionary War: British forces begin besieging the French outpost at Pondicherry.

Andrew Johnson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, to Jacob Johnson ( 1778 – 1812 ) and Mary (" Polly ") McDonough ( 1783 – 1856 ), a seamstress and the daughter of Andrew McDonough.

* 1778 – American Revolutionary War: British and American forces battle indecisively at the Battle of Rhode Island.

* 1778 – Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, Prussian educator and nationalist ( d. 1852 )

Salieri's Italian tour of 1778 – 80 began with the production of Europa riconosciuta ( Europa Recognized ) for La Scala ( which was revived in 2004 for the same opera house's re-opening following extensive renovations ).

Following his conquest of most of Western Europe, the first Napoleon made his elder brother Joseph ( 1768 – 1844 ) king first of Naples ( 1806 – 1808 ) and then of Spain ( 1808 – 1813 ), his third brother Louis ( 1778 – 1846 ) king of Holland ( 1806 – 1810 ) ( subsequently forcing his abdication after his failure to subordinate Dutch interests to those of France ) and his youngest brother Jérôme Bonaparte ( 1784 – 1860 ) king of Westphalia, the short-lived realm created from some of the states of northwestern Germany ( 1807 – 1813 ).

# Louis Bonaparte ( 1778 – 1846 ) married Hortense de Beauharnais, Napoleon's stepdaughter

Carl Linnaeus ( Swedish original name Carl Nilsson Linnæus, 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778 ), also known after his ennoblement as, was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature.

** Charles Darwin ( 1758 – 1778 ) physician and scientist, uncle of Charles Darwin ( 1809 – 1882 )

* 1778 – American Revolutionary War: British and French fleets clash in the Battle of St. Lucia.

* Jacques le fataliste et son maître, novel ( 1771 – 1778 )

* 1778 – John Ordronaux, privateer of the War of 1812 ( d. 1841 )

* 1778 – Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, French physicist and chemist ( d. 1850 )

* 1778 – American Revolutionary War: 3, 000 British soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell capture Savannah, Georgia.

A hall was opened by Le Normant de Tournehem and the Marquis de Marigny for public viewing of the Tableaux du Roy on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and contained Andrea del Sarto's Charity and works by Raphael ; Titian ; Veronese ; Rembrandt ; Poussin or Van Dyck, until its closing in 1780 as a result of the gift of the palace to the comte de Provence by the king in 1778.

The sons included Raphaelle Peale ( 1774 – 1825 ), Rembrandt Peale ( 1778 – 1860 ), and Rubens Peale ( 1784 – 1865 ).

Rembrandt Peale ( February 22, 1778 – October 3, 1860 ) was an American artist and museum keeper.

Rembrandt Peale was born the third of six surviving children ( eleven had died ) to his mother, Rachel Brewer, and father, Charles Willson Peale in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, on February 22, 1778.

* October 3-Rembrandt Peale, American artist ( born 1778 )

In 1778, during the American War of Independence, the French mounted a successful invasion with the active cooperation of the population, which was largely French.

* 1778 – American Revolution: Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to help to train the Continental Army.

* 1778 – American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France signaling official recognition of the new republic.

Having lost its colonial empire, France saw a good opportunity for revenge against Britain in signing an alliance with the Americans in 1778, and sending an army and navy that turned the American Revolution into a world war.

John Adams served as an American envoy to France from 1778 until 1779 and to the Netherlands from 1780 until 1782, and the younger Adams accompanied his father on these journeys.

* 1716 – Philip Livingston, American founding father ( d. 1778 )

* 1778 – Philip Livingston, American merchant and statesman, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence ( b. 1716 )

* 1778 – American Revolution: Louis XVI of France declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain.

* 1778 – American Revolutionary War: British troops abandon Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

* 1778 – American Revolutionary War: British forces kill 360 people in the Wyoming Valley massacre.

* 1778 – American Revolutionary War: American forces under George Clark capture Kaskaskia during the Illinois campaign.

In 1778, Simcoe, during a foraging expedition opposed by rebel militia, commanded the attack on Judge William Hancock's house, killing 20 American rebels in their sleep and wounding 12 others.

* 1778 – American Revolution: First Battle of Ushant – British and French fleets fight to a standoff.

* 1778 – American Revolution: The Battle of Crooked Billet begins in Hatboro, Pennsylvania.

During the American Revolution, " the mid-Atlantic work " ( as Wesley called it ) diminished, and, by 1778, the work was reduced to one circuit.

* 1778 – Cherry Valley Massacre: Loyalists and Seneca Indian forces attack a fort and village in eastern New York during the American Revolutionary War, killing more than forty civilians and soldiers.

The Kingdom of France had been a critical ally of the United States in the American Revolutionary War from the spring of 1776, and had signed in 1778 a Treaty of Alliance with the United States.

Portsmouth was the site of the first African American military unit, the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, to fight for the U. S. in the Battle of Rhode Island of August 29, 1778.

* 1720 – Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Italian artist ( d. 1778 )

* October 4 – Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Italian artist ( d. 1778 )

Charles-Alexandre Lesueur ( 1778 – 1846 ), a naturalist and artist, came to New Harmony aboard the Philanthropist.

These included leading figures of the European ' Enlightenment ' including the philosophers Voltaire, 1694 – 1778 ) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau ( 1712 – 1778 ); the future US Presidents John Adams ( 1735 – 1826 ) and Thomas Jefferson ( 1743 – 1826 ); Benjamin Franklin ( 1706 – 1790 ); the German landscape artist Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau ; the Italian statesman Giuseppe Garibaldi ( 1807 – 1882 ); Russian Tsars Nicholas I ( 1796 – 1855 ) and Alexander I ( 1777 – 1825 ); the king of Persia ; Queen Victoria ( 1819 – 1901 ) and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg ( 1819 – 61 ); Sir Walter Scott ( 1771 – 1832 ); Prince Leopold III, Duke of Anhalt-Dessau ( 1740 – 1817 ); Prime Ministers William Ewart Gladstone ( 1809 – 1898 ) and Sir Robert Walpole ( 1676 – 1745 ); Queen Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach ( 1683 – 1737 ); John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute ( 1713 – 92 ) his architect William Burges ( 1827 – 1881 ) and the present Prince of Wales and Princess Margaret.

A watercolour by Thomas Hearne ( artist ) | Thomas Hearne from 1778 of the west of Lancaster's keep.

Giovanni Battista ( also Giambattista ) Piranesi (; 4 October 1720 – 9 November 1778 ) was an Italian artist famous for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheric " prisons " ( Carceri d ' Invenzione ).

Henry Fuseli, The artist moved to despair at the grandeur of antique fragments, 1778 – 79

The artist moved to despair at the grandeur of antique fragments, 1778 – 79

* John Thomson ( painter ) ( 1778 – 1840 ), Scottish minister and landscape artist

* December 12 – Charles Alexandre Lesueur, artist and explorer ( b. 1778 )

Of his sons, Richard Smirke ( 1778 – 1815 ), was a notable antiquarian artist.

* Robert Matthews ( con artist ) ( 1778 – 1841 ), American religious impostor