* Bertrand Russell, ( 1779 – 2009 ) Why I Am Not a Christian, ISBN 0-671-20323-1

* 1779 – Francis Scott Key, American lawyer, author, and songwriter ( d. 1843 )

* 1779 – Lorenz Oken, German historian ( d. 1851 )

* 1779 – Louis de Freycinet, French explorer ( d. 1842 )

* 1779 – Carl Ritter, German geographer ( d. 1859 )

* 1709 – Hermann Anton Gelinek, German monk and musician ( d. 1779 )

" Amazing Grace " is a Christian hymn with words written by the English poet and clergyman John Newton ( 1725 – 1807 ), published in 1779.

The concept of allotropy was originally proposed in 1841 by the Swedish scientist Baron Jöns Jakob Berzelius ( 1779 – 1848 ).

* 1813 – Zebulon Pike, American frontiersman and explorer ( b. 1779 )

In any case Napoleon went to Brienne 1779 – 1784.

Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin ( 2 November 1699 – 6 December 1779 ) was an 18th-century French painter.

* 1698 – William Warburton, English Bishop of Gloucester ( d. 1779 )

He met the influential early neoclassical painter Raphael Mengs ( 1728 – 1779 ), and through Mengs was introduced to the pathbreaking theories of art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann ( 1717 – 1768 ).

** Rossiada by Mikhail Matveyevich Kheraskov ( 1771 – 1779 )

Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779 – 1822.

* 1779 – American Revolutionary War: the Battle of Kettle Creek is fought in Georgia.

* 1779 – James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii.

Francis Scott Key ( August 1, 1779 – January 11, 1843 ) was an American lawyer, author, and amateur poet, from Georgetown, who wrote the lyrics to the United States ' national anthem, " The Star-Spangled Banner ".

* 1717 – David Garrick, British actor ( d. 1779 )

* 1779 – Thomas Hazlehurst, English soap and alkali manufacturer ( d. 1842 )

* Ignacy Krasicki ( Polish, 1735 – 1801 ), author of Fables and Parables ( 1779 ) and New Fables ( published 1802 )

Despite some military attempts by the Spanish to retake it in the 18th century, most notably in the Great Siege of 1779 – 1783, the Rock has remained under British control ever since.

* 1779 June – In the midst of the American Revolutionary War, Spain declared war against Great Britain ( as France had done the year before )

* April 22 – Eleazar Wheelock, American founder of Dartmouth College ( d. 1779 )

* Eleazar Wheelock ( 1711 – 1779 ), Congregational minister, orator, educator, and founder of Dartmouth College.

* Eleazar Wheelock ( 1711 – 1779 ) a Congregational minister, orator, educator, and founder of Dartmouth College, was born in town.

Eleazar Wheelock ( April 22, 1711 – April 24, 1779 ) was an American Congregational minister, orator, educator, and founder of Dartmouth College.

Eleazar Wheelock died during the Revolutionary War, on April 24, 1779.

Upon his father's death in 1779, John Wheelock assumed the presidency of the College, despite the fact that he was neither an academic nor a minister.

During his almost forty years as Dartmouth's president ( 1779 – 1815 ), Wheelock oversaw the construction of Dartmouth Hall and the founding of Dartmouth Medical School, the fourth-oldest medical school in the country ; he also maintained the College ’ s fiscal solvency throughout the Revolutionary War, mainly through the Vermont legislature ’ s grant of 23, 000 acres ( 93 km² ) in Wheelock, Vermont.

In the summer of 1779 at Washington's direction, General John Sullivan carried out a scorched earth campaign that destroyed at least 40 Iroquois villages in central and upstate New York ; the Indians were British allies who had been raiding American settlements on the frontier.

France recaptured Grenada between 2-4 July 1779 during the American War of Independence, after Comte d ' Estaing stormed Hospital Hill.

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.

* 1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Great Siege of Gibraltar begins.

* 1779 – Benedict Arnold, a general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, is court-martialed for malfeasance.

* 1779 – Battle of Grenada: French victory over British naval forces during the American Revolutionary War.

* 1779 – American Revolutionary War: light infantry of the Continental Army seize a fortified British Army position in a midnight bayonet attack at the Battle of Stony Point.

* 1779 – Clement Clarke Moore, American educator, author, and poet ( d. 1863 )

* 1779 – Joel Roberts Poinsett, American statesman and botanist ( d. 1851 )

* 1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Continental Army is routed at the Battle of Brier Creek near Savannah, Georgia.

* 1820 – Stephen Decatur, American naval officer ( b. 1779 )

* 1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Franco-American Siege of Savannah is lifted.

* 1779 – American Revolution: Samuel Huntington is elected President of the Continental Congress, succeeding John Jay.

* 1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Franco-American Siege of Savannah begins.

* 1779 – American Revolution: John Paul Jones on board the wins the Battle of Flamborough Head.

* 1779 – Joseph Story, American lawyer and jurist ( d. 1845 )

At the beginning of the American Revolution, he served in the Continental Congress, representing Virginia and then served as a wartime Governor of Virginia ( 1779 – 1781 ).

In 1779, at Jefferson's behest, William and Mary appointed his mentor George Wythe as the first professor of law in an American university.

Penn has three claims to being the first university in the United States, according to university archives director Mark Frazier Lloyd: the 1765 founding of the first medical school in America made Penn the first institution to offer both " undergraduate " and professional education ; the 1779 charter made it the first American institution of higher learning to take the name of " University "; and existing colleges were established as seminaries.