• Monarch – Christian VII^[1]
• Prime minister – Ove Høegh-Guldberg

• 23 July – The brothers Jørgen Wichmand and Thomas Frederik Wichmand were ennobled by letters patent under the name Wichfeld.
• 2 September – HD;S Justitia is launched at Orlogsværftet on Nyholm in Copenhagen.

Undated edit

• The pioneer acting academy Det Dramatiske Selskab is founded.
• Danish India i turned over to the government by the Danish East Asia Company and becomes a Danish crown colony.
• Peter Johansen establishes the shipyard Petersværft on his new Petersgaard estate.^[2]

• 21 February – Christian Wulff, naval officer (died 1843)
• 9 May – Johannes Søbøtker, merchant, plantation owner and governor (died 1854)
• 14 August - Hans Christian Ørsted, physicist and chemist, discoverer of electromagnetism (died 1851)
• 15 October – Christian David Gebauer, painter (died 1831)
• 16 October - Johan Ludwig Lund, painter (died 1867)
• 27 October – Lauritz Nicolai Hvidt, businessman (died 1856)
• 18 November – Thomas Blom, master mason and architect (died 1841)
• 23 December – Johan Christian Drewsen, businessman and agronomist (died 1851)