1771 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar).

Events

• January 22 - Spain cedes the Falkland Islands to England.
• July 17 - Massacre at Bloody Falls : Chipewyan chief Matonabbee traveling as the guide to Samuel Hearne on his arctic overland journey, massacre a group of unsuspecting Inuit.
• September 8 - In California, Fathers Pedro Cambon and Angel Somera found Mission San Gabriel Arcangel in what is now San Gabriel, California.
• November 16 - During the night the Tyne floods, destroying many bridges and killing several people; the main bridge at Newcastle upon Tyne is not completed until 1781
• Discovery of Oxygen.
• The territory of Baden-Baden is inherited by the Margrave of Baden-Durlach , forming Baden.
• Emperor Go-Momozono ascends to the throne of Japan
• Plague in Moscow - 57.000 dead
• The trade monopoly with Iceland is transferred to the Danish crown.

Births

• June 5 - Prince Ernest Augustus of Great Britain, fifth son of King George III, later King of Hanover
• August 14 - Sir Walter Scott, Scottish historical novelist and poet.
• September 5 - Archduke Charles of Austria, third son of Grand Duke Peter Leopold of Tuscany, general and statesman
• October 9 - Duke Frederick William of Brunswick
• November 14 - Marie François Xavier Bichat, French anatomist and physiologist
• Emperor Kokaku of Japan
• Richard Trevithick, English inventor (d. 1833)

Deaths

• July 30 - Thomas Gray, English poet and letter-writer (* 1716)
• Augustus George of Baden-Baden