1765 in science

The year 1765 in science and technology involved several significant events.

• February 8 – Nevil Maskelyne becomes Astronomer Royal in England.^[1]

• May – James Watt makes a breakthrough in the development of the steam engine by constructing a model with a separate condenser.^[2]
• October 15 – Gribeauval system for manufacture of cannon introduced in France by royal decree.^[3]
• Timișoara Fortress construction completed by the Habsburg Empire.

• Saverio Manetti begins publication of his Storia naturale degli uccelli, trattata con metodo e adornata di figure intagliate in rame e miniate al naturale. Ornithologia methodice digesta atque iconibus aeneis ad vivum illuminatis ornate ("Natural History of the Birds, treated systematically and adorned with copperplate engraving illustrations, in miniature and life-size") in Florence.

• Copley Medal: Not awarded^[4]

• March 7 – Nicéphore Niépce, French inventor (died 1833)
• November 14 – Robert Fulton, American engineer (died 1815)
• December 8 – Eli Whitney, American inventor (died 1825)

• April 15 – Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian scientist (born 1711)
• May 7 – Alexis Clairaut, French mathematician (born 1713)
• September – Richard Pococke, English anthropologist and explorer (born 1704)
• December 25 – Václav Prokop Diviš, Czech theologian, natural scientist and pioneer in the field of electricity (born 1698)