1771 in science

Astronomy

• Lagrange discusses how numerous astronomical observations should be combined so as to give the most probable result.

  Chemistry

• British apothecary Thomas Henry invents a process for preparing magnesium oxide.

  Exploration

• August 17 – Edinburgh botanist James Robertson makes the first recorded ascent of Ben Nevis in Scotland.

  Mathematics

• Lagrange publishes his second paper on the general process for solving an algebraic equation of any degree via Lagrange resolvents; and proves Wilson's theorem that if n is a prime, then ! + 1 is always a multiple of n.

  Medicine

• Norfolk and Norwich Hospital founded in England.

  Events

• March 15 – Society of Civil Engineers first meets, the world's oldest engineering society.
• December 16 – French chemist Antoine Lavoisier marries Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze, not yet 14 and daughter of his senior in the Ferme générale.

  Publications

• Louis Antoine de Bougainville publishes Le voyage autour du monde, par la frégate La Boudeuse, et la flûte L'Étoile.
• Peter Simon Pallas begins publication of Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs, chronicling his ongoing scientific expedition through the Russian Empire.
• Arthur Young publishes The Farmer's Kalendar.

  Awards

• Copley Medal: Matthew Raper

  Births

• April 13 – Richard Trevithick, Cornish engineer and inventor.
• September 11 – Mungo Park, Scottish explorer.
• October 13 – Gotthelf Fischer von Waldheim, Saxon-born naturalist.
• November 6 – Alois Senefelder, Prague-born German inventor of lithography.
• December 14 - Regina von Siebold, German physician and obstetrician.

  Deaths

• February 20 – Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan, French geophysicist, astronomer and chronobiologist
• March 17 – Chester Moore Hall, English scientific instrument maker
• March 23 – Henry Hindley, English clock and scientific instrument maker
• December 6 – Giovanni Battista Morgagni, Italian anatomist
• December 15 – Benjamin Stillingfleet, English botanist