The year 1769 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy

March 4 - French astronomer Charles Messier first records the Orion Nebula (Messier 42).
June 3 - Transit of Venus is observed from many places in order to obtain data for measuring the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Those taking part included
Jean-Baptiste Chappe d'Auteroche at San José del Cabo, Baja California
James Cook and Charles Green on Tahiti
Jeremiah Dixon and William Bayly in northern Norway, Dixon at Hammerfest and Bayly at North Cape
Maximilian Hell in Vardø, Norway
Guillaume Le Gentil in Pondicherry, India: Le Gentil had hoped to go to Manila in the Philippines but was turned away by the local Spanish colonial governor. The weather in Pondicherry was cloudy that day. Le Gentil had also missed the 1761 transit through bad luck.
Alexandre Guy Pingré in Haiti
William Wales and Joseph Dymond at Prince of Wales Fort on Hudson Bay
November 9 - Transit of Mercury. James Cook observes this from Mercury Bay in New Zealand

The red colour Napolen's Comet is observed

Chemistry

Carl Wilhelm Scheele discovers a method of mass-producing phosphorus

Cugnot's first steam-wagon, or fardier, of 1769.
Technology

April 29 - James Watt is granted a British patent for "A method of lessening the consumption of steam in steam engines" – the separate condenser.
July 3 - Richard Arkwright is granted a British patent for a water-powered spinning frame able to weave fabric mechanically.[1]
Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot demonstrates a steam-powered artillery tractor (or 'automobile') in France (see drawing).

Exploration

March 16 - Louis Antoine de Bougainville returns to Saint-Malo following a three-year circumnavigation of the world with the ships La Boudeuse and Étoile, with the loss of only seven out of 330 men.

Awards

Copley Medal: William Hewson

Births

March 23 - William Smith, geologist (died 1839)
March 29 - Friedrich Christian Accum, chemist (died 1838)
April 25 - Marc Isambard Brunel, engineer (died 1849)
August 23 - Georges Cuvier, zoologist (died 1832)
14 September 1769 Birth of Alexander Friedrich Heinrich von Humboldt in Berlin, Germany, naturalist and explorer (died 1859)
Marie LaChapelle, obstetrician (died 1821)

1769 Birth of Jane Marcet

References

^ Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 325. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.