In the spring, plague appeared in Moscow. Commander-in-chief Count Saltykov left the city to its fate. The retired general Eropkin voluntarily took on the heavy duty of maintaining order and, by preventive measures, mitigating the plague. The townspeople did not follow his instructions and not only failed to burn the clothes and linens of those who died of the plague, but even concealed the fact of death itself and buried them in backyards.
The plague intensified: at the beginning of summer, 400 people died every day. In terror, the people crowded at the Barbarian Gate before a miracle-working icon. The infection, of course, spread even more because of the crowding. The Moscow archbishop of that time, Ambrose, one of the most learned and educated men of his age, ordered the icon to be removed. A rumor immediately spread that the hierarch, in league with the doctors, had conspired to poison the people.
On September 6, at the Donskoy Monastery, an ignorant, fanatical crowd driven mad by fear tore apart the worthy archpastor. Rumors spread that the rebels were preparing to set Moscow on fire and to exterminate the doctors and the nobility. Eropkin, with a few companies, nevertheless managed to restore calm. In the last days of September, Count Grigory Orlov, then the person closest to Catherine, arrived in Moscow; but by that time the plague was already weakening, and in October it stopped. From this plague, 130,000 people died in Moscow alone.
The English scientist J. Priestley discovered the phenomenon of photosynthesis.
January 17 — Pyotr Chernyshov died in the Yeniseisk fort; he was an impostor who proclaimed himself Emperor Peter III.