Apr 23 The Order of Garter founded by English King Edward III, the most senior order of knighthood in the British honour system; first instituted 1344, formally proclaimed 1348
May 8 Ship from Bordeaux carrying the plague, lands in Melcombe Regis (now Weymouth), Dorset. The beginning of the Terrible Pestilence (Black Death) in England.
- Jul 6 Papal bull of Pope Clement VI issued during the Black Death states Jews are not to blame and encourages their protection
- Sep 21 Jews in Zurich, Switzerland, are accused of poisoning wells
- Nov 1 The Black Death reaches London on or about this date
- Nov 15 Rudolph of Oron claims Jews have confessed to poisoning wells
- Apr 11 Andronikos IV Palaiologos, Byzantine Emperor, born in Constantinople, Byzantine Empire (d. 1385)
- Apr 6 Laure de Noves, "Petrarch's Laura", Italian muse of poet Petrarch, wife of Count Hugues II de Sade, dies of the plague at about 38 (b. 1310)
- Jul 7 John Andreae, Italian canonist, dies
- Sep 2 Joan, Princess of England, daughter of Edward III, dies of the plague at 15 in Bordeaux on her way to marry Prince Pedro of Spain
- Nov 20 Stefano Colonna, Roman senator, dies in battle against Roman revolutionaries by Porta Tiburtina
- Dec 2 Hanazono, 95th Emperor of Japan (1308-18), Zen priest, and last emperor of the Kamakura period, dies at 51
- Dec 25 Chungmok of Goryeo, 29th King of the Goryeo Dynasty of Korea (1344-48), dies only four years into his reign at around 11 or 12
