The M75 was discovered 1780 by Pierre Méchain who reported his discovery to Charles Messier. Later, Charles Messier added M75 in his catalogue on October 18. William Herschel resolved it into stars in 1784.

At a distance of about 67,500 light years, M75 is one of the more remote of Messier's globular clusters, lying well beyond the Galactic center (from which it is 47,600 light years distant). Some sources give even larger distances, up to as much as 100,000 light years! This would make it the most remote Messier globular, and the most remote galactic Messier object at all.

M75 is one of the more compact, concentrated globulars, classified as class I. Because of this and its distance, larger scopes are required to resolve it into stars. Its angular diameter of 6.6' corresponds to a linear extension of well almost 130 light years, and it is of high luminosity, perhaps about 180,000 times that of the Sun (Mag -8.55).