1785 CE

The Confederation Congress reconvenes in New York City having previously convened in Trenton, New Jersey. The University of Georgia in the United States is chartered by the Georgia General Assembly meeting in Savannah. The first students are admitted in Athens, Georgia in 1801. The University of Georgia is granted a charter (written by Abraham Baldwin) by the Georgia General Assembly meeting in Savannah. The first students are admitted in Athens, Georgia in 1801.

In the 1780s, the 18th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 11 – Richard Henry Lee is elected as President of the U.S. Congress of the Confederation.source
  • January 11 – The Confederation Congress reconvenes in New York City having previously convened in Trenton, New Jersey.United Statessource
  • February 9 – Sir Warren Hastings, who has been governing India on behalf of King George III as the Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William (later British India), resigns. Sir John Macpherson administers British India until General Charles Cornwallis arrives 19 months later.source
  • February 27 – The Confederation Congress votes an $80,000 expense to establish diplomatic relations with Morocco.source
  • March 10 – Thomas Jefferson is appointed the new U.S. Minister to France, and Benjamin Franklin's request for permission to return home is accepted.source
  • April 19 – The Commonwealth of Massachusetts cedes all of its claims to territory west of New York State to the United States Confederation Congress. The area will become the southern portions of Michigan and Wisconsin.source
  • April 21 – The Empress Catherine the Great of the Russian Empire issues the Charter to the Towns, providing for "a coherent, unified system of administration" for new governments organized in Russia.source
  • April 26 – John Adams is appointed as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, and Thomas Jefferson as ambassador to France.source
  • May 20 – The Land Ordinance of 1785, setting the rules for dividing the U.S. Northwest Territory (later Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan) into townships of 36 square miles apiece, is passed by the Confederation Congress. The survey system will later be applied to the continent west of the Mississippi River.source
  • July 2 – Don Diego de Gardoqui arrives in New York City as Spain's first minister to the United States.source
  • September 10 – The United States and the Kingdom of Prussia sign a Treaty of Amity and Commerce.source
  • September 13 – Benjamin Franklin returns to Philadelphia after seven years as the U.S. Ambassador to France and prepares to take office as the new Governor of Pennsylvania.source
  • October 17 – The Commonwealth of Virginia stops the importation of new African slaves by declaring that "No persons shall henceforth be slaves within this commonwealth, except such as were so on the seventeenth day of October, 1785, and the descendants of the females of them."source
  • November 23 – John Hancock of Massachusetts, the former President of the Continental Congress, is selected as the new President of the Congress of the Confederation, but is unable to take office because of illness.source
  • November 28 – The Treaty of Hopewell is signed between the United States of America and the Cherokee Nation.source
  • The British government establishes a permanent land force in the Eastern Caribbean, based in Barbados.source
  • General Henry Knox is appointed as the Confederation Congress's Secretary of War, with added duties as the Secretary of Navy, both functions later of the U.S. Department of Defense.source
  • Joseph II extends serfdom reforms to Hungary, granting peasants greater personal freedoms.Austriasource
  • Treaty of Fontainebleau; the Dutch agree to compensate the Austrian Netherlands for the continued closure of the Scheldt River to navigation.Austriasource
  • New Brunswick is separated from Nova ScotiaCanadasource
  • William Drennan publishes Letters of Orellana, an Irish Helot, to the seven northern counties not represented in the National Assembly of Delegates, held at Dublin, in October, 1784, for obtaining a more equal representation of the people in the Parliament of Ireland in Dublin (originally in the Belfast News-letter).Irelandsource
  • Caucasus Viceroyalty (1785–96) establishedRussiasource
  • William Pitt the Younger introduces a Reform Bill to Parliament to abolish the rotten boroughs, but it is defeated.United Kingdomsource
  • Richard Pennant buys out the Yonge family of Devon and comes into possession of the whole of the Penrhyn estate.Walessource

Conflict & Security

  • January 1 – The Burmese Konbaung Dynasty annexes the Mrauk U Kingdom of Arakan.source
  • January 20 – Battle of Rạch Gầm-Xoài Mút: Invading Siamese forces, attempting to exploit the political chaos in Vietnam, are ambushed and annihilated at the Mekong River by the Tây Sơn.source
  • Napoleon Bonaparte becomes a lieutenant in the French artillery.source
  • Isaac Brock takes command of the 49th Foot, which would be the backbone of the British Empire forces in Canada during the War of 1812.Canadasource
  • Battle of the Sunja - Russian defeat in Chechen uprising led by Sheikh MansurRussiasource
  • Northwest Indian War (1785–1795)United Statessource

Exploration & Expansion

  • August 1 – The fleet of French explorer Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse leaves Paris for the circumnavigation of the globe.source
  • North West Company strengthened far west trade through such forts as Athabasca and English River.Canadasource
  • Billings Expedition authorized to search for the Northeast PassageRussiasource
  • Great Gostiny Dvor shopping arcade opened in Saint PetersburgRussiasource

Religion & Belief

  • 17 July – Fairfield Moravian Church is opened in Fairfield, Droylsden, Lancashire. With its surrounding settlement it has been founded by Benjamin La Trobe as a centre for evangelistic work for the Moravian Church in the Manchester area.United Kingdomsource
  • October 18 – Benjamin Franklin takes office as the new President of the Supreme Council of Pennsylvania, at the time the equivalent of a republic as one of the 13 independent governments of the United States of America under the Articles of Confederation.source
  • December 11 – An edict is issued limiting Masonic lodges throughout the Holy Roman Empire by Emperor Joseph II. With the exception of Vienna, Budapest and Prague, no Empire province may have more than one lodge.source
  • Mozart's "Haydn" String Quartets are published, as is his collaboration with Salieri and a third, unknown composer, Cornetti, Per la ricuperata salute di Ofelia.source
  • Mohawk Chapel, the oldest church in Ontario, was constructed near Brantford, Ontario.Canadasource
  • Finnur Jónsson, bishop of Skálholt resigned in the spring. Bishop Hannes Finnsson succeeded him.Icelandsource
  • Charter to the Gentry codified rights of nobilityRussiasource
  • Odigitrievsky Cathedral completedRussiasource
  • Trinity Church, Pervitino foundedRussiasource
  • Florence Miscellany (including poems by Hester Thrale)Walessource
  • Anna Maria Bennett - Anna: or Memoirs of a Welch HeiressWalessource

Economy & Finance

  • May 18: The city of Saint John, New Brunswick is incorporated.Canadasource
  • July 6 – The dollar (and a decimal currency system) is unanimously chosen as the money unit for the United States by the Congress of the Confederation.source
  • July 6 – The United States dollar is unanimously chosen as the country's money unit, the first time a nation has adopted a decimal currency.United Statessource
  • September 13 – The Bank of North America, central bank for the Confederation Congress government, loses its charter.source
  • October - The Mona Mine Company is formed by Thomas Williams of Llanidan and Henry Bayly Paget, 1st Earl of Uxbridge.Walessource
  • National income - ₹10,217 millionIndiasource

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 7 – Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England to Calais, France in a hydrogen gas balloon, becoming the first to cross the English Channel by air.source
  • 7 January - French balloonist Jean-Pierre Blanchard crosses the English Channel in a balloonFrancesource
  • 7 January – Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover to Calais, France in a hydrogen gas balloon, becoming the first to cross the English Channel by air.United Kingdomsource
  • March 10 – American engineer James Rumsey sends a letter to George Washington informing of his plans to create a steamboat.source
  • 22 May – Robert Burns' first child, Elizabeth ("Dear-bought Bess"), is born to his mother's servant, Elizabeth Paton and his poems "To a Mouse" and "Halloween" are written.Scotlandsource
  • May 23 – Benjamin Franklin receives a patent for bifocals.source
  • Coal gas is first used for illumination.source
  • Stratford-on-Slaney in County Wicklow is founded by the Earl of Aldeborough as a cotton manufacturing centre.Irelandsource

Science & Discovery

  • 19 January – Richard Crosbie successfully flies in a hot air balloon from Ranelagh Gardens to Clontarf. He goes on to makes several unsuccessful attempts to cross the Irish Sea in a hydrogen-filled balloon.Irelandsource
  • March 7 – Scottish geologist James Hutton first presents his landmark work, Theory of the Earth; or an Investigation of the Laws observable in the Composition, Dissolution, and Restoration of Land upon the Globe to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.source
  • 7 March – geologist James Hutton proposes the theory of uniformitarianism to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.Scotlandsource
  • 7 March – James Hutton proposes the theory of uniformitarianism to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.United Kingdomsource
  • April 28 – Astronomer William Herschel begins his second series of surveys of the stars, published in 1789.source
  • October 5 – Vincenzo Lunardi of Italy becomes the first person to pilot a balloon over Scotland.source
  • 5 October – flight by Florentine aeronaut Vincenzo Lunardi in a gas balloon from George Heriot's School, Edinburgh, across the Firth of Forth to Ceres, Fife (32 mi (51.5 km) in 1.5 hrs).Scotlandsource
  • 23 November – Lunardi flies from St Andrew's Square, Glasgow, to Hawick.Scotlandsource
  • Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi publishes Letters on the Teachings of Spinoza, and starts the Pantheism controversy of the 1780s.source
  • Dunsink Observatory established.Irelandsource
  • In an anonymous work, Christian Kølle introduced the written feminine grammatical gender in Norway.Norwaysource
  • Nathaniel Williams - Darllen Dwfr a MeddyginiaethWalessource

Health & Medicine

  • Louis XVI signs a law that a handkerchief must be square.source
  • The decision to move Skálholtsskóli to Reykjavík is made, with teaching beginning at Hólavallaskóli a year later.Icelandsource
  • London Hospital Medical College opens as England's first chartered medical school.United Kingdomsource
  • Griffith Rowlands becomes surgeon to Chester city hospital.Walessource

Crime & Justice

  • August 15 – Cardinal de Rohan is arrested in Paris; the Affair of the Diamond Necklace comes into the open.source
  • 15 August - Cardinal de Rohan is arrested in Paris; the Necklace Affair comes into the open.Francesource
  • October 13 – France mints new Louis d'or coins, with the image of King Louis XVI on the obverse, and one-sixth less gold than the coins with King Louis XV's image.source
  • Charles Adams, John Adams’ son and John Quincy Adams's brother, enters Harvard in August at age 15. A few months later, he starts to drink often and to get into trouble, and is almost expelled when he is caught running naked through the Campus while drunk with other boys.source
  • Governor-General of India Warren Hastings charged with maladministration and returns to Britain.United Kingdomsource
  • Sir Joshua Reynolds paints George, Prince of Wales.Walessource

Disasters & Accidents

  • May 10 – An unmanned hot air balloon released as part of a bet crashes in Tullamore, Ireland, causing a fire that burns down about 100 houses, making it the world's first aviation disaster (by 36 days). The town’s coat of arms now represents a phoenix emerging from the ashes.source
  • 10 May – a hot air balloon collides with a chimney in Tullamore, setting light to around 100 houses in the town centre.Irelandsource
  • June 15 – After several attempts, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and his companion, Pierre Romain, set off in a balloon from Boulogne-sur-Mer, but the balloon suddenly deflates (without the envelope catching fire) and crashes near Wimereux in the Pas-de-Calais, killing both men, making it the first fatal aviation disaster.source

Climate & Environment

  • January to July – continuing an extremely dry and cold spell from the previous year, several records for dryness are set, among them driest twelve months in the England and Wales Precipitation series, with only 522.0 mm for the year ending July 1785, and further records for dryness for periods of three to six months.United Kingdomsource
  • June 3 – The United States' Continental Navy is disbanded.source
  • 29 July - Vienna experienced a flood that left much of the city submerged underwaterAustriasource
  • The Duke of Rutland, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, with the support of William Pitt, successfully steers a liberal trade measure through the Parliament of Ireland, initially against the opposition of Henry Grattan and Henry Flood. However the Foxite opposition in the House of Commons of Great Britain so emasculates the measure with amendments that it is rejected in its new form in Ireland.Irelandsource

Culture & Society

  • January 1 – The first issue of the Daily Universal Register, later known as The Times, is published in London.source
  • 12 January - The first public library in Norway is opened.Norwaysource
  • January 27 – The University of Georgia in the United States is chartered by the Georgia General Assembly meeting in Savannah. The first students are admitted in Athens, Georgia in 1801.source
  • January 27 – The University of Georgia is granted a charter (written by Abraham Baldwin) by the Georgia General Assembly meeting in Savannah. The first students are admitted in Athens, Georgia in 1801.United Statessource
  • 22 June – The Academy of Surgery is founded in Copenhagen, replacing the Theatrum Anatomico-chirurgicum from 1736.Denmarksource
  • July 16 – The Piper-Heidsieck Champagne house is founded by Florens-Louis Heidsieck in Reims, France.source
  • 16 July - The Piper-Heidsieck Champagne house is founded by Florens-Louis Heidsieck in Reims, France.Francesource
  • October 13 – The first newspaper in British India, the English-language Madras Courier, is published. It continues publication as a weekly until 1794.source
  • 21 December – the Prince of Wales marries the widowed Catholic Maria Fitzherbert in her London home, secretly, and in contravention of the Royal Marriages Act 1772.United Kingdomsource
  • Belfast Academy (later Belfast Royal Academy) is founded by Rev. James Crombie in Belfast, Northern Ireland.source
  • Cabinet des Modes, the first fashion magazine, is published in France.source
  • The University of New Brunswick is founded in Fredericton, New Brunswick.source
  • Fredericton opens a Provincial Academy of Arts and Sciences, the germ of the University of New Brunswick (1859).Canadasource
  • City Dumas established in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and other cities by imperial decreeRussiasource
  • Late September – James Boswell’s The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides is published.Scotlandsource

Births

Deaths

  • January 3 – Baldassare Galuppi, Italian composer (born 1706)source
  • January 6 – Haym Salomon, Polish-Jewish American financier of the American Revolution (born 1740)source
  • 19 March - Melchior Rasp, stonemasonAustriasource
  • May 8 – Étienne François, duc de Choiseul, French statesman (born 1719)source
  • May 8 – Pietro Longhi, Venetian painter (born 1701)source
  • June 30 – James Oglethorpe, English general, founder of the state of Georgia (born 1696)source
  • July 13 – Stephen Hopkins, Founding Father of the United States (born 1707)source
  • July 13 – Stephen Hopkins, signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence (born 1707)United Statessource
  • July 17 – Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland, British duchess (born 1715)source
  • August 26 – George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville, British soldier, politician (born 1716)source
  • September 19 – Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain, Queen consort of Sardinia (born 1729)source
  • October 4 – David Brearley, delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention (born 1703)source
  • November 13 – Joaquín Ibarra, Spanish printer (born 1725)source
  • November 18 – Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, French soldier, writer (born 1725)source
  • November 20 – James Wright, Governor of Georgia (born 1716)source
  • December 6 – Kitty Clive, English actress, playwright (born 1711)source
  • 29 December - Johan Herman Wessel, poet (b.1742)Norwaysource
  • Praskovya Bruce - lady-in-waiting and confidant of Catherine the GreatRussiasource