Editing 1785

{{About year|1785}}
{{Year nav|1785}}
[[File:Blanchard Crossing English Channel.jpg|thumb|200px|[[January 7]]: [[Jean-Pierre Blanchard]] and [[John Jeffries]] become first aeronauts to fly across the [[English Channel]].]]
{{C18 year in topic}}
{{Year article header|1785}}

== Events ==
<onlyinclude>

=== January&ndash;March ===
* [[January 1]] 
** The Burmese Konbaung Dynasty annexes the [[Mrauk U Kingdom]] of [[Arakan]].
** The first issue of the ''[[Daily Universal Register]]'', later known as ''[[The Times]]'', is published in London.
* [[January 7]] &ndash; Frenchman [[Jean-Pierre Blanchard]] and American [[John Jeffries]] travel from [[Dover]], England to [[Calais]], France in a hydrogen gas [[balloon (aeronautics)|balloon]], becoming the first to cross the [[English Channel]] by air.
* [[January 11]] &ndash; [[Richard Henry Lee]] is elected as President of the U.S. Congress of the Confederation.<ref name="Harper1785">''Harper's Encyclopaedia of United States History from 458 A. D. to 1909'', ed. by Benson John Lossing and, Woodrow Wilson (Harper & Brothers, 1910) p167</ref>
* [[January 20]] &ndash; [[Battle of Rạch Gầm-Xoài Mút]]: Invading [[Thai people|Siamese]] forces, attempting to exploit the political chaos in [[Vietnam]], are ambushed and annihilated at the [[Mekong]] River by the [[Tây Sơn dynasty|Tây Sơn]].
* [[January 27]] &ndash; The [[University of Georgia]] in the United States is chartered by the [[Georgia General Assembly]] meeting in [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]]. The first students are admitted in [[Athens, Georgia]] in 1801.
* [[February 9]] &ndash; Sir [[Warren Hastings]], who has been governing [[India]] on behalf of King George III as the Governor-General of the [[Bengal Presidency|Presidency of Fort William]] (later [[British India]]), resigns. [[Sir John Macpherson, 1st Baronet|Sir John Macpherson]] administers British India until [[Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis|General Charles Cornwallis]] arrives 19 months later.<ref>G.S.Chhabra, ''Advance Study in the History of Modern India'', Volume-1: 1707-1803 (Lotus Press, 2005) p282</ref>
* [[February 27]] &ndash; The Confederation Congress votes an $80,000 expense to establish diplomatic relations with [[Morocco]].<ref>''The Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States of America: From the Signing of the Definitive Treaty of Peace, September 10, 1783 to the Adoption of the Constitution, March 4, 1789'', Volume II (Blair & Rives, 1837) p365</ref> 
* [[March 7]] &ndash; 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]].<ref>Jill Schneiderman, ''The Earth Around Us: Maintaining A Livable Planet'' (Henry Holt and Company, 2000) p24</ref>
*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.<ref name="Harper1785"/>
* [[March 10]]
**American engineer [[James Rumsey]] sends a letter to [[George Washington]] informing of his plans to create a [[steamboat]].<ref>''Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents'', Part 1 (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1850) p535</ref>  
**[[Thomas Jefferson]] is appointed the new U.S. Minister to France, and Benjamin Franklin's request for permission to return home is accepted.<ref name="Harper1785"/>

=== April&ndash;June ===
* [[April 19]] &ndash; The Commonwealth of [[Massachusetts]] [[state cessions|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.<ref>''The United States: Its Beginnings, Progress and Modern Development'', Volume 3, ed. by Edwin Wiley and Irving E. Rines (American Educational Alliance, 1912) p384</ref><ref name="Harper1785"/>
* [[April 21]] &ndash; 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. 
* [[April 26]] &ndash; [[John Adams]] is appointed as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, and [[Thomas Jefferson]] as ambassador to France.<ref>Robert V. Remini, ''John Quincy Adams: 6th President, 1825-1829'' (Times Books, 2014) p17</ref>
* [[April 28]] &ndash; Astronomer [[William Herschel]] begins his second series of surveys of the stars, published in 1789.<ref>Stephen James O'Meara, ''Deep-Sky Companions: The Caldwell Objects'' (Cambridge University Press, 2016) p534</ref>
* [[May 10]] &ndash; A [[hot air balloon]] crashes in [[Tullamore]], Ireland, causing a fire that burns down about 100 houses, making it the world's first [[Aviation accidents and incidents|aviation disaster]] (by 36 days).<ref>{{cite web|title=The Tullamore Balloon Fire - First Air Disaster in History |first=Michael |last=Byrne |date=2007-01-09 |work=Tullamore History |url=http://www.offalyhistory.com/articles/72/1/The-Tullamore-Balloon-Fire---First-Air-Disaster-in-History/Page1.html |publisher=Offaly Historical & Archaeological Society |access-date=2012-08-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326081536/https://www.offalyhistory.com/articles/72/1/The-Tullamore-Balloon-Fire---First-Air-Disaster-in-History/Page1.html |archive-date=March 26, 2012 |df=mdy }}</ref>
* [[May 20]] &ndash; The [[Northwest 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.<ref>Walter G. Robillard and Lane J. Bouman, ''Clark on Surveying and Boundaries'' (LexisNexis, 1997)</ref> The survey system will later be applied to the continent west of the Mississippi River.<ref name="Harper1785"/>
* [[May 23]] &ndash; [[Benjamin Franklin]] receives a patent for [[bifocals]].
* [[June 3]] &ndash; The United States' [[Continental Navy]] is disbanded.
* [[June 15]] &ndash; 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.

=== July&ndash;September ===
* [[July 2]] &ndash; Don [[Diego de Gardoqui]] arrives in New York City as Spain's first minister to the United States.<ref name="Harper1785"/>
* [[July 6]] &ndash; The [[dollar]] (and a decimal currency system) is unanimously chosen as the money unit for the United States by the Congress of the Confederation.<ref>David C. Harper, ed., ''2011 North American Coins and Prices'' (Krause Publications, 2010) p9</ref> 
* [[July 16]] &ndash; The [[Piper-Heidsieck]] [[Champagne house]] is founded by [[Florens-Louis Heidsieck]] in [[Reims]], France.
* [[August 1]] &ndash; The fleet of French explorer [[Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse]] leaves Paris for the [[circumnavigation]] of the globe.
* [[August 15]] &ndash; [[Cardinal de Rohan]] is arrested in Paris; the [[Affair of the Diamond Necklace]] comes into the open.
* [[September 10]] &ndash; The [[United States]] and the Kingdom of [[Prussia]] sign a Treaty of Amity and Commerce.<ref>"The Role of Political Revolution in the Theory of International Law", by Theodor Schweisfurth, in ''The Structure and Process of International Law: Essays in Legal Philosophy, Doctrine and Theory'', ed. by R. St.J. Macdonald and Douglas M. Johnston (Martinus Nijhoff, 1986) p913</ref>
* [[September 13]]
**The [[Bank of North America]], central bank for the Confederation Congress government, loses its charter.<ref>Lawrence Lewis, ''A History of the Bank of North America, the First Bank Chartered in the United States" (J.B. Lippincott & Company, 1882) p54''</ref>
**[[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]].<ref name=Zall>Paul Zall, ''Benjamin Franklin's Humor'' (University Press of Kentucky, 2005) p153</ref>

=== October&ndash;December ===
* [[October 5]] &ndash; [[Vincenzo Lunardi]] of Italy becomes the first person to pilot a balloon over [[Scotland]].<ref>"On Air Balloons" (''Mechanics Magazine'', June 17, 1826) p102</ref>
* [[October 13]]
** The first newspaper in British India, the English-language ''[[Madras Courier]]'', is published. It continues publication as a weekly until 1794.<ref>Henry Davison Love, ed., ''Indian Records Series: Vestiges of Old Madras, 1640-1800'' (Mittal Publications, p440</ref>
** [[France]] mints new [[Louis d'or]] coins, with the image of [[Louis XVI of France|King Louis XVI]] on the obverse, and one-sixth less gold than the coins with King Louis XV's image.<ref>Jean-Baptise Say, ''A Treatise on Political Economy'' (Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2008) p254</ref> 
* [[October 17]] &ndash; The Commonwealth of Virginia stops the importation of new [[History of slavery in Virginia|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."<ref>W. E. B. Du Bois, ''The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade'' (Wilberforce University, 1896, reprinted by Oxford University Press, 2014) p xxv</ref>
* [[October 18]] &ndash; [[Benjamin Franklin]] takes office as the new [[Governor of Pennsylvania|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]].<ref name=Zall/>
* [[November 23]] &ndash; [[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.<ref name="Harper1785"/>
* [[November 28]] &ndash; The [[Treaty of Hopewell]] is signed between the United States of America and the [[Cherokee Nation]].
* [[December 11]] &ndash; An edict is issued limiting [[Freemasonry|Masonic lodges]] throughout the [[Holy Roman Empire]] by [[Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Joseph II]]. With the exception of [[Vienna]], [[Budapest]] and [[Prague]], no Empire province may have more than one lodge.<ref>Jasper Ridley, ''The Freemasons: A History of the World's Most Powerful Secret Society'' (Skyhorse Publishing, 2011)</ref>

=== Date unknown ===
* The [[University of New Brunswick]] is founded in [[Fredericton, New Brunswick|Fredericton]], [[New Brunswick]].
* [[Coal gas]] is first used for [[lighting|illumination]].
* [[Louis XVI of France]] signs a law that a [[handkerchief]] must be square.
* The British government establishes a permanent land force in the Eastern Caribbean, based in [[Barbados]].
* [[Belfast Academy]] (later [[Belfast Royal Academy]]) is founded by Rev. [[James Crombie (minister)|James Crombie]] in [[Belfast]], [[Northern Ireland]].
* [[Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi]] publishes ''Letters on the Teachings of Spinoza'', and starts the [[Pantheism controversy]].
* [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] becomes a [[lieutenant]] in the French artillery.
* ''[[Cabinet des Modes]]'', the first fashion magazine, is published in France. 
* [[Mozart]]'s ''"Haydn" String Quartets'' are published, as is his collaboration with Salieri and Cornetti, ''[[Per la ricuperata salute di Ofelia]]''.
*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.</onlyinclude>

== Births ==
[[File:JacobGrimm.jpg|thumb|right|110px|[[Jacob Grimm]]]]
[[File:John James Audubon 1826.jpg|thumb|right|110px|[[John James Audubon]]]]
[[File:Portrait of Oliver Hazard Perry, 1818.jpg|thumb|right|110px|[[Oliver Hazard Perry]]]]

* [[January 4]]
** [[Jacob Grimm]], German philologist, folklorist, and writer (d. [[1863]])
** [[Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg]] (d. [[1831]])
* [[January 15]] &ndash; [[William Prout]] English chemist, physician, and natural theologian (d. [[1850]]) 
* [[January 20]] &ndash; [[Theodor Grotthuss]], German-Lithuanian chemist (d. [[1822]]) 
* [[February 8]] &ndash; [[Martín Miguel de Güemes]] Argentine military leader (d. [[1821]])
* [[February 10]] &ndash; [[Claude-Louis Navier]], French engineer, physicist (d. [[1836]])
* [[February 26]] &ndash; [[Anna Sundström]], Swedish [[chemist]] (d. [[1871]])
* [[March 11]]
**[[John McLean]], American politician, [[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States]] (d. [[1861]])
**[[Eleonore Prochaska]], German heroine soldier (d. [[1805]])
* [[March 17]] &ndash; [[Ellen Hutchins]], Irish botanist (d. [[1815]]) 
* [[March 27]] &ndash; [[Louis XVII of France]] (d. [[1795]])
* [[April 4]] &ndash; [[Bettina von Arnim]], German poet (d. [[1859]])
* [[April 26]] &ndash; [[John James Audubon]], French-American naturalist, illustrator (d. [[1851]])
* [[April 29]] &ndash; [[Karl Drais]], German inventor, creator of a precursor to the bicycle (d. [[1851]]) 
* [[May 18]] &ndash; [[John Wilson (Scottish writer)|John Wilson]], Scottish writer (d. [[1854]])
* [[May 20]] &ndash; [[Marcellin Champagnat]], French Catholic saint (d. [[1840]])
* [[May 22]] &ndash; [[John Hindmarsh]], English naval officer, first Governor of South Australia (d. [[1860]]) 
* [[July 6]] &ndash; [[William Jackson Hooker]], English botanist (d. [[1865]])
* [[July 20]] &ndash; [[Mahmud II]], Ottoman sultan (d. [[1839]])
* [[August 15]] &ndash; [[Thomas de Quincey]], English writer (d. [[1859]])
* [[August 23]] &ndash; [[Oliver Hazard Perry]], American naval officer (d. [[1819]])
* [[August 27]] &ndash; [[Agustín Gamarra]], Peruvian general and politician, 10th and 14th President of Peru (d. [[1841]])
* [[September 27]] &ndash; [[David Walker (abolitionist)|David Walker]], African-American abolitionist (d. [[1830]])
* [[October 15]] &ndash; [[José Miguel Carrera]], Chilean general, founding father (d. [[1821]])
* [[October 17]] &ndash; [[Gunatitanand Swami]], born Mulji Sharma, Indian paramahamsa of the Hindu Swaminarayan Sampraday sect (d. [[1867]])
* [[October 18]] &ndash; [[Thomas Love Peacock]], English satirist (d. [[1866]])
* [[October 20]] &ndash; [[George Ormerod]], English historian and antiquarian (d. [[1873]])
* [[November 11]] &ndash; [[Diponegoro]], Javanese Prince (d. [[1855]])
* [[November 18]] &ndash; [[David Wilkie (artist)|David Wilkie]], Scottish painter (d. [[1841]])
* [[November 21]] &ndash; [[William Beaumont]], American physician and surgeon (d. [[1853]])
* [[November 28]] &ndash; [[Victor de Broglie (1785–1870)|Victor de Broglie]], Prime Minister of France (d. [[1870]])
* [[December 17]] &ndash; [[Dorothea Lieven]], Latvian diplomat, politically active princess (d. [[1857]]) 
* [[December 23]] &ndash; [[Christian Gobrecht]], American engraver, designer of the [[United States Seated Liberty coinage]] (d. [[1844]])
* [[December 26]] &ndash; [[Étienne Constantin de Gerlache]], 1st Prime Minister of Belgium (d. [[1871]])

== Deaths ==
[[File:Baldassare Galuppi, Venetian School of the 1750s.jpg|thumb|right|110px|[[Baldassare Galuppi]]]]
* [[January 3]] &ndash; [[Baldassare Galuppi]], Italian composer (b. [[1706]])<ref>Arnold, Denis. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/962457 "Galuppi's Religious Music"], ''[[The Musical Times]]'', 1 January 1985, pp. 45–47 and 49–50 {{subscription required}}</ref>
* [[January 6]] &ndash; [[Haym Salomon]], Polish-Jewish American financier of the [[American Revolution]] (b. [[1740]])
* [[January 19]] &ndash; [[Jonathan Toup]], English classical scholar, critic (b. [[1713]])
* [[January 23]] &ndash; [[Matthew Stewart (mathematician)|Matthew Stewart]], Scottish mathematician (b. [[1717]])
* [[February 24]] &ndash; [[Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 7th Baronet]] (b. [[1722]])
* [[February 26]] &ndash; [[Barbara Erni]], Liechtenstein confidence trickster (b. [[1743]])
* [[March 14]] &ndash; [[Giovanni Battista Locatelli (opera director)|Giovanni Battista Locatelli]], Italian opera director (b. [[1713]])
* [[April 14]] &ndash; [[William Whitehead (poet)|William Whitehead]], English writer (b. [[1715]])
* [[April 26]] &ndash; [[Johan Samuel Augustin]], German-Danish astronomical writer, civil servant (b. [[1715]])
* [[May 8]]
** [[Étienne François, duc de Choiseul]], French statesman (b. [[1719]])
** [[Pietro Longhi]], Venetian painter (b. [[1701]])
* [[June 2]] 
** [[Jean Paul de Gua de Malves]], French mathematician (b. [[1713]])
** [[Gottfried August Homilius]], German composer, cantor and organist (b. [[1714]])<ref>{{cite book|title=The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music|year=1996|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge|page=[https://archive.org/details/harvardbiographi00rand/page/392 392]| isbn=9780674372993 |editor=Don Michael Randel|quote=Homilius, Gottfried August|url=https://archive.org/details/harvardbiographi00rand |url-access=registration}}</ref>
* [[June 30]] &ndash; [[James Oglethorpe]], English general, founder of the state of Georgia (b. [[1696]])
* [[July 5]] &ndash; [[Anne Poulett]], British politician (b. [[1711]])
* [[July 6]] &ndash; [[Frederick August I, Duke of Oldenburg]] (b. [[1711]])
* [[July 9]] &ndash; [[William Strahan (publisher)|William Strahan]], British politician (b. [[1715]])
* [[July 12]] &ndash; [[Louis-René de Caradeuc de La Chalotais]], French jurist on the so-called "Brittany affair" (b. [[1701]])
* [[July 13]] &ndash; [[Stephen Hopkins (politician)|Stephen Hopkins]], Founding Father of the United States (b. [[1707]])
* [[July 17]] &ndash; [[Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland]], British duchess (b. [[1715]])
* [[August 17]] &ndash; [[Jonathan Trumbull]], Governor of the Colony and the state of Connecticut (b. [[1710]])
* [[August 26]] &ndash; [[George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville]], British soldier, politician (b. [[1716]])
* [[August 28]] &ndash; [[Jean-Baptiste Pigalle]], French sculptor (b. [[1714]])
* [[August 31]] &ndash; [[Pietro Chiari]], Italian playwright (b. [[1712]])
* [[September 19]] &ndash; [[Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain]], Queen consort of Sardinia (b. [[1729]])
* [[September 30]] &ndash; [[Johann Jakob Moser]], German jurist (b. [[1701]])
* [[October 4]]
** [[David Brearley]], delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention (b. [[1703]])
** [[Alexander Runciman]], Scottish painter (b. [[1736]])
* [[November 13]] &ndash;  [[Joaquín Ibarra]], Spanish printer (b. [[1725]])
* [[November 15]] &ndash; [[César Gabriel de Choiseul]], French officer (b. [[1712]])
* [[November 18]] &ndash; [[Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans]], French soldier, writer (b. [[1725]])
* [[November 19]] &ndash; [[Bernard de Bury]], French composer (b. [[1720]])
* [[November 20]] &ndash; [[James Wright (governor)|James Wright]], Governor of Georgia (b. [[1716]])
* [[November 25]] &ndash; [[Richard Glover (poet)|Richard Glover]], English poet (b. [[1712]])
[[File:Kitty Clive in Philida.jpg|thumb|right|110px|[[Kitty Clive]]]]
* [[December 6]] &ndash; [[Kitty Clive]], English actress, playwright (b. [[1711]])<ref>{{cite book|author1=Kalman Burnim|author2=Edward A. Langhans|author3=Philip H. Highfill|title=A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800.|publisher=Southern Illinois University Press|year=1975|page=357}}</ref>
* [[December 29]] &ndash; [[Johan Herman Wessel]], Norwegian author (b. [[1742]])
* ''date unknown''
** [[Faustina Pignatelli]], Italian mathematician  (b. [[1705]])

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |title=Blair's Chronological Tables |author1=John Blair |author-link=John Blair (priest) |author2=J. Willoughby Rosse|location= London |publisher=[[Henry George Bohn|H.G. Bohn]] |year=1856 |via=Hathi Trust |chapter-url=http://hdl.handle.net/2027/loc.ark:/13960/t6349vh5n?urlappend=%3Bseq=700 |chapter=1785 |hdl=2027/loc.ark:/13960/t6349vh5n?urlappend=%3Bseq=700 }}

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