1785
1785 was a
common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar).
*
University of New Brunswick founded in
Fredericton, New Brunswick,
Canada*
Coal gas first used for
illumination*
Louis XVI of France signs to a law that a
handkerchief must be square
* British government establishes a permanent land force in the Eastern
Caribbean, based in
Barbados* The
North Carolina General Assembly incorporates
Lincolnton,
North Carolina (named for American General
Benjamin Lincoln) as the new county seat for
Lincoln County.
January
*
January 1 The first issue of the
Daily Universal Register, later known as
The Times, is published in
London.
*
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.
*
January 27 The
University of Georgia founded
February
March
April
May
June
July
*
July 6 - The
dollar is unanimously chosen as the
money unit for the
United States. This is the first time a nation has adopted a decimal
coinage system.
August
*
August 1 - Fleet of French explorer
Jean Francois de Galoup, count la Përouse leaves Paris for
circumnavigation*
August 15 - Cardinal de Rohan is arrested in Paris - the
necklace affair comes into open
September
October
November
* November –
Drought in
HaitiDecember
*
January 4 -
Jakob Grimm, German philologist, folklorist, and writer (d.
1863)
* January 4 -
Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (d.
1831)
*
February 10 -
Claude-Louis Navier, French engineer and physicist (d.
1836)
*
March 27 -
Louis XVII of France (d.
1795)
*
April 4 -
Bettina von Arnim, German poet (d.
1859)
*
April 26 -
John James Audubon, French-American naturalist and illustrator (d.
1851)
*
May 18 -
John Wilson, Scottish writer (d.
1854)
*
July 6 -
William Jackson Hooker, English botanist (d.
1865)
*
August 15 -
Thomas de Quincey, English writer (d.
1859)
*
August 23 -
Oliver Hazard Perry, American naval officer (d.
1819)
*
November 18 -
David Wilkie, Scottish artist (d.
1841)
*
January 3 -
Baldassare Galuppi, Italian composer (b.
1706)
*
January 19 -
Jonathan Toup, English classical scholar and critic (b.
1713)
*
January 23 -
Matthew Stewart, Scottish mathematician (b.
1717)
*
April 14 -
William Whitehead, English writer (b.
1715)
*
May 8 -
Etienne Francois, Duke of Choiseul, French statesman (b.
1719)
* May 8 -
Pietro Longhi, Venetian painter (b.
1701)
*
June 2 -
Jean Paul de Gua de Malves, French mathematician (b.
1713)
*
June 30 -
James Oglethorpe, English general and founder of the state of Georgia (b.
1696)
*
August 17 -
Jonathan Trumbull, Governor of the Colony and the state of Connecticut (b.
1710)
*
August 26 -
George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville, British soldier and politician (b.
1716)
*
August 28 -
Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, French sculptor (b.
1714)
*
October 4 -
David Brearly, delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention (b.
1703)
*
November 18 -
Louis Philip I, Duke of Orléans, French soldier and writer (b.
1725)
*
November 19 -
Bernard de Bury, French composer (b.
1720)
*
November 25 -
Richard Glover, English poet (b.
1712)
*
December 29 -
Johan Herman Wessel, Norwegian author (b.
1742)
