Historical Events in 1785

Jan 14 Amadeus Mozart completes his "Dissonanzenquartett / "Dissonance quartet" (opus 10)

Jan 29 In a surprising announcement, John Hancock resigns as Governor of Massachusetts, allegedly due to his failing health

Mar 7 James Hutton, geologist, presents his full theory of uniformitarianism at a meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

Apr 20 Thomas Warton appointed British Poet Laureate by King George III

Apr 21 Catherine II of Russia confers on the nobility the "Charter to the Nobility", increasing further the power of the landed oligarchs

May 23 Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals

Jun 15 2 French balloonists die in world's 1st fatal aviation accident
Jul 4 James Hutton, geologist, publicly reads an abstract of his theory of uniformitarianism for the first time at the meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Jul 6 US Congress unanimously resolves the name of US currency to the "dollar" and adopts decimal coinage
Jul 12 1st manned flight by gas balloon in Netherlands
Aug 1 Caroline Herschel becomes 1st woman to discover a comet
Aug 15 French cardinal De Rohan arrested
Sep 1 Mozart publishes 6th string quartet opus 10 in Vienna
Sep 10 Prussia signs trade agreement with US

Sep 28 Napoléon Bonaparte, aged 16, graduates from the elite École Militaire in Paris (42nd in a class of 51)

Sep 29 Chasidic sect is excommunicated in Kraków Poland
Nov 17 Church of England organizes in New England
Nov 28 The Treaty of Hopewell is signed between the Confederation Congress of the United States of America and the Cherokee people