GeneralHenry 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.[1]
April 19 – The Commonwealth ofMassachusettscedes 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.[6][1]
April 21 – The EmpressCatherine the Great of theRussian Empire issues the Charter to the Towns, providing for "a coherent, unified system of administration" for new governments organized in Russia.
May 20 – TheNorthwest 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.[10] The survey system will later be applied to the continent west of the Mississippi River.[1]
June 15 – After several attempts,Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and his companion, Pierre Romain, set off in a balloon fromBoulogne-sur-Mer, but the balloon suddenly deflates (without the envelope catching fire) and crashes nearWimereux in the Pas-de-Calais, killing both men, making it the first fatal aviation disaster.
July 2 – DonDiego de Gardoqui arrives in New York City as Spain's first minister to the United States.[1]
July 6 – Thedollar (and a decimal currency system) is unanimously chosen as the money unit for the United States by the Congress of the Confederation.[11]
The first newspaper in British India, the English-languageMadras Courier, is published. It continues publication as a weekly until 1794.[16]
France mints newLouis d'or coins, with the image of KingLouis XVI on the obverse, and one-sixth less gold than the coins with KingLouis XV's image.[17]
October 17 – The Commonwealth of Virginia stops the importation of newAfrican 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."[18]
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.[1]
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.
^abcdefgHarper's Encyclopaedia of United States History from 458 A. D. to 1909, ed. by Benson John Lossing and, Woodrow Wilson (Harper & Brothers, 1910) p167
^G.S.Chhabra,Advance Study in the History of Modern India, Volume-1: 1707-1803 (Lotus Press, 2005) p282
^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
^Jill Schneiderman,The Earth Around Us: Maintaining A Livable Planet (Henry Holt and Company, 2000) p24
^Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents, Part 1 (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1850) p535
^The United States: Its Beginnings, Progress and Modern Development, Volume 3, ed. by Edwin Wiley and Irving E. Rines (American Educational Alliance, 1912) p384
^Walter G. Robillard and Lane J. Bouman,Clark on Surveying and Boundaries (LexisNexis, 1997)
^David C. Harper, ed.,2011 North American Coins and Prices (Krause Publications, 2010) p9
^"The Role of Political Revolution in the Theory of International Law", by Theodor Schweisfurth, inThe 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
^Lawrence Lewis,A History of the Bank of North America, the First Bank Chartered in the United States" (J.B. Lippincott & Company, 1882) p54
^abPaul Zall,Benjamin Franklin's Humor (University Press of Kentucky, 2005) p153
^"On Air Balloons" (Mechanics Magazine, June 17, 1826) p102
^Henry Davison Love, ed.,Indian Records Series: Vestiges of Old Madras, 1640-1800 (Mittal Publications, p440
^Jean-Baptise Say,A Treatise on Political Economy (Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2008) p254
^W. E. B. Du Bois,The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade (Wilberforce University, 1896, reprinted by Oxford University Press, 2014) p xxv
^Jasper Ridley,The Freemasons: A History of the World's Most Powerful Secret Society (Skyhorse Publishing, 2011)
^Kalman Burnim; Edward A. Langhans; Philip H. Highfill (1975).A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press. p. 357.
