1785 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar).

Events

• The term thoroughbred was first used in the United States in an advertisement in a Kentucky gazette to describe a New Jersey stallion called Pilgarlick .
• January 18 - Third Pacific expedition of Capt. James Cook, with ships HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery, first view O'ahu then Kaua'i in the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the "Sandwich Islands."
• February 5 - South Carolina becomes the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.
• February 6 - American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France signaling official recognition of the new republic.
• February 23 - American Revolutionary War: Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to help to train the Continental Army.
• July 10 - American Revolutionary War: Louis XVI of France declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain.
• July 27 - American Revolution: First Battle of Ushant - British and French fleets fight to a standoff.
• August 26 - Triglav, at 2,864 metres above sea level the highest peak of Slovenia, was ascended for the first time by four brave men : Luka Korošec , Matevž Kos , Štefan Rožič and Lovrenc Willomitzer on Sigismund Zois 's initiative.
• September - The Massachusetts Banishment Act, providing punishment for Loyalists, is passed.
• November 26 - In the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook becomes the first European to discover Maui.
• France introduced the first state-controlled brothel.
• The first settlement was made in the area of what is now Louisville, Kentucky by 13 families under Col. George Rogers Clark.

Births

• February 22 - Rembrandt Peale, artist
• April 10 - William Hazlitt - English essayist
• May 18 - Charles William Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, British noble
• August 11 - Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, German patriot
• September 8 - Clemens Brentano, German poet (d. 1842)
• September 19 - Henry Peter Brougham, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
• November 1 - Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden
• December 17 - Sir Humphry Davy, English chemist
• Abd ar-Rahman, sultan of Morocco

Deaths

• January 10 - Carolus Linnaeus
• May 30 - François-Marie Arouet dit Voltaire, French philosopher
• June 28 - Jean-Jacques Rousseau, philosopher
• July 3 - Anna Maria Mozart , mother of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• November 9 - Giovanni Battista Piranesi, artist