* 1867 – Philipp August Böckh, German scholar and antiquarian ( b. 1785 )

* 1785 – Thomas De Quincey, English author ( d. 1859 )

* 1785 – Oliver Hazard Perry, American naval officer ( d. 1819 )

* 1785 – William Whitehead, English writer ( b. 1715 )

* 1785 – Alexandre Pierre François Boëly, French composer ( d. 1858 )

* Benjamin Franklin: First American Diplomat, 1776 – 1785 US State Department

Carlo-Maria ( Ajaccio 1746 – Montpellier 1785 ) married Maria Letizia Ramolino ( Ajaccio 1750 – Rome 1836 ) in 1764.

The current resistance to Russian rule has its roots in the late 18th century ( 1785 – 1791 ), a period when Russia expanded into territories formerly under the dominion of Turkey and Persia ( see also the Russo-Turkish Wars and Russo-Persian War ( 1804 – 1813 )), under Mansur Ushurma — a Chechen Naqshbandi ( Sufi ) Sheikh — with wavering support from other North Caucasian tribes.

In 1832, Lyell married Mary Horner of Bonn, daughter of Leonard Horner ( 1785 – 1864 ), also associated with the Geological Society of London.

* 1785 – Dorothea Lieven, Russian noblewoman ( d. 1857 )

* 1696 – James Oglethorpe, English general and founder of the state of Georgia ( d. 1785 )

* 1714 – Gottfried August Homilius, German composer ( d. 1785 )

* 1756 – Karel Blažej Kopřiva, Czech composer ( d. 1785 )

In Hesse-Kassel, the Landgrave Frederick II, ruled 1760 – 1785 as an enlightened despot, and raised money by renting soldiers ( called " Hessians ") to Great Britain to help fight the American Revolutionary War.

The Brothers Grimm ( 1785 – 1863 & 1786 – 1859 ) not only wrote the popular Grimm's Fairy Tales, but were among the founding fathers of German philology and German studies.

File: Grimm. jpg | Brothers Grimm ( 1785 – 1863 & 1786 – 1859 )

* Arndt, Karl J. R. George Rapp's Harmony Society, 1785 – 1847.

* 1714 – Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, French sculptor ( d. 1785 )

* 1716 – George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville, British soldier and politician ( d. 1785 )

* 1841 – David Wilkie, Scottish artist ( b. 1785 )

* 1785 – The dollar is unanimously chosen as the monetary unit for the United States.

( A subsequent Channel crossing attempt in the opposite direction by Pilâtre de Rozier on 15 June 1785 ended unsuccessfully in a fatal crash.

Among the most successful of his 37 operas staged during his lifetime were Armida ( 1771 ), La fiera di Venezia ( 1772 ), La scuola de ' gelosi ( 1778 ), Der Rauchfangkehrer ( 1781 ), Les Danaïdes ( 1784 ), which was first presented as a work of Gluck's, La grotta di Trofonio ( 1785 ), Tarare ( 1787 ) ( Tarare was reworked and revised several times as was Les Danaïdes ), Axur, re d ' Ormus ( 1788 ), La cifra ( 1789 ), Palmira, regina di Persia ( 1795 ), Il mondo alla rovescia ( 1795 ), Falstaff ( 1799 ), and Cesare in Farmacusa ( 1800 ).

Alphonsus Maria de Liguori ( d. 1787 ), founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, then brought some attention back to casuistry by publishing again Hermann Busembaum's Medulla Theologiae Moralis ; the last edition published in 1785 and receiving the approbation of the Holy See in 1803.

Charles-Augustin de Coulomb developed the law of electrostatic attraction in 1785 as an outgrowth of his attempt to investigate the law of electrical repulsions as stated by Joseph Priestley in England.

The understanding of friction was further developed by Charles-Augustin de Coulomb ( 1785 ).

He was alarmed by the Spanish diplomat Don Diego de Gardoqui, who in 1785 tried to convince Congress to allow Spain to close the Mississippi River to American traffic for 30 years.

* 1785 – Bernard de Bury, French composer ( b. 1720 )

* 1785 – Victor de Broglie, Prime Minister of France ( d. 1870 )

File: Coulomb. jpg | Charles-Augustin de Coulomb ( 1736-1806 ): formulated a law in 1785 which described the electrostatic interaction between electrically charged particles ( attraction and repulsion ) and was essential to the development of the theory of electromagnetism, namesake of the unit of electric charge: the coulomb ( C )

* André Charles, marquis de La Jaille, Voyage au Sénégal pendant les années 1784 et 1785, avec des notes jusqu ’ à l ' an X par P. Labarthe, Paris, Denter, 1802.

* Paul Bouteiller, Le Chevalier de Boufflers et le Sénégal de son temps ( 1785 – 1788 ), Lettres du Monde, Paris, 1995.

They were rediscovered by Guillaume Amontons ( 1699 ) and were further developed by Charles-Augustin de Coulomb ( 1785 ).

* December 8 – Thomas de Quincey, English writer ( b. 1785 )

de: 1785

Charles-Augustin de Coulomb experimentally verified this in 1785 and stated explicitly that the North and South poles cannot be separated.

While in France during the Rococo era Jean-Baptiste Greuze was the favorite painter of Denis Diderot ( 1713 – 1785 ), and Maurice Quentin de La Tour ( 1704 – 1788 ), and Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun were highly accomplished Portrait painters and History painters.

In 1785, Condorcet wrote Essai sur l ’ application de l ’ analyse à la probabilité des décisions rendues à la pluralité des voix ( Essay on the Application of Analysis to the Probability of Majority Decisions ), one of his most important works.

In 1785, noted evolutionary biologist Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck published a description of a second species of Cannabis, which he named Cannabis indica Lam.

* December 20 – Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, French statesman and diplomat ( d. 1785 )

* June 28 – Étienne François, duc de Choiseul, French statesman ( d. 1785 )

** Austrian East India Company, a series of companies going under the names of Société impériale asiatique de Trieste et Anvers, or Société asiatique de Trieste, based in Ostend and Trieste, founded 1775 by William Bolts and ceased 1785

On 27 March 1785, Marie Antoinette gave birth to a second son, Louis Charles, who was created the duc de Normandie.

He was unexpectedly challenged by his formerly disgraced cousin, the duc de Chartres, who had inherited the title of duc d ' Orléans at the death of his father in 1785.