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

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

* 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.

The automatic flour mill built by Oliver Evans in 1785 was called the beginning of modern bulk material handling by Roe ( 1916 ).

* 1785: The Automatic flour mill invented by Oliver Evans

* August 23 – Oliver Hazard Perry, American naval officer ( b. 1785 )

It is named in honor of Oliver Hazard Perry ( 1785 – 1819 ), American War of 1812 naval officer who, after his flagship was severely damaged, continued the fight from another ship and forced the surrender of the British fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie.

* Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry ( 1785 – 1819 ), United States Navy officer

This collection later on was sold at public auction by Matthew Clarkson and Ebenezer Hazard, on March 19, 1785 at Philadelphia.

* Spencer Houghton Cone ( born 1785 ), US Baptist minister and president of the American and Foreign Bible Society

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 – Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in a gas balloon.

* Micah Taul ( 1785 – 1850 ), American politician

It has been claimed that Paley was not a very original thinker and that the philosophical part of his treatise on ethics is “ an assemblage of ideas developed by others and is presented to be learned by students rather than debated by colleagues .” Nevertheless, his book The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy ( 1785 ) was a required text at Cambridge and Smith says that Paley ’ s writings were “ once as well known in American colleges as were the readers and spellers of William McGuffey and Noah Webster in the elementary schools .” Although now largely missing from the philosophical canon, Schneewind writes that " utilitarianism first became widely known in England through the work of William Paley.

* November 10 – Richard Caswell, American major general of the Revolutionary War, Continental Congressman and Governor of North Carolina ( 1776 – 1780, 1785 – 1787 ) ( b. 1729 )

* July 18 – Laurent Clerc, American advocate for the deaf ( b. 1785 )

* May 22 – Mordecai Manuel Noah, American writer, journalist ( b. 1785 )

Fraunhofer also developed a diffraction grating in 1821, which occurred after James Gregory discovered the principles of diffraction grating and after American astronomer David Rittenhouse invented the first man-made diffraction grating in 1785.

In 1785, Kinzie helped rescue two American sisters, who had been kidnapped in 1775 from Virginia by the Shawnee and adopted into the tribe.

Bourbon County was formed on October 17, 1785 from sections of Fayette County, Virginia, and named after the French House of Bourbon, in gratitude for Louis XVI of France's assistance during the American Revolutionary War.

* Seth Thomas ( 1785 – 1859 ), was a famous 19th century American clock maker and pioneer of mass production.

* Jonathan Trumbull, Sr. ( 1710 – 1785 ), governor of Connecticut, father of Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., and a strong supporter of Washington during the American Revolutionary War, studied theology in Lebanon and later died in the town, where he is buried ( portrait at right )

It was not until after the American Revolutionary War, when most of the Iroquois allies went to Upper Canada with the Loyalists, that the first European-American permanent settlement was made, around 1785.

Although a mill was built in 1765, no other European-American settlers arrived until 1785, after the American Revolutionary War.

A few settlers, actually tenants, made the future town their home before the American Revolution, but the major influx occurred after 1785, mainly from New England.

After the Dutch came to the area, the land was part of the Bisightick tract of the Van der Donck grant purchased by Frederick Philipse in 1682, but in 1785 the state of New York confiscated the land from his grandson, Frederick Philipse III, after he sided with the British in the American Revolution, and sold it to local patriot farmers who had been tenants of the Phillipse family.

After the Battle of Boyds Creek and several violent incidents between the Cherokee and the settlers to the west in what is now Cocke County, the Cherokee were induced to sign the Treaty of Dumplin in 1785, ceding what is now Sevier County to the American government.

* John Ball ( clergyman ) ( fl. 1785 ), American minister from Nova Scotia

* John Cox Stevens ( 1785 – 1857 ), American yachtsman