1783 to 1785

1783

x - Joseph Michel and Jacques Étienne Montgolfier became the first human beings to fly with their invention of the hot air balloon.
x - The Treaty of Paris formalizes the American independence and defines America's borders.
x - Calabrian earthquakes that killed 35,000 people in the southern toe of Italy.
jan 20 - England ?+ signs a preliminary peace treaty with France and Spain.
feb 03 - Spain recognizes the United States of America, followed later by Sweden, Denmark and Russia.
feb 04 - England officially declares an end to hostilities in America.
mar 10 - An anonymous letter circulates among Washington's senior officers camped at Newburgh, New York. The letter calls for an unauthorized meeting and urges the officers to defy the authority of the new U.S. national government (Congress) for its failure to honor past promises to the Continental Army. The next day, Gen. Washington forbids the unauthorized meeting and instead suggests a regular meeting to be held on March 15. A second anonymous letter then appears and is circulated. This letter falsely claims Washington himself sympathizes with the rebellious officers.
mar 15 - General Washington gathers his officers and talks them out of a rebellion against the authority of Congress, and in effect preserves the American democracy.
apr 11 - Congress officially declares an end to the Revolutionary War.
apr 26 - 7000 Loyalists set sail from New York for Canada, bringing a total of 100,000 Loyalists who have now fled America.
jun 13 - The main part of the Continental Army disbands.
jun 24 - To avoid protests from angry and unpaid war veterans, Congress leaves Philadelphia and relocates to Princeton, New Jersey.
jul 08 - The Supreme Court of Massachusetts abolishes slavery in that state.
sep 03 - The Paris Peace Treaty of 1783 * is signed by the United States and Great Britain. Congress will ratify the treaty on jan 14, 1784.
oct 07 - In Virginia, the House of Burgesses grants freedom to slaves who served in the Continental Army.
nov 02 - George Washington + delivers his farewell address to his army. The next day, remaining troops are discharged.
nov 25 - Washington enters Manhattan as the last British troops leave.
nov 26 - Congress meets in Annapolis, Maryland.
dec 23 - Following a triumphant journey from New York to Annapolis, George Washington, victorious commander in chief of the American Revolutionary Army, appears before Congress and voluntarily resigns his commission.
nov 21 - Joseph-Michel and Etienne-Jacques Montgolfier, traveled in a hot air balloon in France. It is the first successful flight of humans.

1784

x - French book is made without rags, from vegetation.
jan 14 - The Treaty of Paris is ratified by Congress. The Revolutionary War officially ends.
mar 01 - A congressional committee led by Thomas Jefferson proposes to divide up sprawling western territories into states, to be considered equal with the original 13. Jefferson also proposes a ban on slavery everywhere in the U.S. after 1800. This proposal is narrowly defeated.
aug 30 - Beginning of the China Trade, as the American Ship Empress of China, sailing from New York, arrives at Canton, China.
sep 22 - Russians establish their first settlement in Alaska, on Kodiak Island.
oct 22 - Napoleon ?+ enters l'Ecole militaire royale de Paris in Paris.
x - Reason, The Only Oracle of Man by Ethan Allen is published

1785

jan 11 - |U.S.| Congress relocates to New York City, temporary capital of the U.S.
feb 24 - Although England ?+ refuses to send an ambassador to the U.S., John Adams is sent as the American ambassador to Britain. He will spend the next three years trying without success to settle problems regarding the existence of a string of British forts along the Canadian border, pre-war debts owed to British creditors, post-war American treatment of Loyalists, and the closing of the West Indian colonies to American trade.
may 08 - Congress passes the Land Ordinance of 1785 which divides the northwest territories into townships, each set at 6 square miles, subdivided into 36 lots of 640 acres each, with each lot selling for no less than $640.
x - Napoleon [a.16] becomes second lieutenant.
x - Edmund Cartwright invents a power loom.
x - Stagecoaches carry the mail between towns in U.S.