1785

1785 (MDCCLXXXV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar, the 1785th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 785th year of the 2nd millennium, the 85th year of the 18th century, and the 6th year of the 1780s decade. As of the start of 1785, the Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

• January 1 – The Montgolfier brothers fly across the English Channel.

• December 26 – Laurent Clerc, co-founder of the first American school for the deaf

• January 3 – Baldassare Galuppi, Italian composer (b. 1706)
• January 19 – Jonathan Toup, English classical scholar and critic (b. 1713)
• January 23 – Matthew Stewart, Scottish mathematician (b. 1717)
• April 14 – William Whitehead, English writer (b. 1715)
• May 8 – Etienne Francois, Duke of Choiseul, French statesman (b. 1719)
• June 2 – Jean Paul de Gua de Malves, French mathematician (b. 1713)
• June 30 – James Oglethorpe, English general and founder of the state of Georgia (b. 1696)
• August 17 – Jonathan Trumbull, Governor of the Colony and the state of Connecticut (b. 1710)
• August 26 – George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville, British soldier and politician (b. 1716)
• August 28 – Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, French sculptor (b. 1714)
• October 4 – David Brearly, delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention (b. 1703)
• November 19 – Bernard de Bury, French composer (b. 1720)
• November 25 – Richard Glover, English poet (b. 1712)
• December 29 – Johan Herman Wessel, Norwegian writer (b. 1742)