1685

Year 1685 (MDCLXXXV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1685

January - June

* February 6 - James Stuart, Duke of York becomes King James II of England and Ireland and King James VII of Scotland in succession to his brother Charles II (1630-1685), King of Great Britain since 1660. James II and VII reigns to 1688.
* February 18 - Fort St. Louis is established by a Frenchman at Matagorda Bay, thus forming the basis for France's claim to Texas.
* February 20 - René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, intending to establish a colony near the mouth of the Mississippi River, lands with 200 surviving colonists at Matagorda Bay on the Texas coast, believing the Mississippi near ( [http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/LL/fla4.html Texas Handbook] ).
* March – Louis XIV of France passes the "Code Noir", allowing the full use of slaves in the French colonies.
* June 20 - Monmouth Rebellion: James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, illegitimate son of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland declares himself King and heir to his father's Kingdoms as James II of England and Ireland and James VII of Scotland, after already forming his own army and campaigning against his uncle.

July - December

* July 6 - Monmouth Rebellion - Battle of Sedgemoor: the armies of King James II of England defeat rebel forces under Monmouth and capture the Duke himself, shortly after the battle.
* July 15 - The Duke of Monmouth is executed at Tower Hill, London.
* 25 August - The Bloody Assizes begin in Winchester; over 1000 of Monmouth's rebels tried and condemned to death or transportation.
* September - The first organised street lighting was introduced in London with oil lamps to be lit outside every tenth house on moonless winter nights.
* October 18-19 - Louis XIV issues the Edict of Fontainebleau, which revokes the Edict of Nantes and declares Protestantism illegal, thereby depriving Huguenots of civil rights.

Undated

* The Chinese army of the Qing Dynasty attacks a Russian post at Albazin, during the reigns of the Kangxi Emperor and the dual Russian rulers Ivan V of Russia and Peter I of Russia. The events lead to the Treaty of Nerchinsk. [Roberts, J: "History of the World.". Penguin, 1994.]
* Adam Baldridge founds a pirate base in St Mary Island in the Madagascar.
* On a trading expedition to the Mississippi, explorer Michel Mathieu Brunet dit Lestang discovers "La Baie des Puants" (present-day Green Bay, Wisc.).

Births

* January 7 - Jonas Alströmer, Swedish industrialist (d. 1761)
* January 9 - Tiberius Hemsterhuis, Dutch philologist (d. 1766)
* February 8 - Charles-Jean-François Hénault, French historian (d. 1770)
* February 10 - Aaron Hill, English writer (d. 1750)
* February 23 - George Frideric Handel, German composer (d. 1759)
* March 12 - George Berkeley, English philosopher (d. 1753)
* March 18 - Ralph Erskine, Scottish minister (d. 1752)
* March 21 - Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer (d. 1750)
* June 30 - John Gay, English writer (d. 1732)
* July 3 - Sir Robert Rich, 4th Baronet, British cavalry officer (d. 1768)
* August 18 - Brook Taylor, English mathematician (d. 1731)
* October 1 - Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1740)
* October 26 - Domenico Scarlatti, Italian composer (d. 1757)
* November 17 - Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de la Vérendrye, French-Canadian trader and explorer (d. 1749)
* December 17 - Thomas Tickell, English writer (d. 1740)

: "See also ."

Deaths

* January 2 - Harbottle Grimston, English politician (b. 1603)
* February 6 - King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland (b. 1630)
* February 11 - David Teniers III, Flemish painter (b. 1638)
* February 24 - Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Carlisle, English politician and military leader (b. 1629)
* March 22 - Emperor Go-Sai of Japan (b. 1638)
* April - Adriaen van Ostade, Dutch painter and engraver whose subject matter included tavern scenes, peasants drinking and smoking, itinerant musicians, village festivities and quaint village characters (b. 1610)
* May 26 - Karl II, Elector Palatine (b. 1651)
* July 15 - James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, illegitimate son of Charles II of England (beheaded) (b. 1649)
* July 28 - Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington, English statesman (b. 1618)
* September 1 - Leoline Jenkins, Welsh lawyer and diplomat (b. 1625)
* October 12 - Christoph Ignaz Abele, Austrian jurist (b. 1628)
* October 30 - Michel le Tellier, French statesman (b. 1603)
* December 12 - John Pell, English mathematician (b. 1610)
*"date unknown"
**Nalan Xingde, Chinese poet who became a scholar and officer in the Imperial Bodyguard (b. 1655): "See also ."

References