March 23 » American Revolutionary War: Patrick Henry delivers his speech – "Give me liberty, or give me death!" – at St. John's Episcopal Church, Richmond, Virginia.
July 5 » The Second Continental Congress adopts the Olive Branch Petition.
July 26 » The office that would later become the United States Post Office Department is established by the Second Continental Congress. Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania takes office as Postmaster General.
July 29 » Founding of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps: General George Washington appoints William Tudor as Judge Advocate of the Continental Army.
November 7 » John Murray, the Royal Governor of the Colony of Virginia, starts the first mass emancipation of slaves in North America by issuing Lord Dunmore's Offer of Emancipation, which offers freedom to slaves who abandoned their colonial masters to fight with Murray and the British.
December 9 » American Revolutionary War: British troops lose the Battle of Great Bridge, and leave Virginia soon afterward.
Day of death February 23, 1785
The temperature on February 23, 1785 was about -3.0 °C. Wind direction mainly south east. Weather type: omtrent helder. Source: KNMI
January 7 » Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in a gas balloon.
January 20 » Invading Siamese forces attempt to exploit the political chaos in Vietnam, but are ambushed and annihilated at the Mekong river by the Tây Sơn in the Battle of Rạch Gầm-Xoài Mút.
January 27 » The University of Georgia is founded, the first public university in the United States.
November 28 » The first Treaty of Hopewell is signed, by which the United States acknowledges Cherokee lands in what is now East Tennessee.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: Leen Schaap, "Database Schaap", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/database-schaap/I5867.php : accessed December 25, 2025), "Antje Dekker (1775-1785)".
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