🕰️ Year
What Happened in 1786 — Events, Births & Deaths
1786 brings together 5 events, 0 birthdays and 0 deaths recorded across history.
January 1
- January 16
Virginia enacts the Statute for Religious Freedom authored by Thomas Jefferson.
June 1
- June 29
Alexander Macdonell and over five hundred Roman Catholic highlanders leave Scotland to settle in Glengarry County, Ontario.
August 1
- August 11
Captain Francis Light establishes the British colony of Penang in Malaysia.
September 1
- September 25
The mine of Huancavelica in the Peruvian Andes collapses, killing more than two hundred people. The event was a major setback for mercury production in the Spanish Empire.
November 1
- November 30
The Grand Duchy of Tuscany, under Pietro Leopoldo I, becomes the first modern state to abolish the death penalty (later commemorated as Cities for Life Day).