1786
Annapolis Convention Fails - and Succeeds
Twelve delegates from five states gathered at Mann's Tavern in Annapolis to discuss interstate commerce and accomplished almost nothing. But Alexander Hamilton drafted a report calling for a broader convention in Philadelphia the following summer. The failed meeting in Annapolis was the administrative misfire that accidentally produced the Constitution. Madison and Hamilton, strangers before Annapolis, began the collaboration that would carry the republic through its founding crisis.
Death of Frederick the Great
Alone at Sanssouci with his dogs, Frederick died in his armchair. He had made Prussia a great power through three wars and four decades of relentless administration. His nephew was a mediocrity; his army still looked glorious. The Prussian system survived him by twenty years before Napoleon broke it at Jena.
Shays's Rebellion
Western Massachusetts farmers, squeezed by taxes and debt courts, closed county courts at pitchfork-point. Their leader Daniel Shays had been a Continental captain. The militia dispersed them at Springfield arsenal, but the scare convinced nationalists that the Articles of Confederation needed replacing. Washington, at Mount Vernon, read the dispatches and agreed to attend the Philadelphia Convention he had been reluctant to join.
First Ascent of Mont Blanc
Jacques Balmat, a chamois hunter, and Michel Paccard, a doctor, climbed alpine Europe's highest peak from Chamonix after earlier failed attempts. They spent a night on the ice; Balmat's fingers blistered. Horace Benedict de Saussure had offered the prize. Modern mountaineering began on a single windy afternoon. Saussure himself would summit the following year, carrying barometers and thermometers to measure the atmosphere at altitude.