1185

By area

Africa

• The Almohads reconquer Béjaïa and Algiers, that had been taken by the Banu Ghaniya, descendants of the Almoravids.

  Asia

Japan

• April 25 - Genpei War: The naval Battle of Dan-no-ura leads to a Minamoto victory in Japan, and the death of Emperor Antoku.
• The Heian period ends, and the Kamakura period begins, in Japan.

  India

• Mohammad of Ghur takes Punjab and Lahore, overthrowing the Ghaznavids.

  Europe

British isles

• Henry II of England knights his heir John of England, and sends him to Ireland to enforce English control. According to Gerald of Wales, the only witness to chronicle the expedition, it is a disaster in which money is wasted on alcohol, and the Irish chieftains are scorned into uniting against a common enemy. By the end of the year, John has returned to England in defeat. Nonetheless, Henry gets him named King of Ireland by Pope Urban III, and procures a golden crown with peacock feathers.
• Templars settle in London and begin building the New Temple Church.

  Eastern Europe

• August 15 - The cave city of Vardzia is consecrated. by Queen Tamar of Georgia.
• August 24 - the Byzantine city of Thessalonica is sacked, by the Norman Sicilian troops.
• September 11-12 - Isaac II Angelos leads a revolt in the Byzantine Empire, which deposes Andronikos I Komnenos and ends the Komnenos Dynasty.
• November 7 - Battle of Demetritzes: Byzantine general Alexios Branas decisively defeats the Normans, ending their invasion of the Byzantine Empire.
• Peter and John Asen lead a revolt of the Vlachs and Bulgars against the Byzantine Empire, eventually establishing the Second Bulgarian Empire.
• Igor Svyatoslavich's failed campaign against the Cumans, later immortalized in The Tale of Igor's Campaign, takes place this year.

  By topic

Astronomy

• May 1 - The Solar eclipse of 1 May 1185, visible across Central America, Northern and Eastern Europe and Kazakhstan, occurs.

  Markets

• Evidence is first uncovered, that the king of England is using the safes of the New Temple in London, under the guard of the Knights Templar, to store part of his treasure.

  Religion

• November 25 - Pope Urban III succeeds Pope Lucius III, as the 172nd pope.