Major Events
- Apr 24 Battle at Danoura: Yoshitsune Minamoto's fleet beats the Taira during Japan's Genpei War
- Apr 25 Battle at Dan-no-ura: Major sea battle in Japan's Genpei War, Minamoto clan led by Minamoto no Yoshitsune defeats the Taira clan
- Aug 15 The cave city of Vardzia is consecrated by Queen Tamar of Georgia
- Sep 11 Isaac II Angelus kills Stephanus Hagiochristophorites and then appeals to the people, resulting in the revolt that deposes Andronicus I Comnenus and places Isaac on the throne of the Byzantine Empire.
- Nov 25 Pope Lucius III (Ubaldo Allucingoli) reigned 1181-85, dies and is replaced by Umberto Crivelli (Pope Urban III)
Born in 1185
- Apr 23 Afonso II, 3rd King of Portugal (1211-23), born in Coimbra, Kingdom of Portugal (d. 1223)
Who Died in 1185
- Apr 24 Antoku Taira, emperor of Japan (1180-85), drowns
- Sep 11 Stephanus Hagiochristophorites, Byzantine courtier at court of Byzantine emperor Andronikos I Komnenos, killed by Isaac II Angelos
- Sep 12 Andronicus I Comnenus, Byzantine Emperor (1183-85), lynched
- Dec 6 Afonso I the Conqueror, King of Portugal (1143-85), dies at 76