become the first people to fly more than 100 km or 100 miles in the air, lifting off from Paris and landing 6 hours and 40 minutes later near Bethune after a journey of . September 22 – Russia establishes a colony at Kodiak, Alaska. October–December October 8 – "Kettle War", a 1-day action on the Scheldt in which a ship of the Dutch Republic repels forces of the Holy Roman Empire. October 22 – North Carolina rescinds its resolution ceding its western territory (modern-day Tennessee) to the United States, after earlier giving Congress two years to accept the terms. October 31–December 14 – The Revolt of Horea, Cloșca and Crișan in Transylvania causes Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor to suspend the Hungarian Constitution. November 26 – The Roman Catholic Apostolic Prefecture of the United States is established. November 27 – The phenomenon of black holes is first posited in a paper by John Michell, in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. November 30 – Richard Henry Lee of Virginia is selected as the new President of the Confederation Congress. December – Immanuel Kant's essay "Answering the Question: What Is Enlightenment?" is published. December 25 – The Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States is officially formed at the "Christmas Conference", led by Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury. Date unknown The India Act requires that the governor general be chosen from outside the British East India Company, and makes company directors subject to parliamentary supervision. Britain receives its first bales of imported American cotton. King Carlos III of the Spanish Empire authorizes land grants in Alta California. Princess Yekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova is named first president of the newly created Russian Academy. The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the town of Morgansborough, named for Daniel Morgan. The town is designated as the county seat for Burke County, North Carolina and is subsequently renamed Morgan, later shortened to Morganton. The North Carolina General Assembly changes the name of Kingston, North Carolina, originally named for King George III of Great Britain, to Kinston. The Japanese famine continues as 300,000 die of starvation. A huge locust swarm hits South Africa. Foundation of the first theater in Estonia, the Tallinna saksa teater. Benjamin Franklin invents bifocal spectacles. Benjamin Franklin tries in vain to persuade the French to alter their clocks in winter to take advantage of the daylight. Antoine Lavoisier pioneers quantitative chemistry.