| 1786 |
4 Jan. – 8 Feb. |
CA, a Harvard freshman, spends his winter vacation in Braintree and Haverhill, where JQA and TBA are being tutored by their uncle, Rev. John Shaw. |
| 1786 |
10 Jan. |
JQA visits New Hampshire for the first time on an evening sleigh ride to Hampstead. |
| 1786 |
9 Feb. |
AA and AA2 attend the queen's birthday celebration, accompanied by Col. David Humphreys, and the birthday ball, with WSS, at St. James' Palace. |
| 1786 |
16–20 Feb. |
JA meets with Ambassador Sidi Haggi 'Abd-ur-rahman Aga of Tripoli to negotiate a commercial treaty. |
| 1786 |
21 Feb. |
WSS departs London for Paris, dispatched by JA to confer with Thomas Jefferson on the treaty negotiations with Tripoli. |
| 1786 |
28 Feb. |
Lord Carmarthen responds to JA's Nov. 1785 demand that British troops be withdrawn from U.S. territory, stating that Britain will fulfill its treaty obligations when America does the same. |
| 1786 |
11 March |
WSS and Thomas Jefferson arrive in London, the latter coming to help negotiate commercial treaties with Tripoli, Portugal, and Great Britain. |
| 1786 |
14 March |
JQA leaves Haverhill for Cambridge. On the 15th he is examined and admitted to Harvard as a junior sophister. |
| 1786 |
15 March |
JA presents Jefferson to King George III. |
| 1786 |
18–22 March |
JQA visits the Cranches in Braintree. |
| 1786 |
22 March |
JQA takes up residence at Harvard College. |
| 1786 |
4–10 April |
JA and Jefferson tour English gardens, countryseats, and historic sites, including Stratford-on-Avon where they carve a souvenir sliver from what is said to be Shakespeare's chair. |
| 484 |
| 1786 |
11–26 April |
JQA and CA spend the Harvard spring vacation at Braintree. |
| 1786 |
17 April |
JA acquires eleven acres in Braintree's New South Precinct, now Randolph, in settlement of a loan to David Sloan. |
| 1786 |
19 April |
JA meets Joseph Priestley. |
| 1786 |
20 April |
The Adamses and Jefferson visit the countryseats of Sion House and Osterley Park in Brentford. |
| 1786 |
24 April |
The Adamses, WSS, and Jefferson visit the British Museum. |
| 1786 |
25 April |
JA and Jefferson conclude negotiations for a commercial treaty with Portugal, a treaty that neither country ever ratified. |
| 1786 |
29 April |
In a diplomatic slight, JA is excluded from the annual Royal Academy dinner for foreign ministers. |
| 1786 |
9 May |
JA publishes an anonymous letter in a London newspaper denying a report that his salary is paid by the French government. |
| 1786 |
12 May |
Commissions held by JA and Jefferson to negotiate commercial treaties expire. |
| 1786 |
11 June |
AA2 and WSS are married at the U.S. legation in Grosvenor Square. |
| 1786 |
17 June |
CA and his cousins William, Elizabeth, and Lucy Cranch attend the dedication of the bridge connecting Boston and Charlestown. JQA remains at Harvard. |
| 1786 |
20–24 June |
The Adamses visit Portsmouth, stopping at the countryseat of Painshill in Surrey and Windsor Castle. |
| 1786 |
30 June |
AA2 and WSS depart Grosvenor Square for a residence on Wimpole Street. |
| 1786 |
13 July |
Harvard's summer vacation begins, and JQA and CA go to Braintree. |
| 1786 |
20–26 July |
TBA visits Braintree. |
| 1786 |
24–28 July |
JA, AA, AA2, and WSS visit the Essex estate of Thomas Brand-Hollis. |
| 1786 |
26 July – 5 Aug. |
JQA and CA visit Haverhill, participating in a sea-turtle banquet on a Merrimack River island on 28 July. |
| 1786 |
27 July |
JA and AA visit Braintree, England, for “the Gratification of Curiosity.” |
| 1786 |
2 Aug. |
JA attends a levee with the king to announce his departure for The Hague. On the same day, the king escapes an assassination attempt by a knife-wielding Margaret Nicholson. |
| 485 |
| 1786 |
3 Aug. – 6 Sept. |
JA and AA travel to The Hague to exchange ratified copies of the Prussian-American treaty
with Baron von Thulemeier
. While in Holland, the Adamses visit Rotterdam, Leyden, Haarlem, Amsterdam, Delft, and Utrecht. |
| 1786 |
16 Aug. |
JQA returns to Harvard for the fall quarter, following CA, who arrived in Cambridge five days earlier to prepare their rooms. |
| 1786 |
17 Aug. |
Frederick the Great of Prussia dies and is succeeded by his nephew, Frederick William II. |
| 1786 |
22 Aug. |
TBA is examined and admitted to Harvard's freshman class; he boards with Prof. Stephen Sewall in Cambridge. |
| 1786 |
25–28 Aug. |
AA2 and WSS visit Salt Hill in Buckinghamshire and Staines in Middlesex. |
| 1786 |
29 Aug. |
Shays' Rebellion begins when 1,500 farmers protest rising taxes and foreclosures by occupying the Northampton courthouse. |
| 1786 |
Sept. |
JA begins writing what would become his three-volume A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America. |
| 1786 |
11 Sept. |
The Annapolis Convention convenes in Maryland to consider federal regulation of commerce but fails to reach a quorum. |
| 1786 |
26 Sept. |
JQA and William Cranch debate “Whether inequality among the citizens be necessary to the preservation of the liberty of the whole” at a Harvard College exhibition. |
| 1786 |
Oct. |
JA publishes a series of letters he wrote in 1780 to Hendrik Calkoen, an Amsterdam lawyer, as Letters. The book is later retitled Twenty-Six Letters, upon Interesting Subjects, Respecting the Revolution of America. |
| 1786 |
17 Oct. |
The Adams sons spend the Harvard vacation in Braintree. CA returns to Cambridge on the 30th; JQA and TBA on 1 November. |
| 1786 |
17 Nov. |
The Massachusetts legislature approves bills encouraging domestic manufacture and taxing imported goods. |
| 1786 |
13 Dec. – 7 Feb. |
Harvard vacation begins early due to a massive snowstorm and shortages of wood. JQA elects to stay at the college. |
| 1786 |
22 Dec. – 6 Jan. |
AA, AA2, and WSS visit Bath while JA remains in London. |
| 486 |
| 1787 |
20 Jan. |
AA announces to family in the United States that AA2 and WSS are expecting their first child, William Steuben Smith, born 2 April. |
| 1787 |
24 Jan. |
JA informs Congress that within a year he will resign his commissions and return to the United States. |
| 1787 |
25 Jan. |
JA signs a Treaty of Peace and Friendship with Morocco. |
| 1787 |
21 Feb. |
Congress approves a proposal to hold a Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in May. |
| 1787 |
27 Feb. |
Shays' Rebellion ends with a final skirmish in Sheffield, Mass. |
