1856
1856 was a
leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar).
January
* January - The first free public school west of the Mississippi River was established in
Tipton, Iowa.
*
January 8 -
Borax is discovered (
John Veatch).
*
January 24 - U.S. President
Franklin Pierce declares the new
Free-State Topeka government in
Bleeding Kansas to be in rebellion.
*
January 29 - Queen
Victoria institutes the
Victoria CrossFebruary
* February - The only month in recorded history to not have a
full moon.
* February - The
Tintic War in
Utah.
*
February 1 -
Auburn University is first chartered as the East Alabama Male College.
*
February 18 - The American Party (
Know-Nothings) convene in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to nominate their first
Presidential candidate, former President
Millard Fillmore.
March
*
March 5 - Fire destroys
Covent Garden Theatre*
March 9 - National Fraternity
Sigma Alpha Epsilon is founded at the
University of Alabama in
Tuscaloosa,
AL.
*
March 20 -
Costa Rican troops rout
Walker's soldiers
*
March 30 - The
Treaty of Paris (1856) is signed, ending the
Crimean WarApril
*
April 7 - Foundation of
Nelson College,
Nelson, New Zealand*
April 10 -
Theta Chi Fraternity founded at
Norwich UniversityMay
*
May 16 - the
Vigilance Committee founded in
San Francisco, California. It lynches two
gangsters, arrests most
Democratic Party officials and disbands itself on
August 18*
May 21 -
Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro
slavery forces (the "
Sacking of Lawrence").
*
May 22 -
Congressman Preston Brooks of
South Carolina beats
Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the
United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathized with the pro-
slavery violence in
Kansas ("
Bleeding Kansas"). Sumner was unable to return to duty for three years while he recovered. Brooks became a hero across the South.
*
May 24 - The
Pottawatomie Massacre - group of followers of radical
abolitionist John Brown kill five homesteaders in
Franklin County, KansasJune
*
June 2 -
Battle of Black Jack between proslavery and antislavery forces, led by
John Brown, in
Bleeding Kansas.
*
June 9 - 500
Mormons leave
Iowa City, Iowa and head west for
Salt Lake City, Utah carrying all their possessions in two-wheeled handcarts.
July
*
July 17 -
The Great Train Wreck of 1856 was the worst railroad calamity in the world to date, occurring near Philadelphia, PA, USA.
*
July 31 -
Christchurch, New Zealand chartered as a city.
August
*
August 10 -
Hurricane destroys
Last Island, Louisiana - 400 dead. The whole island was broken up into several smaller islands by the storm.
*
August 30 -
Battle of Osawatomie between proslavery and antislavery forces in
Bleeding Kansas.
November
*
November 1 -
Anglo-Persian War: War Is declared between
Great Britain and
Persia.
*
November 4 -
U.S. presidential election, 1856:
Democrat James Buchanan defeats former President
Millard Fillmore, representing a coalition of "
Know-Nothings" and
Whigs, and
John C. Frémont of the fledgling
Republican Party to become the 15th
President of the United States.
*
November 17 -
American Old West: On the
Sonoita River in present-day southern
Arizona, the
United States Army establishes
Fort Buchanan in order to help control new land acquired in the
Gadsden Purchase.
*
November 21 -
Niagara University founded in
Niagara Falls, New York.
December
*
December 9 -
Bushehr surrenders to the
British.
Unknown dates
* British
Country and Borough Police Act extends London
police model to all of
England and
Wales*
Western Union founded
*
Kate Warner, the first female
private detective, begins to work for the
Pinkerton Detective Agency* Pre-human remains found in the
Neanderthal valley in Germany
*
Gregor Mendel starts his research on
genetics.
*
National Portrait Gallery in
London opened.
* Sale of Land starts suburb of
Ashgrove, Queensland.
* The first session concludes at Saint Paul's School, the prestigious New England Prep School in Concord, NH.
* Founding year of
St. Paul's School, Camp, Belgaum.
*
January 11 -
Christian Sinding, Norwegian composer (d.
1941)
*
January 12 -
John Singer Sargent, American-born artist (d.
1925)
*
February 2 -
Frederick William Vanderbilt, American railway magnate (d.
1938)
*
February 14 -
Frank Harris, Irish author and editor (d.
1931)
*
March 8 -
Bramwell Booth, Salvation Army general (d.
1929)
*
March 8 -
Tom Roberts, Australian artist (d.
1931)
*
March 9 -
Eddie Foy, American singer, dancer, and vaudeville performer (d.
1928)
*
March 16 -
Napoléon Eugène Louis John Joseph, Prince Imperial, son of French Emperor
Napoleon III (d.
1879)
*
March 20 - Sir
John Lavery, Irish artist (d.
1941)
*
March 20 -
Frederick Winslow Taylor, American inventor and efficiency expert (d.
1915)
*
April 5 -
Booker T. Washington, American educator (d.
1915)
*
April 12 -
William Martin Conway, British art critic and mountaineer (d.
1937)
*
April 24 -
Henri Philippe Pétain, French soldier and statesman (d.
1951)
*
April 27 -
Tongzhi Emperor, Emperor of China (d.
1875)
*
May 6 -
Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychiatrist (d.
1939)
*
May 6 -
Robert Peary, American Arctic explorer (d.
1920)
*
May 15 -
L. Frank Baum, American author (d.
1919)
*
June 14 -
Andrey Markov, Russian mathematician (d.
1922)
*
July 2 -
Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Indian political activist (d.
1920)
*
July 10 -
Nikola Tesla, Serbian inventor (d.
1943)
*
July 26 -
George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1950)
*
August 10 -
William Willett, inventor of Daylight Saving Time (d.
1915)
*
August 13 -
Alfred Deakin, second
Prime Minister of Australia (d.
1919)
*
August 15 -
Ivan Franko,
Ukrainian poet, critic, journalist and political activist (d.
1916)
*
September 1 -
Sergei Winogradsky, Russian scientist (d.
1953)
*
September 18 -
Wilhelm von Gloeden, German photographer (d.
1931)
*
November 3 -
Jim McCormick, baseball player (d.
1918)
*
November 13 -
Louis Brandeis, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d.
1941)
*
November 22 -
Heber J. Grant, president of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d.
1945)
*
November 24 -
Bat Masterson, American lawman (d.
1921)
*
November 29 -
Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg,
Chancellor of Germany (d.
1921)
*
December 13 -
Svetozar Boroević, Austrian field marshal (d.
1920)
*
December 18 -
J.J. Thomson, English physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1940)
*
December 22 -
Frank B. Kellogg,
United States Secretary of State, recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize (d.
1937)
*
December 25 -
Hans von Bartels, German painter (d.
1913)
*
December 25 -
Sir Samuel William Knaggs, British civil servant in the West Indies (d.
1924)
*
December 28 -
Woodrow Wilson, 28th
President of the United States, recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize (d.
1924)
*
January 16 -
Thaddeus William Harris, American naturalist (b.
1795)
*
January 31 -
Khedrup Gyatso, eleventh
Dalai Lama (b.
1838)
*
February 17 -
Heinrich Heine, German writer (b.
1797)
*
May 3 -
Adolphe Charles Adam, French composer (b.
1803)
*
July 9 -
Amedeo Avogadro, Italian chemist (b.
1776)
*
July 29 -
Robert Schumann , German composer and pianist
*
August 29 -
Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck, British Christian writer (b.
1778)
*
August 30 -
Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, English writer (b.
1811)
