Directory

1856 CE

The American Know Nothing Party convenes in Philadelphia to nominate their first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore. The province of Isabela is created in the Philippines, in honor of Queen Isabella II of Spain. Pottawatomie massacre: A group of followers of radical abolitionist John Brown kill 5 homesteaders in Franklin County, Kansas.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • February 2 – Dallas, Texas, is incorporated as a city.source
  • March 30 – The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Crimean War.source
  • March – Nepalese–Tibetan War: The signing of the Treaty of Thapathali concludes the war.source
  • April 16 – The Paris Declaration Respecting Maritime Law abolishes privateering, and regulates the relationship between neutral and belligerent shipping on the high seas.source
  • May 1 – The province of Isabela is created in the Philippines, in honor of Queen Isabella II of Spain.source
  • July 9 – Natal becomes a British Crown colony.source
  • October 13 – American mercenary William Walker effectively takes control of Nicaragua.source
  • November 4 – 1856 United States presidential election: 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.source
  • November 27 – The Coup of 1856 leads to Luxembourg's unilateral adoption of a new, reactionary constitution, as King-Grand Duke William III signs the new constitution without the Chamber of Deputies' consent.source
  • December 1 – Under the County and Borough Police Act, in any county or area of England and Wales where a police force has not already been established, the Justices of the Peace must from this date take steps to create one according to nationally defined standards.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 24 – U.S. President Franklin Pierce declares the new Free-State Topeka government in "Bleeding Kansas" to be in rebellion.source
  • January 26 – First Battle of Seattle: Marines from the suppress an indigenous uprising, in response to Governor Stevens' declaration of a "war of extermination" on Native communities.source
  • February 7 – The Nawab of Oudh, Wajid Ali Shah, is exiled to Metiabruz and the state is annexed by the British East India Company.source
  • March 20 – Filibuster War: Battle of Santa Rosa: – Costa Rican troops rout Walker's soldiers.source
  • March 24 – Taiping Rebellion: Suspecting treachery on the part of East King Yang Xiuqing, Shi Dakai garrisons Anhui and begins his march back to the Heavenly Capital, having defeated a strong Xiang Army detachment.source
  • May 3 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom gives Norfolk Island to the population of the colony at Pitcairn Island, most being descendants of the Mutiny on the Bounty. They first settle on Norfolk Island on June 8. Women's suffrage, as practiced on Pitcairn, is extended to Norfolk Island.source
  • May 24 – Pottawatomie massacre: A group of followers of radical abolitionist John Brown kill 5 homesteaders in Franklin County, Kansas.source
  • June 2 – Battle of Black Jack: Antislavery forces, led by John Brown, defeat proslavery forces in Bleeding Kansas.source
  • June 13 – Taiping Rebellion: Shi Dakai arrives at Nanjing.source
  • July 14–15 – In Spain, General Leopoldo O'Donnell takes control of the government, bringing an end to the bienio progresista.source
  • August 30 – Battle of Osawatomie: Proslavery forces defeat antislavery forces in Bleeding Kansas.source
  • September 2 – Taiping Rebellion: Wei Changhui and Qin Rigang assassinate Yang Xiuqing.source
  • October 8 – The Second Opium War between several Western powers and China begins with the Arrow Incident on the Pearl River.source
  • November 1 – Anglo-Persian War: War is declared between Great Britain and Persia.source
  • November 11 – Taiping Rebellion: Shi Dakai arrives at the Heavenly Capital once more with 100,000 men, and demands that Wei Changhui and Qin Rigang be executed. Shi subsequently becomes head of the government.source
  • November 17 – American Old West: On the Sonoita River in modern-day southern Arizona, the United States Army establishes Fort Buchanan, in order to help control new land acquired in the Gadsden Purchase.source
  • December 9 – Bushehr surrenders to the British.source
  • The Tintic War breaks out in Utah.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • January 23 – The American sidewheel steamer SS Pacific leaves Liverpool (England) for a transatlantic voyage on which she will be lost with all 186 on board.source
  • April 29 – The iron-hulled paddle steamer concludes a 9-day 16 hour westbound transatlantic crossing, at an average 13.11 knots (24.28 km/h), regaining the Blue Riband for the Cunard Line.source
  • May 20 – David Livingstone arrives at Quelimane on the Indian Ocean, having completed a 2-year transcontinental journey across Africa from Luanda.source
  • June 9 – 500 Mormon handcart pioneers leave Iowa City and head west for Salt Lake City, Utah, carrying all their possessions in two-wheeled handcarts.source
  • August – Pre-human remains are found in the Neanderthal Valley in Prussia.source

Religion & Belief

  • July 31 – Christchurch, New Zealand, is chartered as a city.source
  • September 1 – Seton Hall University is founded in South Orange, New Jersey, by the first bishop of the Diocese of Newark, James Roosevelt Bayley, a cousin of future U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and nephew of the first American-born Catholic saint, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. Seton Hall University is the oldest and largest Catholic diocesan university in the United States and the first institution named in honor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.source
  • St. Paul's School, Belgaum, is founded by the Jesuits in Belgaum, India.source

Economy & Finance

  • June 20 – General Mills is founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, as the Minneapolis Milling Company.source
  • Global financial services business Credit Suisse is founded as La Schweizerische Kreditanstalt.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 29 – The 223-mile North Carolina Railroad is completed from Goldsboro through Raleigh and Salisbury to Charlotte.source
  • April 21 – Building workers agitate for the eight-hour day in Melbourne, Australia.source
  • July 17 – The Great Train Wreck (the worst railroad calamity in the world to date) occurs near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.source
  • September 7 – The Saimaa Canal was inaugurated.source
  • Kate Warne, the first female private detective, begins to work for the Pinkerton Detective Agency.source
  • Mauveine, the first synthetic organic dye, is discovered by William Henry Perkin, while attempting to synthesize quinine. This eventually leads to the birth of the chemical industry.source

Science & Discovery

  • January 8 – Borax deposits are discovered in large quantities by John Veatch in California.source
  • The Great Trigonometrical Survey of India officially gives 'Peak XV' (later to be named Mount Everest) the height of 29002 ft m. 'Peak IX' (Kangchenjunga), previously thought to be the world's highest, is confirmed as 28156 ft m.source
  • Gregor Mendel starts his research on genetics.source

Health & Medicine

  • May 22 – Caning of Charles Sumner: United States 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 pro-slavery Southerners, especially elderly South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler, a relative of Brooks. Sumner is unable to return to duty for three years while he recovers; Brooks becomes a hero across the South.source
  • The British Guiana 1c magenta postage stamp is issued in British Guiana in limited numbers; the one surviving specimen will become regarded as the world's rarest stamp.source

Crime & Justice

  • May 14 – The San Francisco Committee of Vigilance is founded in the United States. It lynches two gangsters, arrests most Democratic Party officials, and disbands itself on August 18.source
  • Charles III of Monaco grants a concession to Napoléon Langlois and Albert Aubert to establish a German-style casino at Monte Carlo.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • February 12 – American clipper ships Driver and Ocean Queen leave Liverpool and London respectively; both will be lost without trace in the Atlantic, perhaps due to ice, killing 374 and 123 respectively.source
  • March 5 – Fire destroys the Covent Garden Theatre in London.source
  • May 21 – Sacking of Lawrence: Lawrence, Kansas, is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.source

Climate & Environment

  • April – The Xhosa cattle-killing movement and famine begins in Cape Colony.source
  • August 10 – The Last Island hurricane destroys Last Island, Louisiana, leaving 400 dead. The whole island is broken up into several smaller islands by the storm.source
  • October 12 – 1856 Heraklion earthquake: A powerful earthquake rocks the Mediterranean, killing hundreds on the island of Crete and many more in the Middle East.source

Culture & Society

  • January 29 – Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross as a British military decoration.source
  • February 1 – Auburn University is first chartered, as the East Alabama Male College.source
  • February 18 – The American Know Nothing Party convenes in Philadelphia to nominate their first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.source
  • March 6 – Maryland Agricultural College (modern-day University of Maryland, College Park) is chartered.source
  • April 7 – Nelson College is founded in Nelson, New Zealand.source
  • April 10 – Theta Chi international college fraternity is founded at Norwich University in Vermont.source
  • April 17 – The Chicago Historical Society Museum is established at 1601 N. Clark Street, Chicago.source
  • April 30 - The founding of the Associação Naval de Lisboa by King Pedro V, the oldest nautical association in the Iberian Peninsula.source
  • November 21 – Niagara University is founded in Niagara Falls, New York.source
  • December 2 – The National Portrait Gallery, London, is established.source
  • The National Dress Reform Association is founded in the United States to promote "rational" dress for women.source
  • Legal protection of widow remarriage is extended in India.source

Births

  • February 9 – Hara Takashi, Japanese politician, 10th Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1921)source
  • March 20 – Frederick Winslow Taylor, American inventor and efficiency expert (d. 1915)source
  • April 26 – Sir Joseph Ward, 17th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1930)source
  • May 6 – Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist (d. 1939)source
  • May 15 – L. Frank Baum, American author, poet, playwright, actor and independent filmmaker (The Wizard of Oz) (d. 1919)source
  • July 26 – George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1950)source
  • August 3 – Alfred Deakin, 2nd Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1919)source
  • August 15 – Ivan Franko, Ukrainian poet, critic, journalist and political activist (d. 1916)source
  • October 23 – William Thomas Turner, British ship's captain with Cunard Steamship Company (d. 1933)source
  • November 13 – Louis Brandeis, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1941)source
  • November 29 – Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1921)source
  • December 11 – Georgi Plekhanov, Russian revolutionary, Marxist theoretician (d. 1918)source
  • December 18 – J. J. Thomson, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1940)source
  • December 22 – Frank B. Kellogg, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1937)source

Deaths

  • January 4 – Charles Brudenell-Bruce, 1st Marquess of Ailesbury, British politician (b. 1773)source
  • January 14 – Janko Drašković, Croatian politician, reformer (b. 1770)source
  • February 17 – Heinrich Heine, German writer (b. 1797)source
  • May 3 – Adolphe Charles Adam, French composer (b. 1803)source
  • June 23 – Ivan Kireyevsky, Russian literary critic, philosopher (b. 1806)source
  • June 26 – Max Stirner, German philosopher (b. 1806)source
  • July 14 – Edward Vernon Utterson, English lawyer, literary antiquary, collector and editor (b. 1775/1776)source
  • July 29 – Robert Schumann, German composer, pianist (b. 1810)source
  • August 6 – Robert Lucas de Pearsall, English composer; setting of "In dulce jubilo" (b. 1795)source
  • August 14 – William Buckland, English geologist, palaeontologist (b. 1784)source
  • September 3 – Honório Hermeto Carneiro Leão, Marquis of Paraná, Brazilian politician (b. 1801)source
  • October 19 – William Sprague III, American politician from Rhode Island (b. 1799)source
  • October 29 – Carel Sirardus Willem van Hogendorp, Acting Governor-General of Dutch East Indies (b. 1788)source
  • November 23 – Manuela Sáenz, Colombian national heroine (b. 1797)source