| Centuries: | 18th century - 19th century - 20th century |
| Decades: | 1820s 1830s 1840s - 1850s - 1860s 1870s 1880s
|
| Years: | 1853 1854 1855 - 1856 - 1857 1858 1859 |
| 1856 in topic: |
| Subjects: Archaeology - Architecture - |
| Art - Literature (Poetry) - Music - Science |
| Sports - Rail Transport |
| Countries: Australia - Canada - France - Germany - Ireland - Mexico - New Zealand - Norway - South Africa - UK - USA |
| Leaders: State leaders - Colonial governors |
| Category: Establishments - Disestablishments |
| Births - Marriages - Deaths
|
Year 1856 (MDCCCLVI) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Sunday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar).
Events of 1856[]
January - June[]
- 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 Cross
- February - The Tintic War in Utah.
- February 1 - Auburn University is first chartered as the East Alabama Male College.
- February 7 - The nawab of Oudh Wajid Ali Shah is exiled to Metiabruz
- February 18 - The American Party (Know-Nothings) convene in Philadelphia to nominate their first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.
- March 5 - Fire destroys Covent Garden Theatre
- March 6 - Maryland Agricultural College (present-day University of Maryland) chartered
- 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 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 dettachment.
- March 31 - The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Crimean War
March 5: Covent Garden Theatre fire.
- April 7 - Foundation of Nelson College, Nelson
- April 10 - Theta Chi Fraternity founded at Norwich University
- May 1 - The creation of Isabela province in the Philippines in honor to the Queen of Spain, Queen Isabela II.
- May 16 - the Vigilance Committee founded in San Francisco. It lynches two gangsters, arrests most Democratic Party officials and disbands itself on August 18
- May 21 - Lawrence 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
- 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 and head west for Salt Lake City carrying all their possessions in two-wheeled handcarts.
- June 13 - Taiping Rebellion: Shi Dakai arrives at Nanjing.
July - December[]
- 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 chartered as a city.
- August 10 - Hurricane destroys Last Island - 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.
- September 1 - Seton Hall University was founded by Archdiocese of Newark Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley, a cousin of President Theodore Roosevelt and nephew of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton.
- September 2 - Taiping Rebellion: Wei Changhui and Qin Rigang assassinate Yang Xiuqing.
- October 8 - The Second Opium War between several western powers and China begins with the Arrow Incident on the Pearl River.
- November 1 - Anglo-Persian War: War Is declared between Great Britain and Persia.
- November 4 - U.S. 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- December 9 - Bushehr surrenders to the British.
Undated[]
- Gregor Mendel starts his research on genetics.
- British Country and Borough Police Act extends London police model to all of England and Wales.
- 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.
- National Portrait Gallery in London opened.
- Founding year of St. Paul's School, Camp, Belgaum.
- Western Union is founded.
Ongoing events[]
- Anglo-Persian War (1856-1857)
- Crimean War (1854-1856)
- Second Opium War (1856-1860)
- Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864)
Births[]
| Gregorian calendar | 1856 MDCCCLVI
|
| Ab urbe condita | 2609 |
| Armenian calendar | 1305 ԹՎ ՌՅԵ |
| Bahá'í calendar | 12 – 13 |
| Buddhist calendar | 2400 |
| Coptic calendar | 1572 – 1573 |
| Ethiopian calendar | 1848 – 1849 |
| Hebrew calendar | 5616 – 5617 |
| Hindu calendars | |
| - Vikram Samvat | 1911 – 1912 |
| - Shaka Samvat | 1778 – 1779 |
| - Kali Yuga | 4957 – 4958 |
| Holocene calendar | 11856 |
| Iranian calendar | 1234 – 1235 |
| Islamic calendar | 1272 – 1273 |
| Japanese calendar | Ansei
3
|
| - Imperial Year | Kōki 2516 (皇紀2516年) |
| Julian calendar | 1901 |
| Korean calendar | 4189 |
| Thai solar calendar | 2399 |
January - June[]
- 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 4 - Alfred William Rich, English watercolour painter and author (d. 1921)
- March 8
- Bramwell Booth, Salvation Army general (d. 1929)
- Tom Roberts, Australian artist (d. 1931)
- 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)
- 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 26 - Sir Joseph Ward, 17th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1930)
- April 27 - Tongzhi Emperor, Emperor of China (d. 1875)
- May 6
- Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychiatrist (d. 1939)
- 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 - December[]
- July 23 - 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 13 - Louis Brandeis, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1941)
- November 21 - William Emerson Ritter, American biologist (d. 1944)
- November 22 - Heber J. Grant, seventh 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 28 - Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1924)
- See also 1856 births.
Deaths[]
- 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)
- June 23 - Ivan Kireevsky, Russian literary critic and philosopher (b. 1806)
- 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)
- October 19 - William Sprague III, American politician from Rhode Island (b. 1799)
People of the year 1856 at Familypedia
358 people were born in 1856
165 children were born to the 165 women born in 1856
187 people died in 1856
16754 people lived in 1856
Events of the year 1856 at Familypedia
359 people were married in 1856.
| Joined with | |
|---|---|
| James Redden Abercrombie (1829-1869) | Mary Lucinda Perry (1839-1922) |
| Harriet Camilla Adair (1838-1909) | Hugh Edward Adair (1815-1902) |
| Hugh Edward Adair (1815-1902) | Harriet Camilla Adair (1838-1909) |
| Barnabas Lathrop Adams (1812-1869) | Julia Ann Banker (1826-1915) + Hannah Gove Chase (1834-1897) + Elizabeth Ellen Nelson (1847-1888) |
| Orson Bennett Adams (1815-1901) | Susannah Smith (1819-1892) + Margaret Jane Meeks + Dorothy Martin (1825-1877) + Charlotte Elizabeth Gingell (1841-1849) |
| Mary Stewart Ainslie (c1830-1925) | +Edwin Cox (c1825-1894) |
| Elsie Ann Akerley (1842-1883) | Henry Jacob Faust (1834-1904) |
| Edward Aldridge (1826-1909) | Elizabeth Blackman (1837-1929)+Eliza Jane Burns (1847-1882) |
| Sarah Malinda Alexander (1841-1914) | John Green (1835-1908)+Hans Jorgen Pedersen Mortensen (1837-1912) |
| Henderson Alford (1829-1863) | Frances Sibley (1843-1900) |
| Albern Allen (1802-1867) | Marcia Allen (1804-1866)+ Mary Ann Hoopes (1811-1903) + Mary Jane Morris (1819-1893) + Jane Elizabeth Hill (1841-1909) |
| Isaac Allred (1813-1859) | Julia Ann Taylor (1816-1898) + Mary Henderson (1823-1910) + Emma Dewey (1828-1909) |
| James Tillmon Sanford Allred (1825-1905) | Elizabeth Bridget Manwaring (1821-1866) + Margaret Manwaring (1821-1888) + Fannie Shantaquint (1842-1866) + Perlina Jane Allred (1833-1910) |
| Reddick Newton Allred (1822-1905) | Lucy Hoyt (1824-1907) + Amelia Jane McFerson (1841-1910) + Calysta Ward Warrick (1844-1916) |
| William Allred (1828-1888) | Francis Washburn (1829-1855) + Jemima Crawford (1840-1859) + Eliza Isabella Tennessee Goff (1832-1908) |
| ... further results | |
There were 0 military battles in 1856.
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- See also 1856 deaths.
| This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia. The original content was at 1856. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this Familypedia wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License. |