[Edit]

top

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 Cross

top

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.

top

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 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 30 - The Treaty of Paris (1856) is signed, ending the Crimean War

top

April 7 - Foundation of Nelson College, Nelson, New Zealand

April 10 - Theta Chi Fraternity founded at Norwich University

April 21 - Stonemasons and building workers on building sites around Melbourne, Australia, stopped work and marched from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an eight hour day.

top

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 proslavery 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, Kansas

top

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.

June 13 - Taiping Rebellion: Shi Dakai arrives at Nanjing.

June 20 - Taiping Rebellion: The Taiping army overruns the Southern Imperial Barracks south of Nanjing. The East King orders Shi Dakai to return to Hubei.

top

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.

top

August 9 - Taiping Rebellion: Qin Rigang returns to Nanjing, fearing an attempt on Hong Xiuquan's life by the would-be usurper, the East King and supreme commander Yang Xiuqing.

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.

top

September 1 - Taiping Rebellion: Wei Changhui returns to the Heavenly Capital.

September 2 - Taiping Rebellion: Wei Changhui and Qin Rigang assassinate Yang Xiuqing.

September 18 - Taiping Rebellion: Shi Dakai arrives at Nanjing, but leaves soon after fearing that Wei Changhui plans to kill him.

top

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 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, New York.

top

December 9 - Bushehr surrenders to the British.

top

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.

top

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)

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 21 - William Emerson Ritter, American biologist (d. 1944)

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)

top

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)