1856
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| Years: 1853 1854 1855 - 1856 - 1857 1858 1859 | |
| Decades: 1820s 1830s 1840s - 1850s - 1860s 1870s 1880s | |
| Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century | |
1856 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar).
Events
- January 8 - Borax is discovered (John Veatch).
- January 29 - Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross
- February 18 - The American Party (Know-Nothings) convene in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to nominate their first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.
- March 5 – Fire destroys Covent Garden Theatre
- March 30 - The Treaty of Paris (1856) is signed, ending the Crimean War
- April 7 - Foundation of Nelson College, Nelson, New Zealand
- April 10 - Theta Chi Fraternity founded at Norwich University
- May 21 - Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.
- 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 Five opponents of radical abolitionist John Brown massacred at Pottawatamie, (U.S.A.).
- 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 31 - Christchurch, New Zealand chartered as a city.
- August 10 – A hurricane destroys Last Island, Louisiana - 400 dead. The whole island was broken up into several smaller islands by the storm.
- 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.
- December 9 - Bushehr surrenders to the British.
- British Country and Borough Police Act extends London police model to the entire country
- 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.
Births
- January 11 - Christian Sinding, Norwegian composer (d. 1941)
- January 12 - John Singer Sargent, American-born artist (d. 1925)
- January 20 - Harriot Eaton Stanton Blatch, women's rights activist (d. 1940)
- February 2 - Frederick William Vanderbilt, American railway magnate (d. 1938)
- February 14 - Frank Harris, Irish author and editor (d. 1931)
- March 8 - Tom Roberts, Australian artist (d. 1931)
- March 9 - Eddie Foy, American singer, dancer, and vaudeville performer (d. 1928)
- March 20 - Frederick Winslow Taylor, American inventor and efficiency expert (d. 1915)
- April 5 - Booker T. Washington, African-American educator (d. 1915)
- April 12 - William Martin Conway, British art critic and mountaineer (d. 1937)
- 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 (d. 1950)
- August 13 - Alfred Deakin, second Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1919)
- September 18 - Wilhelm von Gloeden, German photographer (d. 1931)
- 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)
- December 25 - Hans von Bartels, German painter (d. 1913)
- December 25 - Sir Samuel William Knaggs, British civil servant in the West Indies (d. 1924)
Deaths
- 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 pianist
- August 30 - Gilbert Abbott a Beckett, English writer (b. 1811)af:1856
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