1856

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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 - Germany - Ireland - New Zealand - Norway - South Africa - U.S. - UK
Leaders: State leaders - Colonial governors
Category: Establishments - Disestablishments
Births - Deaths - Works v • d • e

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).

1 Events of 1856
2 Births
- 2.1 January - June
- 2.2 July - December
3 Deaths

[edit] Events of 1856

[edit] January - June

January 29: Victoria Cross.

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 26 - First Battle of Seattle (1856). Marines from the USS Decatur drive off American Indian attackers after all day battle with settlers.
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 2 - Dallas, Texas incorporated as a city.
February 7 - The nawab of Oudh Wajid Ali Shah is exiled to Metiabruz
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 6 - Maryland Agricultural College (present-day University of Maryland, College Park) 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 (1856) is signed, ending the Crimean War

March 5: Covent Garden Theatre fire.

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

[edit] 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, New Zealand chartered as a city.
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.
September 1 - Seton Hall University was founded by Archdiocese of Newark Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley, a cousin of U.S. 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, 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.
December 9 - Bushehr surrenders to the British.

[edit] Undated

Gregor Mendel.

Gregor Mendel starts his research on genetics.
British Country and Borough Police Act extends London police model to all of England and Wales.
Kate Warne, 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.

[edit] Ongoing events

[edit] Births

**1856 in other calendars**
Gregorian calendar	1856 MDCCCLVI
Ab urbe condita	2609
Armenian calendar	1305 ԹՎ ՌՅԵ
Bahá'í calendar	12 – 13
Berber calendar	2806
Buddhist calendar	2400
Burmese calendar	1218
Chinese calendar	4492/4552-11-24 (乙卯年十一月廿四日) — to — 4493/4553-12-5 (丙辰年十二月初五日)
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 (安政3年)
- Imperial Year	Kōki 2516 (皇紀2516年)
Korean calendar	4189
Thai solar calendar	2399
v • d • e