1856

Events

January–March

• January 8 - Borax deposits are discovered in large quantities by John Veatch in California.
• January 23 - The American sidewheel steamer SS Pacific leaves Liverpool for a transatlantic voyage on which she will be lost with all 186 on board.
• 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: Marines from the suppress an indigenous uprising, in response to Governor Stevens' declaration of a "war of extermination" on Native communities.
• January 29
• * The 223-mile North Carolina Railroad is completed from Goldsboro through Raleigh and Salisbury to Charlotte.
• * Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross as a British military decoration.
• February
• * The Tintic War breaks out in Utah.
• * The National Dress Reform Association is founded in the United States to promote "rational" dress for women.
• February 1 - Auburn University is first chartered, as the East Alabama Male College.
• February 2 - Dallas, Texas, is incorporated as a city.
• February 7 - The Nawab of Oudh, Wajid Ali Shah, is exiled to Metiabruz and the state is annexed by the British East India Company.
• 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.
• February 18 - The American Know Nothing Party convenes in Philadelphia to nominate their first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.
• March
• * The Great Trigonometrical Survey of India officially gives 'Peak XV' the height of. 'Peak IX', previously thought to be the world's highest, is confirmed as.
• * 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.
• March - Nepalese–Tibetan War: The signing of the Treaty of Thapathali concludes the war.
• March 5 - Fire destroys the Covent Garden Theatre in London.
• March 6 - Maryland Agricultural College is chartered.
• March 20 - Filibuster War: Battle of Santa Rosa: - 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 detachment.
• March 30 - The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Crimean War.

April–June

• April - The Xhosa cattle-killing movement and famine begins in Cape Colony.
• April 7 - Nelson College is founded in Nelson, New Zealand.
• April 10 - Theta Chi international college fraternity is founded at Norwich University in Vermont.
• April 16 - The Paris Declaration Respecting Maritime Law abolishes privateering, and regulates the relationship between neutral and belligerent shipping on the high seas.
• April 17 - The Chicago Historical Society Museum is established at 1601 N. Clark Street, Chicago.
• April 21 - Building workers agitate for the eight-hour day in Melbourne, Australia.
• April 29 - The iron-hulled paddle steamer concludes a 9-day 16 hour westbound transatlantic crossing, at an average 13.11 knots, regaining the Blue Riband for the Cunard Line.
• April 30 - The founding of the Associação Naval de Lisboa by King Pedro V, the oldest nautical association in the Iberian Peninsula.
• May 1 - The province of Isabela is created in the Philippines, in honor of Queen Isabella II of Spain.
• 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.
• 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.
• May 20 - David Livingstone arrives at Quelimane on the Indian Ocean, having completed a 2-year transcontinental journey across Africa from Luanda.
• May 21 - Sacking of Lawrence: Lawrence, Kansas, is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.
• 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.
• May 24 - Pottawatomie massacre: A group of followers of radical abolitionist John Brown kill 5 homesteaders in Franklin County, Kansas.
• June 2 - Battle of Black Jack: Antislavery forces, led by John Brown, defeat proslavery forces in Bleeding Kansas.
• 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.
• June 13 - Taiping Rebellion: Shi Dakai arrives at Nanjing.
• June 20 - General Mills is founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, as the Minneapolis Milling Company.

  July–September

• July 9 - Natal becomes a British Crown colony.
• July 14-15 - In Spain, General Leopoldo O'Donnell takes control of the government, bringing an end to the bienio progresista.
• July 17 - The Great Train Wreck occurs near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
• July 31 - Christchurch, New Zealand, is chartered as a city.
• August - Pre-human remains are found in the Neanderthal Valley in Prussia.
• 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.
• August 30 - Battle of Osawatomie: Proslavery forces defeat antislavery forces in Bleeding Kansas.
• 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.
• September 2 - Taiping Rebellion: Wei Changhui and Qin Rigang assassinate Yang Xiuqing.
• September 7 - The Saimaa Canal was inaugurated.

  October–December

• October 8 - The Second Opium War between several Western powers and China begins with the Arrow Incident on the Pearl River.
• 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.
• October 13 - American mercenary William Walker effectively takes control of Nicaragua.
• November 1 - Anglo-Persian War: War is declared between Great Britain and Persia.
• 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.
• 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 modern-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 is founded in Niagara Falls, New York.
• 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.
• 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.
• December 2 - The National Portrait Gallery, London, is established.
• December 9 - Bushehr surrenders to the British.

  Date unknown

• Gregor Mendel starts his research on genetics.
• Kate Warne, the first female private detective, begins to work for the Pinkerton Detective Agency.
• Legal protection of widow remarriage is extended in India.
• St. Paul's School, Belgaum, is founded by the Jesuits in Belgaum, India.
• 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.
• Global financial services business Credit Suisse is founded as La Schweizerische Kreditanstalt.
• Charles III of Monaco grants a concession to Napoléon Langlois and Albert Aubert to establish a German-style casino at Monte Carlo.

  Births

January–March

• January 6 - Martin von Feuerstein, German painter
• January 7 - Evald Relander, Finnish teacher, agronomist and banker
• January 9 - Lizette Woodworth Reese, American poet and teacher
• January 11 - Christian Sinding, Norwegian composer
• January 12 - John Singer Sargent, American artist
• January 27 - Telémaco Susini, Argentinian physician
• January 31 - Hermann von François, German general
• February 2 - Frederick William Vanderbilt, American railway magnate
• February 4 - Otani Kikuzo, Japanese general
• February 5 - Frank Podmore, British psychical researcher
• February 9 - Hara Takashi, Japanese politician, 10th Prime Minister of Japan
• February 12 - Eduard von Böhm-Ermolli, Austrian general, German field marshal
• February 14 - Frank Harris, Irish author, editor
• February 15 - Emil Kraepelin, German psychiatrist
• February 17 - Arnold von Winckler, German general
• February 21
• *Paul Puhallo von Brlog, Croatian Austro-Hungarian general
• *Maurycy Gottlieb, Ukrainian painter
• February 26 - Elizabeth Marney Conner, American elocutionist
• March 2 - Louis Dartige du Fournet, French admiral
• March 4
• * Julius Drewe, English businessman, retailer and entrepreneur
• * Alfred William Rich, English watercolour painter, author
• March 8
• * Bramwell Booth, English Salvation Army general
• * Tom Roberts, Australian artist
• March 9
• * Eddie Foy Sr., American vaudevillian
• * Jules-Albert de Dion, French automobile pioneer
• March 16 - Napoléon, Prince Imperial of France
• March 20
• * Sir John Lavery, Irish artist
• * Frederick Winslow Taylor, American inventor and efficiency expert
• March 26 - William Massey, Irish-born 19th Prime Minister of New Zealand