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). [edit] Events of 1856 [edit] January–June - April 7 – Nelson College is founded in Nelson, New Zealand.
- April 10 – The Theta Chi Fraternity is founded at Norwich University.
- May 1 – Isabela Province is created in the Philippines in honor of Queen Isabela II of Spain.
- May 16 – The Vigilance Committee is 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 is unable to return to duty for 3 years while he recovered; 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 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 (the worst railroad calamity in the world to date) occurs near Philadelphia, PA, USA.
- July 31 – Christchurch, New Zealand is chartered as a city.
- August 10 – A 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 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 is founded in Niagara Falls, New York.
- December 9 – Bushehr surrenders to the British.
[edit] Undated [edit] Ongoing events [edit] Births [edit] 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)
- February 21/28 – Maurycy Gottlieb, Ukrainian painter (d. 1879)
- February 29 – Frederic, Fictional character in The Pirates of Penzance
- March 4 – Alfred William Rich, English watercolour painter and author (d. 1921)
- March 8
- March 16 – Napoléon Eugène Louis John Joseph, Prince Imperial, son of French Emperor Napoleon III (d. 1879)
- March 20
- April 5 – Booker T. Washington, American educator (d. 1915)
- April 12 – William Martin Conway, British art critic and mountaineer (d. 1937)
- April 23 – Granville T. Woods, African-American inventor (d. 1910)
- 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 of China (d. 1875)
- May 6
- May 15 – L. Frank Baum, American author, poet, playwright, actor and independent filmmaker (The Wizard of Oz) (d. 1919)
- June 14 – Andrey Markov, Russian mathematician (d. 1922)
- Anna Sterky – Swedish politician, feminist and trade unionist
[edit] July–December - July 23 – Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Indian political activist (d. 1920)
- July 10 – Nikola Tesla, Serbian inventor (d. 1943)
- July 11 – Georgiana Drew, American stage actress, married Maurice Barrymore in 1876, (d. 1893)
- July 26 – George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1950)
- August 10 – William Willett, promoter 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 3 – Louis Sullivan, American architect (d. 1924)
- 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 11 – Georgi Plekhanov, Russian revolutionary and Marxist theoretician (d. 1918)
- 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)
[edit] Deaths - January 14 – Janko Drašković, Croatian politician and reformer (b. 1770)
- January 16 – Thaddeus William Harris, American naturalist (b. 1795)
- January 31 – Khedrup Gyatso, 11th Dalai Lama (b. 1838)
- February 4 – Anna Gottlieb, operatic soprano (b. 1774)
- 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 11 – Norberto Ramírez, Central American politician
- July 29
- August 29 – Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck, British Christian writer (b. 1778)
- August 30 – Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, English writer (b. 1811)
- October 19
- December 20 – Francesco Bentivegna, Italian revolutionary (b. 1820)
- date unknown – Chiba Shusaku Narimasa, swordsman (b. 1794)
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