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| align="center" colspan=2 | Years:
1853 1854 1855 - 1856 - 1857 1858 1859
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| align="center" colspan=2 | 1830s 1840s - 1850s ''' - 1860s 1870s 1880s
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| align="center" | - 19th Century ''' - 20th Century
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1856 was a Leap Year Starting On Tuesday (see link for calendar).
Events
- January - The first free public school west of the Mississippi River was established in Tipton, Iowa .
- January 8 - Borax is discovered ( John Veatch ).
- January 29 - Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross
- February - The only month in recorded history to not have a Full Moon .
- February - The Tintic War in Utah .
- February 4 - The Mormon Trail begins as wagons cross the Mississippi River into Iowa .
- 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 .
- 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 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 16 - the Vigilance Committee founded in San Francisco, California . It lynches two Gangster s, arrests most Democratic Party officials and disbands itself in August 18
- 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 - The Pottawatomie Massacre - group of followers of radical Abolitionist John Brown kill five homesteaders in Franklin County, Kansas
- June 9 - 500 Mormon s 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.
- 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 .
- 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 .
Births
- 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 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 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 )
- 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 )
Deaths
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