Today in History for Year 1856

Months in Year 1856: January February March April May June July August September October November December

Historical Events

Events 1 - 55 of 55

Jan 8th - Dr John A Veatch discovers borax, Tuscan Springs, Calif
Jan 23rd - Steamer Pacific lost
Jan 25th - Battle of Seattle; skirmish between settlers & Indians
Jan 29th - Victoria Cross established to acknowledge bravery
Feb 1st - Auburn University is chartered as the East Alabama Male College.
Feb 7th - The colonial Tasmanian Parliament passes the first piece of legislation (the Electoral Act of 1856) anywhere in the world providing for elections by way of a secret ballot.
Feb 18th - American (Know-Nothing) Party abolishes secrecy
Feb 18th - The American Party (Know-Nothings) convene in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to nominate their first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.
Feb 19th - Tin-type camera patented by Hamilton Smith, Gambier, Ohio
Feb 20th - John Rutledge, Liverpool-NY steamer, hits iceberg; many die
Feb 22nd - 1st national meeting of Republican Party (Pittsburgh)
Feb 29th - Hostilities in Russo-Turkish War cease
Mar 5th - Covent Garden Opera House destroyed in a fire
Mar 5th - Georgia becomes 1st state to regulate railroads
Mar 9th - Sigma Alpha Epsilon is founded in the Johnston Mansion House on the University of Alabama
Mar 25th - A E Burnside patents Burnside carbine
Mar 26th - NSW's 1st 1st-class game, v Victoria at Melbourne NSW won
Mar 30th - Russia signs Peace of Paris, ending the Crimean War
Apr 3rd - Gunpowder in church explodes killing 4,000 in Rhodos
13th US President Millard Fillmore Apr 10th - The Theta Chi Fraternity is founded at Norwich University.
Apr 11th - Battle of Rivas; Costa Rica beats Wm Walker's invading Nicaraguans
Apr 18th - Russian Republic Chancellor Earl von Nesselrode resigns
Apr 29th - Peace between England & Russia
May 7th - Argentine & Brazilian sign a navigation pact
May 15th - 2nd SF Vigilance Committee organized
May 19th - Sen Charles Sumner, Mass, spoke out against slavery
May 21st - Lawrence Kansas captured, sacked by pro-slavery forces
May 22nd - Violence in Senate, SC rep Brooks used a cane on Mass Sen Sumner
May 24th - Pottawatomie Massacre took place in Kansas
May 27th - Doctor William Palmer found guilty of poisoning
Jun 3rd - Cullen Whipple patents screw machine
Jun 8th - Pitcairn Islanders arrive on Norfolk Island
Jun 9th - 500 Mormons leave Iowa City, Iowa and head west for Salt Lake City, Utah carrying all their possessions in two-wheeled handcarts.
Jun 17th - Republican Party opens its 1st national convention in Philadelphia
Jul 15th - Natal forms as a British colony separate from Cape Colony
Jul 16th - Statue of Laurens Jansz Coster unveiled in Haarlem
Jul 17th - The Great Train Wreck of 1856 between Camp Hill and Fort Washington, Pennsylvania kills over 60 people.
Jul 31st - Christchurch, New Zealand is chartered as a city.
Aug 6th - The Great Bell is cast in the Great Clock of Westminster (Big Ben)
Aug 10th - Hurricane washes away 2-300 revelers at Last Island, Louisiana
Aug 12th - Anthony Fass patents accordion
Aug 20th - Wilberforce University forms in Ohio
Aug 21st - America's first consul to Japan, Townsend Harris, arrives in Shimoda. (Traditional Japanese date: July 21, 1856)
Sep 2nd - Tianjing's struggle Incident in Nanjing, China.
Sep 14th - Battle of San Jacinto, Nicaragua defeats invaders
Oct 7th - Cyrus Chambers Jr patents folding machine that folds book & newspapers
Oct 8th - The Second Opium War or 2nd Anglo-Chinese War: begins with the Arrow Incident on the Pearl River.
Oct 19th - James Kelly & Jack Smith fight bareknuckle for 6h15m in Melbourne
Oct 20th - Arnhem-Oberhausen railway in Netherlands opens
Oct 24th - Constitution of South Australia adopted
Nov 3rd - A British fleet bombs Canton.
US President James Buchanan Nov 4th - James Buchanan elected 15th US president
Nov 16th - Amsterdam post office at Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal opens
Nov 17th - 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.
Dec 9th - The Iranian city of Bushehr surrenders to occupying British forces.

Famous Birthdays

Birthdays 1 - 100 of 109

Jan 6th - Giuseppe Martucci, composer
Jan 9th - Anton Askerc, Slavic priest/poet (Primoz Trubar)
Jan 9th - Lizette Woodworth Reese, US poet (Branch of May, Tears)
Jan 9th - Stevan Mokranjac, composer
Jan 11th - Christian August Sinding, Kongsberg Norway, composer
Jan 12th - John Singer Sargent, US, portrait painter (Wyndham Sisters)
Jan 14th - J. F. Archibald, Australian journalist and publisher (d. 1919)
Jan 18th - John Hyatt Brewer, composer
Feb 2nd - Makar Grigori Ekmalyan, composer
Feb 5th - Otto Brahm, German critic/founder (Neue Deutsche Rundschau)
Feb 14th - Frank Harris, England, journalist/writer (My Life & Loves)
Feb 15th - Frank Harris, Galway England, writer
Feb 15th - Emil Kraepelin, German psychiatrist (d. 1926)
Feb 16th - Willem Kes, Dutch violinist/composer/conductor (Parkorkest Amsterdam)
Feb 16th - Rudolph Karstadt, German entrepreneur (d. 1944)
Feb 21st - Hendrik P Berlage, architect (Stock exchange Amsterdam)
Feb 25th - Charles Lang Freer, art collector; endowed Freer Gallery [or 1876]
Mar 1st - Florimond Fonteyne, Flemish priest/politician (Volkseeuw)
Mar 4th - Toru Dutt, English and French poet and author (d. 1877)
Mar 4th - Alfred William Rich, English painter (d. 1921)
Mar 7th - Matilde Serao, [Tuffolina], Italian writer (Land of Cockayne)
Mar 8th - Bramwell Booth, the 2nd General of The Salvation Army (d. 1929)
Mar 8th - Tom Roberts, Australian artist (d. 1931)
Mar 9th - Eddie Foy, American singer and dancer (d. 1928)
Mar 16th - E Louis YY Napoleon Bonaparte, French/English prince
Mar 17th - Mikhail Vrubel, Russian painter (d. 1910)
Mar 20th - Frederick Winslow Taylor, father of scientific management
Mar 20th - Sir John Lavery, Irish artist (d. 1941)
Mar 21st - Henry Ossian Flipper, Thomasville, Georgia, American soldier, former slave and first African American to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1877
Mar 26th - David Alfred Thomas, Glamorganshire UK, 1st Viscount Rhondda
Apr 1st - Acacio Gabriel Viegas, Indian physician (d. 1933)
Education Pioneer Booker Taliaferro Washington (Apr 5th) Apr 5th - Booker Taliaferro Washington, pioneer educator (1st black on US stamp)
Apr 11th - Arthur Shrewsbury, cricketer (dominant England bat late 19th cent)
Apr 11th - Constantly Lievens, Flemish missionary in India
Apr 12th - William M Conway, English historian/explorer (Spitzbergen)
Apr 22nd - [Marie] Louise Hens, Flemish actress (Two Orphans)
Apr 24th - Henri POBJ Pétain, French marshal (Verdun/Vichy regime)
Apr 26th - Sir Joseph Ward, 17th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1930)
May 6th - Robert Edwin Peary, US, arctic explorer (North Pole-Apr 6 1909)
May 6th - Sigmund Freud, Freiberg in Mähren, Moravia, Austrian neurologist and father of psychology, (d. 1939)
May 13th - Peter Henry Emerson, 1st to promote photography as an independent art
May 13th - Tom O'Rourke, American boxing manager (d. 1938)
May 15th - Lyman Frank Baum, NY, children's book author (Wizard of Oz)
May 20th - Henri E Cross [Delacroix], French painter
May 25th - Louis Franchet d'Espèrey, French general (d. 1942)
May 26th - George Templeton Strong, composer
Father of Psychology Sigmund Freud (May 6th) Jun 8th - Natalia Janotha, composer
Jun 14th - Andrey Markov, Russia, mathematician (Markov Chain)
Jun 19th - Elbert Hubbard, US, editor/publisher/author (Message to Garcia)
Jun 22nd - Henry Rider Haggard, author (King Solomon's Mine, She, Dawn)
Jun 30th - Gerrit Kalff, writer (history of Dutch writers)
Jul 6th - Edward Anseele, Belgian minister of Rail/PTT
Jul 7th - George Hearne, cricketer (brother of Frank & Alec, Test for England)
Jul 9th - Daniel Guggenheim, US (Guggenheim Museum)
Jul 10th - Nikola Tesla, Croatian physicist, electrical engineer and inventor, developed alternating current and the Tesla Coil
Jul 15th - Owen Dunell, cricketer (South Africa's 1st Test captain)
Jul 21st - Harry A P Eyres, British diplomat (Constantinople, Albania)
Jul 21st - Louise Blanchard Bethune, 1st US woman architect
Jul 23rd - Arthur H Bird, composer
Jul 23rd - Bal Gangadhar Tilak, British-Indian Hindi leader
Jul 24th - Charles Émile Picard, French mathematician (d. 1941)
Playwright George Bernard Shaw (Jul 26th) Jul 26th - George Bernard Shaw, Dublin Ireland, dramatist (Pygmalion-Nobel 1925), (d. 1950)
Jul 30th - Richard B Haldane, British viscount/lord-chancellor (Life of A Smith)
Aug 1st - George Coulthard, Former Australian rules footballer and cricketer (d. 1883)
Aug 3rd - Alfred Deakin, 2nd Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1919)
Aug 10th - Paul Geisler, composer
Aug 12th - "Diamond Jim" Brady, American financier (d. 1917)
Aug 15th - J Keir Hardie, 1st Labour representative in British Parliament
Aug 17th - Violet Paget, [Vernon Lee], British author (Satan the master)
Aug 18th - Charles Hutchison Gabriel, composer
Aug 18th - Jan Karol Gali, composer
Aug 20th - Innokenti F Annenski, Russian poet/interpreter (Laodania) [NS Sept 1]
Aug 20th - Jakub Bart-Ćišinski, Sorbian writer (d. 1909)
Aug 24th - Felix Mottl, composer
Aug 27th - Iwan Franko, writer
Aug 30th - Carle David Tolmé Runge, German physicist (d. 1927)
Aug 31st - Nikoghayos Fadeyi Tigranyan, composer
Sep 1st - Innokenti F Annenski, Russian poet/interpreter (Laodania)
Sep 1st - Sergei Winogradsky, Russian scientist (d. 1953)
Sep 2nd - Yang Hsiu-ch'ing, commander in chief of Taiping Rebellion
Sep 3rd - Louis Henri Sullivan, Boston Mass, father of modern US architecture
Sep 5th - Jacobus C J Hermans, actor (7th Command)
Sep 12th - Johann Heinrich Beck, composer
Sep 23rd - William Archer, Scotland, writer (Green Goddess)
Sep 28th - Edward Herbert Thompson, Mass, archaeologist (Mayan civilization)
Sep 28th - Kate Douglas Wiggins, author (Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm)
Sep 30th - Andrejs Jurjans, composer
Oct 15th - R G Nivelle, French military man
Oct 25th - Dragutin Gorjanovic-Kramberger, Croatian paleontologist (d. 1936)
Oct 28th - Franz Xavier Arens, composer
Nov 3rd - Jim McCormick, baseball player (d. 1918)
Nov 6th - Nicholas Nikolajevitsj, ruler of Russia
Nov 7th - Semyon Zonovyevich Alapin, Vilna, tied for chess 1st place (1878)
Nov 13th - Louis D Brandeis, Mass, 68th Supreme Court Justice (1916-39)
Nov 13th - Sigwart Aspestrand, composer
Nov 18th - Nikolai Nikolaevich Romanov, Grand Duke of Russia (d. 1929)
Nov 22nd - Heber J Grant, Salt Lake City, 7th pres of Mormon church
Nov 25th - Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev, Russia, composer (Oresteia)
Nov 28th - Alexandr Dmitriyevich Kastal'sky, composer
Nov 29th - Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, German Chancellor/premier Prussia

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Famous Deaths

Deaths 1 - 40 of 40

Jan 5th - Pierre J David, [David d'Angers], French sculptor, dies at 67
Jan 11th - Nikolai I Nadezjdin, Russian archaeologist, dies [NS=Jan 23]
Jan 12th - Ľudovít Štúr, Slovak politician, author of Slovak language, (b. 1815)
Jan 16th - Thaddeus William Harris, American naturalist (b. 1795)
Jan 17th - Thomas Attwood Walmisley, composer, dies at 41
Jan 24th - Rabbi Yechezkel of Kuzmir, Polish Hasidic leader (b. 1775)
Feb 8th - Agostino Bassi, Italian entomologist (b. 1773)
Feb 17th - Heinrich Heine, German poet, dies at 58 in Paris
Feb 17th - John Braham, singer/composer, dies at 81
Mar 11th - James Beatty, Irish railway engineer (b. 1820)
Mar 28th - Pyotr Ivanovich Turchaninov, composer, dies at 76
Apr 11th - Juan Santamaría, national hero of Costa Rica (b. 1831)
May 3rd - Adolfo Fumagalli, composer, dies at 27
May 3rd - Adolphe Charles Adam, French composer/critic (Giselle), dies at 52
May 6th - William Hamilton, metaphysicist, dies
May 12th - Jacques Philippe Marie Binet, French mathematician (b. 1786)
Jun 11th - Friedrich H von der Hagen, German germanist, dies at 76
Jun 15th - David Cox, English painter (Treatise on Landscape Paint), dies at 73
Jun 23rd - Ivan Kireevsky, Russian literary critic and philosopher (b. 1806)
Jul 4th - Istvan Ferenczi, Hungarian sculptor, dies at 64
Savant Amedeo Avogadro (Jul 9th) Jul 9th - Amedeo Avogadro, Italian chemist, dies at 79
Jul 9th - James Strang, Mormon splinter group leader (b. 1813)
Jul 15th - Margaretha J de Neufville, author (The Kidnap), dies at 81
Jul 29th - Robert A Schumann, German pianist/composer (Humoresque), dies at 46
Aug 4th - Johann Gottlieb Schneider, composer, dies at 59
Aug 5th - Rubert Lucas Pearsall, composer, dies at 61
Aug 14th - William Buckland, dean (Westminster)/geologist, dies
Aug 14th - Constant Prévost, French geologist (b. 1787)
Aug 20th - Philipp Jakob Riotte, composer, dies at 80
Aug 21st - Peter Joseph von Lindpaintner, composer, dies at 64
Aug 29th - Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck, British Christian writer (b. 1778)
Aug 30th - Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, English writer (b. 1811)
Sep 24th - Henry, 1st viscount Hardinge of Lahore, gov-gen of India, dies
Oct 10th - Michal Wielhorski, composer, dies at 67
Oct 19th - William Sprague III, American politician from Rhode Island (b. 1799)
Oct 29th - Carel SW van Hogendorp, colonial director, dies at 68
Nov 4th - Hippolyte Delaroche, French painter (b. 1797)
Nov 17th - William Knyvett, composer, dies at 77
Nov 20th - Farkas/Wolfgang Bolyai, Hungarian mathematician, dies at 81
Dec 20th - Francesco Bentivegna, Italian revolutionary (b. 1820)