1856 (original) (raw)

Table of contents
1 Events [2 Year in topic](#Year in topic) 3 Births 4 Deaths

Events

January 8 - Borax is discovered (John Veatch).
January 29 - Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross
February 18 - The American Party (Know-Nothings) convene in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to nominate their first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.
March 30 - The Treaty of Paris (1856) is signed, ending the Crimean War
April 7 - Foundation of Nelson College, Nelson, New Zealand
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.
July 31 - Christchurch, New Zealand chartered as a city.
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.
Gregor Mendel starts his research on genetics.
End of the Crimean war.
November - James Buchanan defeats John C. Fremont in the U.S. presidential election
National Portrait Gallery in London opened.