Events of 1856

January–June

January 29: Victoria Cross.

• January 8 – Borax deposits are discovered in large quantities by John Veatch.

• 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 (1856): Marines from the USS Decatur drive off American Indian attackers after an all day battle with settlers.

• January 29 – Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross.

• February – The Tintic War breaks out in Utah.

• 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.

• 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 the Covent Garden Theatre in London.

• March 6 – Maryland Agricultural College (present-day University of Maryland, College Park) is chartered.

• March 9 – National Fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon is founded at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

• March 20 – 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 dettachment.

• March 31 – The Treaty of Paris (1856) is signed, ending the Crimean War.

March 5: Covent Garden Theatre fire.

• 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.

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.

Undated

• Gregor Mendel starts his research on genetics.

• British Country and Borough Police Act extends London police model to all of England and Wales.

• Kate Warne, the first female private detective, begins to work for the Pinkerton Detective Agency.

• Pre-human remains are found in the Neanderthal valley in Germany.

• The National Portrait Gallery, London opens.

• St. Paul's School, Belgaum is founded in Belgaum, India.

• Legal protection of widow remarriage is extended in India.

• Mauveine, the first synthetic organic dye, was discovered by William Henry Perkin while attempting to synthesize quinine. This eventually led to the birth of the chemical industry.

Ongoing events

• Anglo-Persian War (1856–1857)

• Crimean War (1854–1856)

• Second Opium War (1856–1860)

• Taiping Rebellion (1851–1864)

Births

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

• *Bramwell Booth, Salvation Army general (d. 1929)

• *Tom Roberts, Australian artist (d. 1931)

• 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)

• *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 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

• *Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychiatrist (d. 1939)

• *Robert Peary, American Arctic explorer (d. 1920)

• 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

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)

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

• *Karel Havlíček Borovský, Czech politician and writer (b. 1821)

• *Robert Schumann, German composer and pianist

• August 29 – Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck, British Christian writer (b. 1778)

• August 30 – Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, English writer (b. 1811)

• October 19

• *William Sprague III, American politician from Rhode Island (b. 1799)

• *Said bin Sultan, Sultan of Muscat and Oman

• December 20 – Francesco Bentivegna, Italian revolutionary (b. 1820)

• date unknown – Chiba Shusaku Narimasa, swordsman (b. 1794)