1856

Events in 1856 35

• 1776 – 1856 Amedeo Avogadro (1776-1856) Died 9 July 1856, aged 80 Avogadro, an Italian scientist, died in Turin. He is best known for Avogadro's hypothesis, proposed in 1811, that equal volumes of gases at the same temperature and pressure contain equal numbers of molecules. The concept underpins Avogadro's number, a cornerstone of modern chemistry, though it was not widely accepted until after his death.
• 1792 – 1856 Nikolai Lobachevsky (1792-1856) Died 24 February 1856, aged 63 Lobachevsky, a Russian mathematician, died in Kazan after developing non-Euclidean geometry independently of Janos Bolyai. His work challenged Euclid's parallel postulate and laid groundwork for later developments in mathematics and physics. He spent much of his career as rector of Kazan University.
• 1797 – 1856 Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) Died 17 February 1856, aged 58 Heine, one of the most influential German poets of the 19th century, died in Paris after years of illness that had confined him to bed. His works, including Buch der Lieder, were set to music by composers such as Schubert and Schumann. He spent his final decades in exile in France due to censorship of his politically radical writing.
• 1806 – 1856 Max Stirner (1806-1856) Died 26 June 1856, aged 49 Stirner, a German philosopher, died in Berlin in relative obscurity after a final illness. His 1844 book The Ego and Its Own argued for radical individualism and rejected abstract moral and political obligations. His ideas later influenced anarchist and existentialist thought.
• 1810 – 1856 Robert Schumann Romantic composer & critic German Romantic composer known for his piano works, Lieder and symphonies. He championed the music of Chopin and Brahms in his influential writings.
• 1856 – 1920 Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856-1920) Died 1 August 1920, aged 64 Indian nationalist leader and one of the first popular advocates of complete Indian self-rule, known by the epithet "Lokmanya." He was a prominent voice in the Indian independence movement before the rise of Mahatma Gandhi. His death was followed the same month by Gandhi's launch of the non-cooperation movement.
• 1856 Bessemer Process Mass Steel Production The process that enabled the skyscraper and railway age by making steel cheap.
• 1856 – 1915 Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) Died 14 November 1915, aged 59 Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Institute, was the most prominent African American educator and political leader of his generation, advocating vocational education and gradual economic advancement. He died at Tuskegee, Alabama, after years of declining health.
• 1856 – 1915 Charles Frohman (1856-1915) Died 7 May 1915, aged 58 American theatrical producer Charles Frohman dominated Broadway and London theater for two decades, staging works by J. M. Barrie and discovering major stars of the era. He died when the RMS Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk off the Irish coast.
• 1856 – 1941 Christian Sinding (1856-1941) Died 3 December 1941, aged 85 Christian Sinding was a Norwegian composer best known for the piano piece Rustle of Spring. He died in Oslo.
• 1856 – 1915 Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) Died 7 May 1915, aged 58 American writer and founder of the Roycroft artisan community, Elbert Hubbard was known for the inspirational essay "A Message to Garcia." He and his wife Alice died together when the RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat.
• 1856 – 1950 George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Died 2 November 1950, aged 94 George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright, critic, and Nobel laureate whose works include Pygmalion and Saint Joan. He co-founded the London School of Economics and was a leading voice of the Fabian socialist movement. He died at his home in Ayot St Lawrence, England.
• 1856 – 1940 J. J. Thomson (1856-1940) Died 30 August 1940, aged 83 British physicist who discovered the electron in 1897 and won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1906. He led the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, and seven of his assistants went on to win Nobel Prizes.
• 1856 – 1919 L. Frank Baum (1856-1919) Died 6 May 1919, aged 62 Baum was an American author best known for writing "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and its many sequels. His work became one of the most enduring and widely adapted children's fantasy series in American literature.
• 1856 – 1941 Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) Died 5 October 1941, aged 84 Louis Brandeis was the first Jewish justice of the US Supreme Court and served from 1916 to 1939. He was a leading champion of the right to privacy and of free speech.
• 1856 – 1924 Louis Sullivan (1856-1924) Died 14 April 1924, aged 67 Louis Sullivan was an American architect known as a pioneer of the modern skyscraper and mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright. His maxim "form follows function" became a defining principle of modernist architecture.
• 1856 – 1879 Napoléon, Prince Imperial (1856-1879) Died 1 June 1879, aged 23 Napoléon, Prince Imperial, was the only child of Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie of France and heir to the fallen Bonapartist claim to the French throne. Living in exile in Britain after the fall of the Second Empire, he volunteered to serve with British forces in the Anglo-Zulu War. He was killed in an ambush by Zulu warriors while on a reconnaissance patrol in Natal.
• 1856 – 1943 Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) Died 7 January 1943, aged 86 Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor and engineer whose alternating current induction motor and polyphase system underpin modern power distribution. He also pioneered radio, wireless power transmission and high-voltage devices. He died alone and in debt in a room at the Hotel New Yorker.
• 1856 Perkin synthesises the first artificial dye Mauveine — chemistry becomes an industry In 1856, William Perkin, an 18-year-old chemistry student in London, accidentally synthesised mauveine (mauve), the first synthetic organic dye, while attempting to synthesise quinine. The discovery launched the synthetic dye industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and organic chemistry as an industrial science. Perkin's work showed that industrial processes could be based on chemical knowledge.
• 1856 – 1920 Robert Peary (1856-1920) Died 20 February 1920, aged 63 American explorer who led the expedition credited with being first to reach the North Pole in 1909, a claim that remains disputed. He was a US Navy rear admiral and one of the best-known polar explorers of his era.
• 1856 – present The Saimaa Canal Vital Waterway A canal connecting Lake Saimaa to the Gulf of Finland, critical for the eastern Finnish economy.
• 1856 Victoria Cross instituted Britain establishes its highest award for military valour Queen Victoria issued a Royal Warrant on 29 January 1856 creating the Victoria Cross, Britain's highest decoration for gallantry in the face of the enemy. The medal was made retroactive to cover acts of valour during the Crimean War. It remains the most prestigious award in the British and Commonwealth honours system.
• 1856 Treaty of Paris ends the Crimean War Russia, the Ottoman Empire, and the Allied powers sign peace Representatives of Russia, the Ottoman Empire, France, Britain, Sardinia, and Austria signed the Treaty of Paris on 30 March 1856, ending the Crimean War. The treaty neutralized the Black Sea, barring warships and fortifications, and guaranteed the integrity of the Ottoman Empire. It marked a significant realignment of European power after the war's heavy casualties.
• 1856 – 1939 Freud Father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud founded psychoanalysis and introduced concepts like the unconscious mind, repression, and the Oedipus complex.
• 1856 David Livingstone completes crossing of southern Africa Missionary explorer reaches the Indian Ocean coast David Livingstone arrived at Quelimane on the Indian Ocean coast of Mozambique on 20 May 1856, completing a west-to-east crossing of the African continent begun in 1853 from Luanda. His journey included the first European sighting of Victoria Falls in 1855. The expedition made Livingstone a celebrated figure in Britain and spurred further European exploration of the African interior.
• 1856 Sack of Lawrence Pro-slavery forces raid a free-state stronghold in Kansas On 21 May 1856, a pro-slavery posse attacked the free-state town of Lawrence, Kansas, destroying printing presses, a hotel, and homes. The raid was part of the escalating violence known as Bleeding Kansas over whether the territory would permit slavery. It provoked retaliatory violence, including the Pottawatomie Massacre days later.
• 1856 Caning of Charles Sumner Congressman Preston Brooks beats a senator on the Senate floor On 22 May 1856, Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina beat Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane in the Senate chamber, in retaliation for an antislavery speech. Sumner was severely injured and did not fully return to the Senate for three years. The attack deepened sectional divisions between North and South ahead of the Civil War.
• 1856 Pottawatomie Massacre John Brown leads a deadly raid against pro-slavery settlers On the night of 24-25 May 1856, John Brown and a small band of followers killed five pro-slavery settlers along Pottawatomie Creek in Kansas Territory. The killings were retaliation for the Sack of Lawrence and escalated the violent conflict known as Bleeding Kansas. Brown became a polarizing figure, later leading the 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry.
• 1856 Republican Party holds its first national convention Delegates nominate John C. Fremont for president The newly formed Republican Party held its first national nominating convention in Philadelphia from 17 to 19 June 1856, selecting explorer John C. Fremont as its presidential candidate. The party ran on an antislavery platform opposing the expansion of slavery into new territories. Fremont lost the general election to Democrat James Buchanan, but the party's strong showing established it as a major political force.
• 1856 Natal becomes a separate British colony Colony of Natal split from the Cape Colony On 1 July 1856, Natal was proclaimed a separate British colony, with its own legislative council, after previously being administered as part of the Cape Colony. The colony, centered on Pietermaritzburg and the port of Durban, drew British settlers to the sugar-growing region on South Africa's east coast. It later became one of the founding provinces of the Union of South Africa in 1910.
• 1856 Second Opium War begins with the Arrow Incident Chinese seizure of a ship sparks renewed conflict with Britain On 8 October 1856, Chinese officials in Canton boarded the Arrow, a Chinese-owned but British-registered ship, arrested its crew on suspicion of piracy, and lowered its flag. Britain used the incident as a pretext to bombard Canton later that month, reigniting hostilities that became the Second Opium War. France later joined Britain against the Qing government.
• 1856 Willie and Martin handcart companies disaster Mormon emigrants are trapped by early snowstorms in Wyoming Two companies of Mormon emigrants pulling handcarts to Salt Lake City were caught by early winter storms in Wyoming starting in October 1856, having departed too late in the season. Roughly 200 of the more than 1,000 emigrants died of cold and starvation before rescue parties from Salt Lake City reached them. The disaster remains the deadliest single incident in the history of American westward migration organized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• 1856 Anglo-Persian War begins Britain declares war after Persia seizes Herat Britain declared war on Persia on 1 November 1856 after Persian forces captured the city of Herat, which Britain viewed as a threat to British India via Afghanistan. British forces landed in the Persian Gulf and captured Bushehr before Persia agreed to withdraw from Herat. The brief war was resolved by the Treaty of Paris of 1857.
• 1856 James Buchanan elected President of the United States Democrat defeats the first Republican presidential candidate James Buchanan won the United States presidential election held on 4 November 1856, defeating Republican John C. Fremont and Know Nothing candidate Millard Fillmore. The election was dominated by the question of slavery's expansion into new territories. Buchanan took office in March 1857 and his presidency was later overshadowed by the onset of the Civil War.
• 1856 – 1924 Woodrow Wilson 28th President — led US in WWI, founded League of Nations Woodrow Wilson (Dec 28, 1856 – Feb 3, 1924) was the 28th President 1913-1921. He led the US through World War I, proposed the League of Nations, and won the Nobel Peace Prize. He suffered a debilitating stroke in 1919.