Famous birthdays, deaths and events of 1856
Birthdays
- January 6 - Giuseppe Martucci, Italian composer (d. 1909)
- January 9 - Anton Aškerc, Slovenian priest and poet (d. 1912)
- January 11 - Christian Sinding, Norwegian composer (d. 1932)
- January 12 - John Singer Sargent, American artist (d. 1925)
- January 14 - J. F. Archibald, Australian journalist and publisher (d. 1919)
- January 18 - Daniel Hale Williams, African-American surgeon (d. 1931)
- February 14 - Frank Harris, Irish author and editor (d. 1931)
- February 15 - Emil Kraepelin, German psychiatrist (d. 1926)
- February 16 - Rudolph Karstadt, German entrepreneur (d. 1944)
- February 16 - Willem Kes, Dutch conductor (d. 1934)
- March 4 - Toru Dutt, English and French poet and author (d. 1877)
- March 4 - Alfred William Rich, English painter (d. 1921)
- March 8 - Bramwell Booth, the 2nd General of The Salvation Army (d. 1929)
- March 8 - Colin Campbell Cooper, American Impressionist painter (d. 1937)
- March 8 - Tom Roberts, Australian artist (d. 1931)
- March 9 - Eddie Foy, American singer and dancer (d. 1928)
- March 16 - Napoléon Eugène Louis John Joseph, called Napoleon IV
- March 17 - Mikhail Vrubel, Russian painter (d. 1910)
- March 20 - Sir John Lavery, Irish artist (d. 1941)
- March 20 - Frederick Winslow Taylor, American inventor (d. 1915)
- April 1 - Acacio Gabriel Viegas, Indian physician (d. 1933)
- April 5 - Booker T. Washington, American educator (d. 1915)
- April 12 - William Martin Conway, English art critic and mountaineer (d. 1937)
- April 24 - Henri Philippe Pétain, French soldier and statesman (d. 1951)
- April 26 - Sir Joseph Ward, 17th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1930)
- May 6 - Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychiatrist (d. 1939)
- May 6 - Robert Peary, American explorer (d. 1920)
- May 13 - Tom O'Rourke, American boxing manager (d. 1938)
- May 15 - L. Frank Baum, American author (d. 1919)
- May 25 - Louis Franchet d'Espèrey, French general (d. 1942)
- June 14 - Andrey Markov, Russian mathematician (d. 1922)
- June 22 - H. Rider Haggard, English author (d. 1925)
- July 10 - Nikola Tesla, Serb-American inventor (d. 1943)
- July 23 - Lokmanya Tilak, Indian freedom fighter (d. 1920)
- July 24 - Charles Émile Picard, French mathematician (d. 1941)
- July 26 - George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer
- August 1 - George Coulthard, Former Australian rules footballer and cricketer (d. 1883)
- August 3 - Alfred Deakin, 2nd Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1919)
- August 10 - William Willett, English inventor of Daylight Saving Time (d. 1915)
- August 12 - "Diamond Jim" Brady, American financier (d. 1917)
- August 15 - Ivan Franko, Ukrainian writer (d. 1916)
- August 20 - Jakub Bart-Ćišinski, Sorbian writer (d. 1909)
- August 30 - Carle David Tolmé Runge, German physicist (d. 1927)
- September 1 - Sergei Winogradsky, Russian scientist (d. 1953)
- September 3 - Louis Sullivan, American architect (d. 1924)
- September 3 - Robert Stewart, South African cricketer (d. 1913)
- September 28 - Kate Douglas Wiggin, American children's author (d. 1923)
- October 25 - Dragutin Gorjanovic-Kramberger, Croatian paleontologist (d. 1936)
- November 3 - Jim McCormick, baseball player (d. 1918)
- November 13 - Louis Brandeis, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1941)
- November 18 - Nikolai Nikolaevich Romanov, Grand Duke of Russia (d. 1929)
- November 22 - Heber J. Grant, American religious leader (d. 1945)
- November 29 - Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, German statesman (d. 1921)
- December 11 - Georgi Plekhanov, Russian revolutionary and Marxist theoretician (d. 1918)
- December 13 - Svetozar Boroeviã, Austro-Hungarian field marshal (d. 1920)
- December 18 - Sir J. J. Thomson, English physicist
- December 22 - Frank B. Kellogg, U.S. Secretary of State
- December 25 - Hans von Bartels, German painter (d. 1913)
- December 25 - Pud Galvin, American professional baseball pitcher (d. 1902)
- December 28 - Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States
- December 29 - Thomas Joannes Stieltjes, Dutch mathematician (d. 1894)
Deaths
- January 12 - Ľudovít Štúr, Slovak politician
- January 16 - Thaddeus William Harris, American naturalist (b. 1795)
- January 24 - Rabbi Yechezkel of Kuzmir, Polish Hasidic leader (b. 1775)
- February 8 - Agostino Bassi, Italian entomologist (b. 1773)
- February 17 - Heinrich Heine, German writer (b. 1797)
- February 24 - Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky, Russian mathematician (b. 1792)
- March 11 - James Beatty, Irish railway engineer (b. 1820)
- April 11 - Juan Santamaría, national hero of Costa Rica (b. 1831)
- May 3 - Adolphe Charles Adam, French composer (b. 1803)
- May 12 - Jacques Philippe Marie Binet, French mathematician (b. 1786)
- June 23 - Ivan Kireevsky, Russian literary critic and philosopher (b. 1806)
- July 9 - Amedeo Avogadro, Italian chemist (b. 1776)
- July 9 - James Strang, Mormon splinter group leader (b. 1813)
- July 29 - Robert Schumann, German composer (b. 1810)
- August 14 - Constant Prévost, French geologist (b. 1787)
- 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)
- November 4 - Hippolyte Delaroche, French painter (b. 1797)
- November 20 - Farkas Bolyai, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1775)
- December 20 - Francesco Bentivegna, Italian revolutionary (b. 1820)
Events
- January 26 - First Battle of Seattle (1856). Marines from the USS Decatur drive off American Indian attackers after all day battle with settlers.
- January 29 - Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross.
- February 1 - Auburn University is chartered as the East Alabama Male College.
- February 7 - 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.
- February 18 - The American Party (Know-Nothings) convene in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to nominate their first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.
- February 22 - The Republican Party opens its first national meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
- March 9 - Sigma Alpha Epsilon is founded in the Johnston Mansion House on the University of Alabama
- March 20 - Costa Rican troops rout Walker's soldiers.
- March 30 - The Treaty of Paris (1856) is signed, ending the Crimean War.
- April 10 - The Theta Chi Fraternity is founded at Norwich University.
- April 11 - In Rivas, Nicaragua, Juan Santamaria burns down the hostel where William Walker's filibusters are holed up.
- April 30 - Battle of Rivas, Nicaragua, against North American mercenaries.
- 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").
- May 24 - John Brown and his men murder five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas.
- June 8 - The community of Pitcairn Islands and descendants of the mutineers of the HMS Bounty consisting of 194 people arrived on the Morayshire at Norfolk Island Commencing the Third Settlement of the Island.
- June 9 - 500 Mormons leave Iowa City, Iowa and head west for Salt Lake City, Utah carrying all their possessions in two-wheeled handcarts.
- July 17 - The Great Train Wreck of 1856 occurs in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania killing over 60 people.
- July 31 - Christchurch, New Zealand is chartered as a city.
- August 21 - America's first consul to Japan, Townsend Harris, arrives in Shimoda. (Traditional Japanese date: July 21, 1856)
- September 2 - Tianjing's struggle Incident in Nanjing, China.
- October 8 - The Second Opium War between several western powers and China begins with the Arrow Incident on the Pearl River.
- November 6 - The first work of fiction by the author later known as George Eliot is submitted for publication.
- 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.
- December 9 - The Iranian city of Bushehr surrenders to occupying British forces.
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