1856

Events from the year 1856 in the United States. Included some significant events that pushed the nation closer towards civil war.
==Incumbents==
===Federal Government===
* President: Franklin Pierce (D-NH)
* Vice President: vacant
* Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney (MD)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Nathaniel P. Banks (A-MA)
* Congress: 34th
==Events==
===January - March===
* January 24 – U.S. President Franklin Pierce declares the new Free-State Topeka government in Bleeding Kansas to be in rebellion.
* January 26 – Puget Sound War/Yakima War: Battle of Seattle: Marines from the USS Decatur drive off American Indian attackers after an all day battle with settlers.
* February 1 – Auburn University is first chartered as the East Alabama Male College.
* February 2 – Dallas, Texas is incorporated as a city.
* February 3 – The Tintic War breaks out in Utah.
* February 12 – American clipper ships Driver and Ocean Queen leave Liverpool and London respectively; both will be lost without trace in the Atlantic, perhaps due to ice, killing 374 and 123 respectively.
* February 18 – The American Party (Know-Nothings) convene in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to nominate their first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.
* 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.
===April - June===
* April 10 – The Theta Chi fraternity is founded at Norwich University.
* 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 – Bleeding Kansas: 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 pro-slavery supporters in Franklin County, Kansas.
* June 2 – Bleeding Kansas: Battle of Black Jack: Anti-slavery forces, led by John Brown, defeat pro-slavery forces.
* June 6 – At the Democratic National Convention, President Franklin Pierce is denied re-nomination for the November presidential election.
* 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 - September===
* July 17 – The Great Train Wreck of 1856: Two trains collide near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania killing at least 59 and injuring at least 100.
* August 10 – 1856 Last Island hurricane: A hurricane destroys Last Island, Louisiana, leaving at least 200 dead. The whole island is broken up into smaller islands by the storm.
* August 21 – The Charter Oak fell to the ground during a storm
* August 23 – Kate Warne, the first female private detective, begins to work for the Pinkerton Detective Agency.
* August 30
** Bleeding Kansas: Battle of Osawatomie: Pro-slavery forces defeat anti-slavery forces.
** Chickasaw Constitution signed; establishes new Chickasaw Nation in Indian Territory.
* 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.
===October - December===
* November 4 – U.S. presidential election, 1856: Democrat James Buchanan defeats John C. Frémont of the fledgling Republican Party, and former President Millard Fillmore, representing a coalition of "Know-Nothings" and Whigs, to become the 15th President of the United States.
* 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.
==Memoriam==
* January 1 – John M. Berrien, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1841 to 1852 (aged 74; Savannah, GA, USA)
* January 16 –Thaddeus William Harris, naturalist (aged 60; Cambridge, MA, USA)
* April 19 – Thomas Rogers, railroad locomotive builder (aged 64; Paterson, NJ, USA)
* April 20 – Robert L. Stevens, president of Camden and Amboy Railroad (aged 68; Hoboken, NJ, USA)
* April 26 – George Troup, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1816 to 1818 and 1829 to 1833 (aged 75; Treutlen County, GA, USA)
* May 5 – William Crosby Dawson, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1849 to 1855 (aged 58; Greensboro, GA, USA)
* May 31 – John Milton Niles, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1835 to 1839 and 1843 to 1849 (aged 68; Hartford, CT, USA)
* July 9
** Alfred Cuthbert, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1835 to 1843 (aged 70; Monticello, GA, USA)
** James Strang, Mormon splinter group leader (aged 43; Voree, WI, USA)
* September 7 – Almon W. Babbitt, Mormon pioneer and first secretary/treasurer of Utah Territory (aged 43; Ashgrove, NE Territory, USA)
* October 19 – William Sprague III, politician from Rhode Island (aged 56; Providence, RI, USA)
* November 9 – John M. Clayton, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1829 to 1836, 1845 to 1849 and 1853 to 1856 (aged 60; Dover, DE, USA)
==External links==
* 1856 in the United States
Category:United States History: Volume 8