1855

Events 
 January 1 – London, Ontario is incorporated as a city.
 January 23 – The first bridge over the Mississippi River opens in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota, a crossing made today by the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge.
 January 23 – The region of Wairarapa, New Zealand was hit by the strongest earthquake ever recorded in New Zealand, which reached Magnitude 8.1 on the Richter Scale. There were five deaths.
 January 29 – Lord Aberdeen resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom over the management of the Crimean War.
 February 5 – Lord Palmerston becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
 February 11 – Kassa Hailu is crowned Tewodros II, Emperor of Ethiopia, by Abuna Salama III in a ceremony at the church of Derasge Maryam.
 March 3 – US Congress appropriates $30,000 to create US Camel Corps
 March 16 – Bates College in Lewiston, Maine was founded.
 May 15 – The Great Gold Robbery of 1855 in England
 June 29 – The Daily Telegraph begins publication
 September 3 – Last Bartholomew Fair on London, England
 September 11 – Sevastapol falls to the British troops
 December 22 – Metropolitan Board of Works established.
 Stamp duty was removed from newspapers in Britain creating mass market media in the UK.
 The Panama Railway becomes the first railroad to connect the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean by rail as the railroad's route across Panama is completed.

 Births 
May 1 - Cecilia Beaux, American painter
May 10 - Sri Yukteswar Giri, Indian guru