1856 Events

1856 Douglas Attempts Democractic Party Nomination for a Second Time
The 1856 Democratic National Convention, held at Smith & Nixon's Hall in Cincinnati was the first national party nominating convention to be held outside the original thirteen states. Cal...
1856 May 6 Robert Peary is Born
On May 6, 1856, Robert E. Peary, who claimed discovery of the North Pole, was born in Cresson, Pennsylvania. During the early years of the twentieth century, the conquest of the North...
1856 May 6 Sigmund Freud is Born
Freud was born on 6 May 1856, to Jewish Galician parents in the Moravian town of Příbor, Austrian Empire, now the Czech Republic. Freud was born with a caul, which the family accepted as ...
1856 May 15 Committee of Vigilance Established in Wild West
On May 15, 1856, residents of San Francisco organized a Committee of Vigilance to combat crime in their rapidly growing town. Like other gold rush boomtowns, San Francisco's population e...
1856 May 15 L. Frank Baum is Born
Lyman Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was born on May 15, 1856, in Chittenango, New York. The son of a successful entrepreneur, Baum embarked on many careers before begi...
1856 Jul 10 Nikola Tesla Is Born
Tesla was born to Serbian parents in the village of Smiljan, Austrian Empire near the town of Gospić, in the territory of modern-day Croatia. His baptismal certificate reports that he was...
1856 Jul 17 Great Train Wreck of 1856
At the Wissahickon station another train, the Aramingo, engineered by William Vanstavoren, waited for the excursion to pass on the single track line that had opened one year and 15 days e...
1856 Aug 11 Last Island Hurricane
The Last Island hurricane of 1856 was an intense Atlantic hurricane that destroyed Last Island in southern Louisiana. The first tropical cyclone, first hurricane, and first major hurrican...
1856 Aug 18 The Guano Islands Act Is Passed By The U.S. Congress
The Guano Islands Act is federal legislation passed by the U.S. Congress, on August 18, 1856. It enables citizens of the U.S. to take possession of islands containing guano deposits. The ...
1856 Sep 3 Louis Henri Sullivan Is Born
Architect and writer Louis Henri Sullivan was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on September 3, 1856. Sullivan spent much of his youth on his grandparents' small farm. At age sixteen, he ent...
1856 Sep 3 Louis Sullivan Born
Louis Henri Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and has been called the "father of modernism." He is considered by many as the creator of the modern s...
1856 Nov Douglas Marries Adele Cutts
Stephen Douglas and Adele Cutts were married in Washington in November 1856. Adele immediately took over the management of the Senator's household, accepted the two Douglas boys as her ow...
1856 Nov 17 The United States Army Establishes Fort Buchanan On Sonoita Creek
The purchased lands were initially appended to the existing New Mexico Territory. To help control the new land, the United States Army established Fort Buchanan on Sonoita Creek in presen...
1856 Dec 28 Thomas Woodrow Wilson Is Born
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born on December 28, 1856, in Staunton, Virginia. The twenty-eighth president of the United States, Wilson served two consecutive terms in the White House, from...