From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
List of events
1856 in the United States included some significant events that pushed the nation closer towards
civil war .
Incumbents
Governors and
lieutenant governors
Governors
Lieutenant governors
Lieutenant Governor of California :
Samuel Purdy (
Democratic ) (until January 9),
Robert M. Anderson (Know Nothing) (starting January 9)
Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut :
William Field (
Free Soil ) (until month and day unknown),
Albert Day (
Free Soil ) (starting month and day unknown)
Lieutenant Governor of Illinois :
Gustavus Koerner (
Democratic )
Lieutenant Governor of Indiana :
Ashbel P. Willard (
Democratic )
Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky :
James Greene Hardy (Know Nothing) (until month and day unknown), vacant (starting month and day unknown)
Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana :
Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts :
Simon Brown (political party unknown) (until month and day unknown),
Henry W. Benchley (political party unknown) (starting month and day unknown)
Lieutenant Governor of Michigan :
George Coe (
Republican )
Lieutenant Governor of Missouri : vacant
Lieutenant Governor of New York :
Henry Jarvis Raymond (
Whig ) (until end of December 31)
Lieutenant Governor of Ohio :
James Myers (
Democratic ) (until January 14),
Thomas H. Ford (
Democratic ) (starting January 14)
Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island : Anderson C. Rose (political party unknown) (until month and day unknown),
Nicholas Brown III (political party unknown) (starting month and day unknown)
Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina : Richard de Treville (
Democratic ) (until December 9),
Gabriel Cannon (
Democratic ) (starting December 9)
Lieutenant Governor of Texas :
Hardin Richard Runnels (
Democratic )
Lieutenant Governor of Vermont :
Ryland Fletcher (
Republican ) (until October 10),
James M. Slade (
Republican ) (starting October 10)
Lieutenant Governor of Virginia :
Shelton Leake (
Democratic ) (until January 1),
Elisha W. McComas (political party unknown) (starting January 1)
Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin :
James T. Lewis (
Republican ) (until January 7),
Arthur MacArthur, Sr. (
Democratic ) (starting January 7)
Events
January–March
April–June
May 22:
Preston Brooks attacks
Charles Sumner .
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 .
October–December
Ongoing
Births
Woodrow Wilson
January 7 –
Charles Harold Davis , landscape painter (died
1933 )
January 8 –
Elizabeth Taylor , painter and traveler (died
1932 )
January 9 –
Lizette Woodworth Reese , poet (died
1935 )
[2]
January 12 –
John Singer Sargent , painter (born in Tuscany; died
1925 in the United Kingdom )
February 2 –
Frederick William Vanderbilt , railroad magnate (died
1938 )
March 20 –
Frederick Winslow Taylor , inventor and efficiency expert (died
1915 )
April 5 –
Booker T. Washington , educator (died 1915)
April 23 –
Granville T. Woods , African American inventor (died
1910 )
March 8 –
Colin Campbell Cooper , impressionist painter (died
1937 )
May 6 –
Robert Peary , Arctic explorer (died
1920 )
May 15 –
L. Frank Baum , children's writer (The Wizard of Oz ) (died
1919 )
May 26 –
George Templeton Strong , composer (died 1948 in Switzerland)
July 9/10 –
Nikola Tesla inventor, genius (died in 1947 in New York, United States)
July 11 –
Georgiana Drew , stage actress (died
1893 )
July 24 –
Franklin Ware Mann , inventor (died
1916 )
July 25 –
Charles Major , novelist and lawyer (died
1913 )
August 15 –
Charles E. Townsend , U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1911 to 1923 (died
1924 )
September 3 –
Louis Sullivan , architect, "father of skyscrapers" (died 1924)
September 5
September 9 –
Richard R. Kenney , U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1897 to 1901 (died
1931 )
October 7 –
Moses Fleetwood Walker , baseball pitcher and Black nationalist (died
1924 )
October 10 –
George McClellan ,
U.S. Representative from
New York (died
1927 )
October 28 –
Anna Elizabeth Klumpke , portrait and genre painter (died
1942 )
October 30 –
Charles Leroux , balloonist and parachutist (died
1889 )
November 6 –
Jefferson David Chalfant , trompe-l'œil painter (died 1931)
November 13 –
Louis Brandeis , U.S. Supreme Court Justice (died
1941 )
November 14 –
Madeleine Lemoyne Ellicott , suffragette (died
1945 )
November 16 –
Carrie Babcock Sherman , wife of
James S. Sherman ,
Second Lady of the United States (died
1931 )
November 17 –
Thomas Taggart , U.S. Senator from Indiana in 1916 (died
1929 )
November 21 –
William Emerson Ritter , biologist (died
1944 )
November 22 –
Heber J. Grant , seventh president of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (died 1945)
December 22 –
Frank B. Kellogg , U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1917 to 1923 (died 1937)
December 23 –
James Buchanan Duke , tobacco and electric power industrialist (born
1925 )
December 28
Deaths
January 1 –
John M. Berrien , U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1841 to 1852 (born
1781 )
January 16 –
Thaddeus William Harris , naturalist (born
1795 )
April 19 –
Thomas Rogers , railroad locomotive builder (born
1792 )
April 20 –
Robert L. Stevens , president of
Camden and Amboy Railroad (born
1787 )
April 26 –
George Troup , U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1816 to 1818 and 1829 to 1833 (born
1780 )
May 5 –
William Crosby Dawson , U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1849 to 1855 (born
1798 )
May 31 –
John Milton Niles , U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1835 to 1839 and 1843 to 1849 (born 1787)
July 9
September 7 –
Almon W. Babbitt , Mormon pioneer and first secretary/treasurer of Utah Territory (born
1812 )
October 19 –
William Sprague III , politician from Rhode Island (born
1799 )
November 9 –
John M. Clayton , U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1829 to 1836, 1845 to 1849 and 1853 to 1856 (born
1796 )
See also
References
External links