26th January » First Battle of Seattle (1856) Battle of Seattle. Marines from the USS Decatur 1839 6 drive off American Indian attackers after all day battle with settlers.
29th January » Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom issues a Warrant (law) or Warrant under the Royal sign-manual that establishes the Victoria Cross to recognise acts of valour by British Empire named British military personnel during the Crimean War.
7th February » The colony e.g colonial Parliament of Tasmania e.g Tasmanian Parliament passes the second piece of legislation (the Electoral Act of 1856) anywhere in the world providing for elections by way of a secret ballot.
8th February » Barbu Dimitrie Ştirbei abolishes slavery in Wallachia.
11th February » The Kingdom of Awadh is annexed by the British East India Company and Wajid Ali Shah, the king of Awadh, is imprisoned and later exiled to Kolkata named Calcutta.
22nd February » The United States Republican Party named Republican Party opens its first national meeting in Pittsburgh.
25th February » A Congress of Paris (1856) or Peace conference opens in Paris after the Crimean War.
30th March » The Treaty of Paris (1856) known as Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Crimean War.
10th April » The Theta Chi fraternity is founded at Norwich University in Vermont.
21st April » Australian labour movement: Stonemasons and building workers on building sites around Melbourne march from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an Eight-hour day.
1st May » The Province of Isabela (province) known as Isabela was created in the Philippines in honor of the Queen Isabela II of Spain.
21st May » Lawrence, Kansas is Sacking of Lawrence named captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.
22nd May » United States House of Representatives Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats United States Senate Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southern United States Souther
24th May » John Brown (abolitionist) named John Brown and his men Pottawatomie Massacre known as kill five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas.
8th June » A group of 194 Pitcairn Islands named Pitcairn Islanders, descendants of the mutineers of HMS or Bounty, arrives at Norfolk Island, commencing the Third Settlement of the Island.
9th June » 500 Mormon handcart pioneers or Mormons leave Iowa City, Iowa, and head west for Salt Lake City carrying all their possessions in two-wheeled cart e.g handcarts.
17th July » The Great Train Wreck of 1856 in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, kills over 60 people.
31st July » Christchurch, New Zealand is chartered as a city.
2nd September » The Tianjing Incident takes place in Nanjing, China.
8th October » The Second Opium War between several western powers and China begins with the 'Arrow Incident' on the Pearl River (China) known as Pearl River.
6th November » 'Scenes of Clerical Life', the first work of fiction by the author later known as George Eliot, is submitted for publication.
17th November » American Frontier American Old West: On the Sonoita Creek Sonoita River in present-day southern Arizona, the United States Army establishes Fort Buchanan, Arizona Fort Buchanan in order to help control new land acquired in the Gadsden Purchase.
9th December » The Iranian city of Bushehr surrenders to occupying British forces.