1855
1855 was a
common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar).
January
*
January 1 -
Ottawa, 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 27 - The
Panama Railway becomes the first railroad to connect the
Atlantic Ocean and
Pacific Ocean.
*
January 29 -
Lord Aberdeen resigns as
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom over the management of the
Crimean War.
February
*
February 5 -
Lord Palmerston, (Henry Temple), 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.
*
February 22 -
Pennsylvania State University is founded as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania.
March
*
March 3 -
US Congress appropriates $30,000 to create
US Camel Corps*
March 16 -
Bates College in
Lewiston, Maine was founded.
*
March 30 - Elections held for first
Kansas Territory legislature.
Missourians cross border in large numbers to elect
proslavery body.
May
*
May 15 - The
Great Gold Robbery of 1855 in
England.
June
*
June 28 -
Sigma Chi Fraternity was founded.
*
June 29 - The
Daily Telegraph begins publication.
July
*
July 2 - Kansas Territorial legislature convenes in
Pawnee and begins passing proslavery laws.
September
*
September 3 - Last
Bartholomew Fair in
London,
England.
*
September 11 -
Sevastapol falls to the British troops.
November
*
November 21 - Large-scale
Bleeding Kansas violence begins with events leading to "
Wakarusa War" between antislavery and proslavery forces.
December
*
December 22 -
Metropolitan Board of Works established.
Unknown dates
*
Stamp duty was removed from
newspapers in
Britain creating
mass market media in the UK.
*
January 5 -
King Camp Gillette, American inventor (d.
1932)
*
January 20 -
Ernest Chausson, French composer (d.
1899)
*
January 21 -
John Moses Browning, American firearms inventor (d.
1926)
*
January 28 -
William Seward Burroughs, American bank clerk and inventor (d.
1898)
*
March 13 -
Percival Lowell, American astronomer (d.
1916)
*
March 24 -
Andrew Mellon, American banker and philanthropist (d.
1937)
*
April 21 -
Hardy Richardson, 19th century baseball player (d.
1931)
*
April 27 -
Caroline Rémy, French feminist (d.
1929)
*
May 1 -
Marie Corelli, English novelist (d.
1924)
*
May 9 -
Julius Röntgen, German-Dutch classical composer (d.
1932)
*
July 26 -
Ferdinand Tönnies, German sociologist (d.
1936)
*
October 12 -
Arthur Nikisch, Hungarian conductor (d.
1922)
*
October 21 -
Howard Hyde Russell, American activist (d.
1946)
*
November 5 -
Léon Teisserenc de Bort, French meteorologist (d.
1913)
*
November 6 -
Ezra Seymour Gosney, American philanthropist and eugenicist (d.
1942)
*
January 6 -
Giacomo Beltrami, Italian explorer (b.
1779)
*
January 26 -
Gérard de Nerval, French writer (b.
1808)
*
February 6 -
Josef Munzinger, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b.
1791)
*
February 23 -
Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician, astronomer, and physicist (b.
1777)
*
March 29 -
Henri Druey, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b.
1799)
*
March 31 -
Charlotte Brontë, English author (b.
1816)
*
May 5 -
Robert Inglis, English politician (b.
1786)
*
May 23 -
Charles Robert Malden English explorer (b.
1797)
*
June 28 -
Fitzroy Somerset, 1st Lord Raglan, commander of British forces in the Crimean War (b.
1788)
*
August 7 -
Mariano Arista,
President of Mexico (b.
1802)
*
November 11 -
Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher (b.
1813)
*
November 26 -
Adam Mickiewicz, Lithuanian - Polish poet and writer (b.
1798)
