1855
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Events
January–March
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- January 5 – Ramón Castilla begins his third term as President of Peru.
- January 23
- The first bridge over the Mississippi River opens in modern-day Minneapolis, a predecessor of the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge.
- The 8.2–8.3 Template:M Wairarapa earthquake claims between five and nine lives near the Cook Strait area of New Zealand.
- January 26 – The Point No Point Treaty is signed in the Washington Territory.
- January 27 – The Panama Railway becomes the first railroad to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
- 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.
- February 12 – Michigan State University (the "pioneer" land-grant college) is established.
- February 15 – The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the Western North Carolina Railroad, to build a rail line from Salisbury to the western part of the state.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- February 22 – Pennsylvania State University is founded, as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania.
- March 2 – Alexander II ascends the Russian throne, upon the death of his father Nicholas I.
- March 3 – The United States Congress appropriates $30,000 to create the U.S. Camel Corps.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- March 16 – Bates College is founded by abolitionists in Lewiston, Maine.
- March 17 – Taiping Rebellion: A Taiping army of 350,000 invades Anhui.
- March 30 – Elections are held for the first Kansas Territory legislature. Missourian 'Border Ruffians' cross the border in large numbers to elect a pro-slavery body.
April–June
- April 3 – The Nepalese invasion of Tibet (west of China) to the north across the Himalaya Mountains (tallest and most rugged in the world) starts the Nepalese–Tibetan War (1855–1856).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- April 7 – Battle of Kaba: The Kingdom of Tonga in the islands of the southwest Pacific Ocean (Polynesia, Melanesia / Oceania), intervenes in the war between the self-proclaimed Tui Viti (King) of the island of Fiji, Cakobau, and his rivals the Confederation of Rewa. It results in Rewa's defeat and the tenuous unification of Fiji under Cakobau.
- April 16 – Emperor of the French Napoleon III, with Empress Eugénie, begins a 6-day state visit to Britain.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- April 18 – The Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855, requested by Napoleon III for the Exposition Universelle (opening May 15), first appears.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- May 1 – Van Diemen's Land is separated administratively from the Australian province of New South Wales and granted self-government.
- May 3 – American adventurer William Walker and a group of armed mercenaries (filibusters) sail from San Francisco in California south to Central America to attempt to conquer Nicaragua.
- May 15
- The Exposition Universelle (an early World's fair) officially opens in Paris (continues to November 15).
- The Great Gold Robbery is made from a moving train between London Bridge and Folkestone in England, one of the first crimes of its kind.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- May 17 – Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, is dedicated (originally named as the Jews' Hospital) in New York City; it opens to patients on June 5.
- May 22 – In Australia, the province of Victoria (named for then reigning British monarch, Queen Victoria) to the southeast is separated administratively from the earlier larger province of New South Wales to the north.
- June 15 – Stamp duty revenue tax is removed from British newspapers, creating free mass media thereafter in the United Kingdom.
- June 29 – The Daily Telegraph newspaper begins publication in London.
July–September
- July – Bank of Toronto incorporated in Canada (in 1955 it will merge with The Dominion Bank to become Toronto-Dominion Bank).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- July 1 – The Quinault Treaty, in which the Quinault and Quileute tribes cede their land to the United States, is signed.
- July 2 – The Kansas territorial legislature convenes in Pawnee, and begins passing proslavery laws.
- July 4
- Thomas Cook escorts his first party of excursionists from England to tour the European continent, travelling via Belgium and enabling the tourists to visit the Paris Exposition.<ref name=TCook>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- Walt Whitman's poetry collection Leaves of Grass is published in Brooklyn.
- July 16 – The Australian Colonies are granted self-governing status by the United Kingdom.
- August 1 – Monte Rosa, the second-highest summit in the Alps, is first ascended.
- August 18 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, with Prince Albert, begins a 10-day state visit to Paris,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- September 3 – The last Bartholomew Fair is held in London, England.
- September 9 (August 28 O.S.) – Crimean War: Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855) – Sevastopol falls to French and British troops.
- September 27 – Alfred Tennyson reads from his new book Maud and other poems, at a social gathering in the home of Robert and Elizabeth Browning in London; Dante Gabriel Rossetti makes a sketch of him doing so.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- September 29 – The Port of Iloilo in the Philippines is opened to international trade, by Queen Isabel II of Spain.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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October–December
- October 17
- Henry Bessemer files his patent in the United Kingdom for the Bessemer process of steelmaking.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Crimean War: Battle of Kinburn – Combined French and British forces subdue Russian shore forts. The successful use of French floating batteries makes this the first use of modern ironclad warships in action.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- October 24 – Van Diemen's Land is officially renamed Tasmania.
- November 17 – Scottish missionary explorer David Livingstone becomes the first European to see Victoria Falls, in modern-day Zambia–Zimbabwe.<ref name="Pocket On This Day">Template:Cite book</ref>
- November 15 – The Hejaz rebellion takes place in Hejaz against the Ottoman Empire, triggered by a firman of 1854 against the slave trade, which is condemned by the ulema of Mecca as influenced by Westerners and contrary to Islamic law.<ref>Badem, C. (2010). The Ottoman Crimean War (1853-1856). Tyskland: Brill. p.357.</ref>
- November 21 – Large-scale Bleeding Kansas violence begins, with events leading to the 'Wakarusa War' between antislavery and proslavery forces.
- November 10 – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's fictional poem The Song of Hiawatha is published in Boston.
- December 11 – Ignacio Comonfort (1812–1863) becomes President of Mexico.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- December 22 – The Metropolitan Board of Works is established in London.
Undated
- Samuel Colt incorporates his business as the Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company and opens a new factory, the Colt Armory, in Hartford, Connecticut.
- The cocaine alkaloid is first isolated by German chemist Friedrich Gaedcke.b
- The third plague pandemic breaks out in Yunnan, China.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> This bubonic plague pandemic eventually spreads to all inhabited continents, and ultimately leads to more than 12 million deaths in India and China<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> (estimated 15 million worldwide)<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> making it one of the deadliest pandemics in history.<ref>Sanburn, Josh (2010-10-26). "Top 10 Terrible Epidemics: The Third Plague Pandemic". Time. ISSN 0040-781X</ref> The pandemic is considered active until 1960.
- Palm oil sales from West Africa to the United Kingdom reach 40,000 tons.
Births
January–June
- January 5 – King C. Gillette, American razor inventor (d. 1932)
- January 20 – Ernest Chausson, French composer (d. 1899)
- January 21
- John Browning, American firearms inventor (d. 1926)
- Henry Jackson, British admiral (d. 1929)
- February 6 – Barbara Galpin, American journalist (d. 1922)
- February 12 – Marie-Anne de Bovet, French writer
- February 13 – Paul Deschanel, President of France (d. 1922)
- February 17 – Otto Liman von Sanders, German general (d. 1929)
- February 24 – Johannes von Eben, German general (d. 1924)
- March 4 – Luther Emmett Holt, American pediatrician (d. 1924)
- March 12 – Eduard Birnbaum, Polish-born German cantor (d. 1920)
- March 13 – Percival Lowell, American astronomer (d. 1916)
- March 24 – Andrew Mellon, American banker, philanthropist (d. 1937)
- March 25 – Grace Carew Sheldon, American journalist and businesswoman (d. 1921)
- March 29 – James O. Barrows, American stage and screen actor (d.1925)
- April 9
- Pavlos Kountouriotis, Greek admiral, 2-time president (d. 1935)
- John Marden, Australian headmaster, pioneer of women's education (d. 1924)
- April 21 – Hardy Richardson, American baseball player (d. 1931)
- April 23 – Marco Fidel Suárez, 9th President of Colombia (d. 1927)
- April 27 – Caroline Rémy de Guebhard, French feminist (d. 1929)
- April 28 – Mario Nicolis di Robilant, Italian general (d. 1943)
- May 1 – Marie Corelli, English novelist (d. 1924)
- May 7 – Frédéric-Georges Herr, French general (d. 1932)
- May 8 – Bohuslav Brauner, Czech chemist (d. 1935)
- May 9 – Julius Röntgen, German-Dutch classical composer (d. 1932)
- May 10 – Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, Bengali yogi, author of The Holy Science (d. 1936)
- May 21
- Émile Verhaeren, Belgian poet (d. 1916)
- Ella Stewart Udall, American telegraphist (d. 1937)<ref>For birth and death date, see {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- May 23 – Isabella Ford, English socialist, feminist, trade unionist and writer (d. 1924)
- May 28 – Emilio Estrada Carmona, 18th President of Ecuador (d. 1911)
- June 1 – Edward Angle, American dentist (d. 1930)
- June 2 – Archibald Berkeley Milne, British admiral (d. 1938)
- June 14 – Robert M. La Follette, American politician (d. 1925)
- June 18 – Alice Sudduth Byerly, American temperance activist (d. 1904)
- June 28 – Theodor Reuss, German occultist (d. 1923)
July–December
- July 26 – Ferdinand Tönnies, German sociologist (d. 1936)
- August 25 – Hugo von Pohl, German admiral (d. 1916)
- August 28 – Alexander Bethell, British admiral (d. 1932)
- August 31 – Vsevolod Rudnev, Russian admiral (d. 1913)
- September 5 – Henry Victor Deligny, French general (d. 1938)
- September 8 – Marieta de Veintemilla, Ecuadorian first lady, women's rights activist (d. 1907)
- September 9 – Houston Stewart Chamberlain, British-born German writer (d. 1927)
- September 15 – Orishatukeh Faduma, Guyana-born African-American Christian missionary, educator and advocate for African culture (d. 1946)
- September 17 – Effie Ellsler, American actress (d. 1942)
- September 25 – James P. Parker, United States Navy commodore (d. 1942)
- October 10 – Eduard von Capelle, German admiral (d. 1931)
- October 12 – Arthur Nikisch, Hungarian conductor (d. 1922)
- November 1 – Templin Potts, American naval officer; 11th Naval Governor of Guam (d. 1927)
- November 5
- Léon Teisserenc de Bort, French meteorologist (d. 1913)
- Eugene V. Debs, American union leader (d. 1926)
- November 6 – E. S. Gosney, American philanthropist, eugenicist (d. 1942)
- November 8 – Nikolaos Triantafyllakos, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1939)
- December 16 – Alice Mary Dowd, American educator, poet (d. 1943)
- December 29 – William Thompson Sedgwick, American teacher, epidemiologist and bacteriologist (d. 1921)
Date unknown
- Florence Huntley, American humorist and occult author (d. 1912)
- Flora Haines Loughead, American miner; mother of Allan Lockheed, founder of Lockheed aerospace company (d. 1943)
- Katharine A. O'Keeffe O'Mahoney, Irish-born American teacher of poetry to Robert Frost (d. 1918)
Deaths
January–June
- January 6 – Giacomo Beltrami, Italian explorer (b. 1779)
- January 8 – Diponegoro, Leader of Javanese Rebellion (b. 1785)
- January 10 – Mary Russell Mitford, English novelist, dramatist (b. 1787)
- January 15 – Henri Braconnot, French chemist, pharmacist (b. 1780)
- January 17 – Shūsaku Narimasa Chiba, Japanese swordsman (b. 1792)
- 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 2 – Emperor Nicholas I of Russia (b. 1796)
- March 6– Bandō Shūka I, Japanese Kabuki actor (b. 1813)
- March 8 – William Poole, infamous member of New York City's Bowery Boys Gang (b. 1821)
- March 29 – Henri Druey, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1799)
- March 31 – Charlotte Brontë, English author (b. 1816)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- May 5 – Sir Robert Inglis, English politician (b. 1786)
- May 23 – Charles Robert Malden, English explorer (b. 1797)
- May 30 – Mary Reibey, Australian businesswoman (b. 1777)
- June 7 – Friederike Lienig, Latvian entomologist (b. 1790)
- June 28 – FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan, commander of British forces in the Crimean War (b. 1788)
July–December
- July 12 (June 30 O.S.) – Pavel Nakhimov, Russian admiral (b. 1802)
- August 7 – Mariano Arista, President of Mexico (b. 1802)
- August 12 – Helen Hunt Jackson, American activist (b. 1830)
- August 30 – Feargus O'Connor, British political radical, Chartist leader (b. 1794)
- September 7 – William Barton Wade Dent, U.S. Congressman (b. 1806)
- November 11 – Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher (b. 1813)
- September 20 – José Trinidad Reyes, Honduran Father, national hero, and founder of Autonomous National University of Honduras (b. 1797)
- November 26 – Adam Mickiewicz, Lithuanian-Polish poet, writer (b. 1798)
- December 6 – William Swainson, English naturalist, artist (b. 1789)