WHAT ALL HAPPENED APRIL TO AUGUST 1856
Find out what all happened April to August 1856

500 Mormons leave Iowa City, Iowa, and head west for Salt Lake City carrying all their possessions in two-wheeled handcarts. (9. June 1856)

A group of 194 Pitcairn Islanders, descendants of the mutineers of HMS Bounty, arrives at Norfolk Island, commencing the Third Settlement of the Island. (8. June 1856)

The Great Train Wreck of 1856 in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, kills over 60 people. (17. July 1856)

John Brown and his men kill five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas. (24. May 1856)

Christchurch, New Zealand is chartered as a city. (31. July 1856)

Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces. (21. May 1856)

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"). (22. May 1856)

Battle of Rivas: Juan Santamaria burns down the hostel where William Walker's filibusters are holed up. (11. April 1856)

The Theta Chi fraternity is founded at Norwich University in Vermont. (10. April 1856)

The Province of Isabela was created in the Philippines in honor of the Queen Isabela II of Spain. (1. May 1856)