1856 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1856 in the United Kingdom.

[edit] Incumbents

January - The Welsh national anthem, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, is composed by James James with lyrics by his father Evan James.
29 January - Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross.

5 March - Fire destroys Covent Garden Theatre in London.^[1]
31 March - The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Crimean War.
9 July - Natal becomes a Crown Colony.^[2]
3 September - the Royal British Bank collapses with debts in excess of £500,000.^[1]
8 October - The Second Opium War between several western powers, including the United Kingdom, and China begins with the Arrow Incident on the Pearl River.
1 November - Anglo-Persian War: War is declared between Britain and Persia.
9 December - Bushehr surrenders to the British.

4 March - Alfred William Rich, watercolour painter and author (died 1921)
8 March - Bramwell Booth, Salvation Army General (died 1929)
12 April - William Martin Conway, art critic and mountaineer (died 1937)
22 June - Henry Rider Haggard, writer (died 1925)
26 July - George Bernard Shaw, playwright (died 1950)
10 August - William Willett, promoter of daylight saving time (died 1915)
18 December - J.J. Thomson, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1940)
25 December - Samuel William Knaggs, civil servant in the West Indies (died 1924)

^ ^a ^b Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-141-02715-0.
^ Palmer, Alan & Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 276-277. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.