1855

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	18th century – 19th century – 20th century
Decades:	1820s 1830s 1840s – 1850s – 1860s 1870s 1880s
Years:	1852 1853 1854 – 1855 – 1856 1857 1858

1855 was a common year.

Events

January 1 – London, 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 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, by Abuna Salama III in a ceremony at the church of Derasge Maryam.
March 3 – US Congress appropriates $30,000 to create US Camel Corps
March 16 – Bates College in Lewiston, Maine was founded.
May 15 – The Great Gold Robbery of 1855 in England
June 29 – The Daily Telegraph begins publication
September 3 – Last Bartholomew Fair on London, England
September 11 – Sevastapol falls to the British troops
December 22 – Metropolitan Board of Works established.
Stamp duty was removed from newspapers in Britain creating mass market media in the UK.
The Panama Railway becomes the first railroad to connect the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean by rail as the railroad's route across Panama is completed.