carrying all their possessions in two-wheeled handcarts. June 13 – Taiping Rebellion: Shi Dakai arrives at Nanjing. June 20 – General Mills is founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, as the Minneapolis Milling Company. July–September July 9 – Natal becomes a British Crown colony. July 14–15 – In Spain, General Leopoldo O'Donnell takes control of the government, bringing an end to the bienio progresista. July 17 – The Great Train Wreck (the worst railroad calamity in the world to date) occurs near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. July 31 – Christchurch, New Zealand, is chartered as a city. August – Pre-human remains are found in the Neanderthal Valley in Prussia. August 10 – The Last Island hurricane destroys Last Island, Louisiana, leaving 400 dead. The whole island is broken up into several smaller islands by the storm. August 30 – Battle of Osawatomie: Proslavery forces defeat antislavery forces in Bleeding Kansas. September 1 – Seton Hall University is founded in South Orange, New Jersey, by Roman Catholic Bishop of Newark James Roosevelt Bayley, a cousin of future U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and nephew of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. September 2 – Taiping Rebellion: Wei Changhui and Qin Rigang assassinate Yang Xiuqing. September 7 – The Saimaa Canal was inaugurated. October–December October 8 – The Second Opium War between several Western powers and China begins with the Arrow Incident on the Pearl River. October 12 – 1856 Heraklion earthquake: A powerful earthquake rocks the Mediterranean, killing hundreds on the island of Crete and many more in the Middle East. October 13 – American mercenary William Walker effectively takes control of Nicaragua. November 1 – Anglo-Persian War: War is declared between Great Britain and Persia. November 4 – 1856 United States presidential election: Democrat James Buchanan defeats former President Millard Fillmore, representing a coalition of Know Nothings and Whigs, and John C. Frémont of the fledgling Republican Party, to become the 15th President of the United States. November 11 – Taiping Rebellion: Shi Dakai arrives at the Heavenly Capital once more with 100,000 men, and demands that Wei Changhui and Qin Rigang be executed. Shi subsequently becomes head of the government. November 17 – American Old West: On the Sonoita River in modern-day southern Arizona, the United States Army establishes Fort Buchanan, in order to help control new land acquired in the Gadsden Purchase. November 21 – Niagara University is founded in Niagara