1855 in The United States - Events

Events

• January – Klamath and Salmon River War: In Klamath County, California, hostility between settlers and the local Native Americans becomes violent. The California State Militia and U.S. Army intervene, ending the war in March.
• January 23 – The first bridge over the Mississippi River opens in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota (a crossing made today by the Hennepin Avenue Bridge).
• January 26 – The Point No Point Treaty is signed in the Washington Territory.
• February 12 – Michigan State University (the "pioneer" land-grant college) is established.
• February 22 – Pennsylvania State University is founded as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania.
• March 3 – The U.S. Congress appropriates $30,000 to create the U.S. Camel Corps.
• March 16 – Bates College is founded by abolitionists in Lewiston, Maine.
• March 30 – Elections are held for the first Kansas Territory legislature. Missourians cross the border in large numbers to elect a pro-slavery body.

• April – Cincinnati riots of 1855: Tension between nativists and German-American immigrants in Cincinnati breaks out into territorial street fighting on election day.
• May 17 – The Mount Sinai Hospital is dedicated (as the Jews' Hospital) in New York City; it opens to patients on June 5.
• June 6 – Portland Rum Riot: A crowd gathers at a storehouse believed to hold alcohol in Portland, Maine. The militia is called in and fires on the crowd to disperse the crowd, killing one person.
• June 28 – The Sigma Chi Fraternity is founded at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
• July 1 – Quinault Treaty signed, Quinault and Quileute cede their land to the United States.
• July 2 – The Kansas territorial legislature convenes in Pawnee and begins passing proslavery laws.
• July 16 – U.S. Indian commissioner Isaac Stevens signs the Hellgate treaty with Native Americans living in what is present-day western Montana.
• August 6 – Bloody Monday: Protestant mobs attack Irish Catholics on an election day in Louisville, Kentucky, causing 22 deaths.
• September 3 – First Sioux War – Battle of Ash Hollow: U.S. forces defeat a band of Brulé Lakota in present-day Garden County, Nebraska.
• October 5 – Yakima War – Battle of Toppenish Creek: In the Yakima River Valley, a band of Yakama warriors forces a company of U.S. soldiers to retreat. It is the first battle of the Yakima War.
• October 28–31 – First Fiji Expedition: The U.S. Navy dispatches the USS John Adams to Viti Levu, Fiji, to protect American interests. One American sailor is killed and two Marines are wounded.
• November 1 – 31 people are killed in the Gasconade Bridge train disaster in Missouri.
• November 9–10 – Yakima War – Battle of Union Gap: American soldiers attack a Yakama village, forcing the village to retreat.
• November 21 – Large-scale Bleeding Kansas violence begins with events leading to the Wakarusa War between antislavery and proslavery forces.