Timeline November 1856

Events in November 1856 3

• 1856 Willie and Martin handcart companies disaster Mormon emigrants are trapped by early snowstorms in Wyoming Two companies of Mormon emigrants pulling handcarts to Salt Lake City were caught by early winter storms in Wyoming starting in October 1856, having departed too late in the season. Roughly 200 of the more than 1,000 emigrants died of cold and starvation before rescue parties from Salt Lake City reached them. The disaster remains the deadliest single incident in the history of American westward migration organized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• 1856 Anglo-Persian War begins Britain declares war after Persia seizes Herat Britain declared war on Persia on 1 November 1856 after Persian forces captured the city of Herat, which Britain viewed as a threat to British India via Afghanistan. British forces landed in the Persian Gulf and captured Bushehr before Persia agreed to withdraw from Herat. The brief war was resolved by the Treaty of Paris of 1857.
• 1856 James Buchanan elected President of the United States Democrat defeats the first Republican presidential candidate James Buchanan won the United States presidential election held on 4 November 1856, defeating Republican John C. Fremont and Know Nothing candidate Millard Fillmore. The election was dominated by the question of slavery's expansion into new territories. Buchanan took office in March 1857 and his presidency was later overshadowed by the onset of the Civil War.