See also: 1854 in science, other events of 1855, 1856 in science and the list of years in science.

Table of contents

1 Paleontology 2 Physics 3 Awards 4 Births 5 Deaths

Paleontology

• The first archaeopteryx fossil found in Bavaria, Germany

• James Clerk Maxwell unifies electricity and magnetism into a single theory, classical electromagnetism, thereby showing that light is an electromagnetic wave

• Copley Medal: Léon Foucault
• Wollaston Medal for Geology: Henry De la Beche

• January 5 - King Camp Gillette, inventor (died 1932)
• January 21 - John Moses Browning, inventor (died 1926)
• January 28 - William Seward Burroughs, inventor of the calculator (died 1898)
• March 13 - Percival Lowell, astronomer (died 1916)
• November 5 - Léon Teisserenc de Bort, meteorologist (died 1913)