Timeline May 1856

Events in May 1856 6

• 1856 – 1939 Freud Father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud founded psychoanalysis and introduced concepts like the unconscious mind, repression, and the Oedipus complex.
• 1856 – 1939 Sigmund Freud Father of Psychoanalysis Founded the clinical method of treating psychopathology through dialogue between patient and psychoanalyst.
• 1856 David Livingstone completes crossing of southern Africa Missionary explorer reaches the Indian Ocean coast David Livingstone arrived at Quelimane on the Indian Ocean coast of Mozambique on 20 May 1856, completing a west-to-east crossing of the African continent begun in 1853 from Luanda. His journey included the first European sighting of Victoria Falls in 1855. The expedition made Livingstone a celebrated figure in Britain and spurred further European exploration of the African interior.
• 1856 Sack of Lawrence Pro-slavery forces raid a free-state stronghold in Kansas On 21 May 1856, a pro-slavery posse attacked the free-state town of Lawrence, Kansas, destroying printing presses, a hotel, and homes. The raid was part of the escalating violence known as Bleeding Kansas over whether the territory would permit slavery. It provoked retaliatory violence, including the Pottawatomie Massacre days later.
• 1856 Caning of Charles Sumner Congressman Preston Brooks beats a senator on the Senate floor On 22 May 1856, Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina beat Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane in the Senate chamber, in retaliation for an antislavery speech. Sumner was severely injured and did not fully return to the Senate for three years. The attack deepened sectional divisions between North and South ahead of the Civil War.
• 1856 Pottawatomie Massacre John Brown leads a deadly raid against pro-slavery settlers On the night of 24-25 May 1856, John Brown and a small band of followers killed five pro-slavery settlers along Pottawatomie Creek in Kansas Territory. The killings were retaliation for the Sack of Lawrence and escalated the violent conflict known as Bleeding Kansas. Brown became a polarizing figure, later leading the 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry.