1855 in science

The year 1855 in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed here.

Paleontology

• The first archaeopteryx fossil found in Bavaria, Germany

Physics

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

Awards

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

Births

• 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)

Deaths

• February 23 - Carl Friedrich Gauss, mathematician (* 1777)
• April 13 - Henry De la Beche, geologist (* 1796)
• July 8 - William Edward Parry, Arctic explorer (* 1790)