1855 in science
See also:
Other events of 1855
List of years in science
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1854 in science
1855 in science
1856 in science
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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)