• Monarch – Frederick VII^[1]
• Prime minister – Peter Georg Bang (18 October), Carl Christoffer Georg Andræ

• 16 April – Jacob Heinrich Moresco opens a shop with women's clothing and fashion accessories at Amagertorv 13 in Copenhagen.
• 27 April – The Roskuilde–Korsør extension of the Copenhagen–Roskilde Railway is inaugurated.
• 13 July – C. K. Hansen is founded.

Undated edit

• Seamen's Association of 1856 is founded.
• The Ceres Brewery is founded by Malthe Conrad Lottrup in Aarhus.

• 18 March – Arnold Krog, designer (died 1931)
• 6 September – Hack Kampmann, architect (died 1920)
• 7 September – Julie Laurberg, photographer (died 1925)
• 28 October – Mary Steen, photographer (died 1939)
• 16 November – Joakim Skovgaard, artist (died 1933)

• 26 March – Johan Laurentz Jensen, painter (born 1800)
• 2 July – Thomasine Christine Gyllembourg-Ehrensvärd, author (born 1773)
• 14 July – Michael Gottlieb Bindesbøll, architect (born 1800)
• 20 July – Anna Nielsen, mezzo-soprano (died 1803)
• 21 July – Emil Aarestrup, poet (born 1800)
• 15 September – Severin Løvenskiold, baron (born 1777)