1853
1853 was a
common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar).
*
January 6 -
American President-Elect Franklin Pierce, wife
Jane, and son Ben are involved in a
train wreck near
Andover, Massachusetts. Franklin and Jane survive but eleven-year-old Ben is killed.
*
January 19 -
Giuseppe Verdi's
opera Il Trovatore premieres in
Rome*
January 21 -
Russell L. Hawes patents the envelope folding machine
*
January 29 -
Napoleon III marries the Spanish
Countess Eugènie at the
Tuileries*
March 4 –
Inauguration of US president
Franklin Pierce*
February 22 -
Washington University is founded as Eliot Seminary
*
May 23 - The first
plat for
Seattle, Washington is laid out.
*
June 7 - Franklin College of
Lancaster, Pennsylvania merges with Marshall College of
Mercersburg, Pennsylvania to form
Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster
*
July 8 - U.S. Commodore
Matthew Perry arrives in Edo Bay with a request for a trade treaty
*
July 25 Outlaw and bandit
Joaquin Murietta is killed.
*
August 12 –
New Zealand acquires self-government
*
August 23 - 1st true
International Meteorological Organization Brussels, Belgium
*
August 24 -
Potato chips first prepared.
*
October 4/
October 5 -
Crimean War: The
Ottoman Empire declares war on
Russia.
*
October 28 -
Crimean War: Ottoman army crosses the
Danube into
Vidin /
Kalafat in
Wallachia.
*
November 3 - Troops of
William Walker capture
La Paz in
Baja California and declare (short-lived)
Republic of Lower California*
November 15 -
Maria II of Portugal is succeeded by her son
Pedro*
November 30 -
Crimean War:
Battle of Sinop - The
Russian fleet destroys the
Turkish fleet.
*
December 30 -
Gadsden Purchase: The
United States buys land from
Mexico to facilitate
railroad building in the Southwest
*
Royal Norwegian Navy Museum founded.
*
Yellow fever kills 7790 in
New Orleans*
Alexander Wood invents the hypodermic
syringe*
Argentina adopts federal constitution -
Buenos Aires opposes that
*
Donald McKay builds the
Great Republic, the world's biggest
sailing ship, which at 4,500 tons was too large to be successful
*
Isambard Kingdom Brunel began work on the
Great Eastern passenger steamer
*Start of
Crimean War*Independent Santa Cruz Maya of Eastern
Yucatan recognized as an independent nation by
British Empire*Iesada succeeds Ieoshi as Japanese
Shogun*Beginning of the
Late Tokugawa shogunate, the last part of the
Edo period in
Japan.
*
Stephen Foster writes "
My Old Kentucky Home."
*The
University of Florida establilshed
*
James Beckwourth discovers Beckwourth Pass.
*
Tissot, a Swiss watch company, founded.
*
January 28 -
José Martí, Cuban revolutionary (d.
1895)
*
February 6 -
Ignacij Klemenčič, Slovenian physicist (d.
1901)
*
March 14 -
Ferdinand Hodler, Swiss painter (d.
1918)
*
March 30 -
Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter (d.
1890)
*
May 28 -
Carl Larsson, Swedish painter (d.
1919)
*
June 3 -
William Flinders Petrie, English Egyptologist (d.
1942)
*
June 12 -
Chester Adgate Congdon, Minnesota mining magnate (d.
1916)
*
July 5 -
Cecil Rhodes, English businessman (d.
1902)
*
July 18 -
Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1928)
*
September 2 -
Wilhelm Ostwald, German chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1932)
*
September 16 -
Albrecht Kossel, German physician, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d.
1927)
*
September 20 -
Chulalongkorn, Rama V, king of Thailand (d.
1910)
*
September 21 -
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1926)
*
January 16 -
Matteo Carcassi, Italian composer (b.
1792)
*
March 17 -
Christian Doppler, Austrian mathematician (b.
1803)
*
April 18 -
William R. King,
Vice President of the United States (b.1786)
*
April 28 -
Ludwig Tieck, German writer (b.
1773)
*
November 15 -
Maria II of Portugal (b.
1819)
*
June 8 -
Richard William Howard Vyse (b.
1784)
