1853

Events

January–March

• January 6 – Florida Governor Thomas Brown signs legislation that provides public support for the new East Florida Seminary, leading to the establishment of the University of Florida.
• January 8 – Taiping Rebellion: Zeng Guofan is ordered to assist the governor of Hunan, in organising a militia force to search for local bandits.
• January 12 – Taiping Rebellion: The Taiping army occupies Wuchang.
• January 19 – Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore premieres, in performance at Teatro Apollo in Rome.
• February 10 – Taiping Rebellion: Taiping forces assemble at Hanyang, Hankou and Wuchang, for the march on Nanjing.
• February 12 – Puerto Montt is founded in the Reloncaví Sound, Chile.
• February 22 – Washington University in St. Louis is founded as Eliot Seminary.
• March – The clothing company Levi Strauss & Co. is founded in the United States.
• March 4 – Inauguration of Franklin Pierce as 14th President of the United States.
• March 5 - Saint Paul Fire and Marine, as predecessor of The Travelor Companies, an insurance service on worldwide, founded in Minnesota, United States.
• March 20 – Taiping Rebellion: A rebel army of around 750,000 seizes Nanjing, killing 30,000 Imperial troops.
• March 29 – Manchester is granted city status in the United Kingdom.

  April–June

• April 16 - Indian Railways: The first passenger railway in India opens from Bombay to Thana, Maharashtra,.
• May
• * The world's first public aquarium opens, at the London Zoo.
• * An outbreak of yellow fever kills 7,790 in New Orleans.
• * Isambard Kingdom Brunel accepts John Scott Russell's tender for construction of the passenger steamer.
• May 12-October 31 - The Great Industrial Exhibition is held in Dublin, Ireland.
• May 23 - The first plat for Seattle, Washington is laid out.
• June 27 - Taiping Rebellion: The Northern Expeditionary Force crosses the Yellow River.
• June 30 - Georges-Eugène Haussmann is selected as préfect of the Seine, to begin the re-planning of Paris.

  July–September

• July 8 – U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry arrives in Edo Bay, Japan, with a request for a trade treaty.
• July 25 – Outlaw and bandit Joaquin Murrieta is killed in California.
• July 27 – Iesada succeeds his father Ieyoshi, as Japanese shōgun. The Late Tokugawa shogunate begins.
• August 12 – New Zealand acquires self-government.
• August 23 – The first true International Meteorological Organization is established in Brussels, Belgium.
• August 24
• * The Royal Norwegian Navy Museum is founded at Karljohansvern in Horten, perhaps the world's first naval museum.
• * Potato chips are first prepared, by George Crum at Saratoga Springs, New York, according to popular accounts.
• September 19 – Hudson Taylor first leaves for China.
• September 20 - Otis Elevator, as predecessor of Otis Worldwide was founded in United States.

  October–December

• October 1 - C. Bechstein's piano factory is founded, one of three established in a "Golden year" in the history of the piano.
• October 4-5 - Crimean War: The Ottoman Empire begins war with Russia.
• October 4 - On the east coast of the United States, Donald McKay launches the Great Republic, the world's biggest sailing ship, which at 4,500 tons is too large to be successful.
• October 28 - Crimean War: The Ottoman army crosses the Danube into Vidin/Calafat, Wallachia.
• October 30 - Taiping Rebellion: The Taiping Northern Expeditionary Force comes within of Tianjin.
• November 3 - Troops of William Walker capture La Paz in Baja California Territory, and declare the Republic of Lower California.
• November 4 - Crimean War: Battle of Oltenitza – Turkish forces defeat the Russians.
• November 15 - Maria II of Portugal is succeeded by her son Pedro V.
• November 30 - Crimean War: Battle of Sinop - The Russian fleet destroys the Turkish fleet.
• December 6 - Taiping Rebellion: French minister de Bourboulon arrives at the Heavenly Capital, aboard the Cassini.
• December 14 - Campagnle Generare des Eaux, predecessor of Vivendi, a global media conglomerate, is founded in Paris, France.
• December 30 - Gadsden Purchase: The United States buys approximately of land from Mexico, to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest.

  Date unknown

• The Independent Santa Cruz Maya of Eastern Yucatán are recognized as an independent nation, by the British Empire.
• Arthur de Gobineau begins publication of his An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races.
• Charles Pravaz and Alexander Wood independently invent a practical hypodermic syringe.
• Wheaton Academy is founded in West Chicago, Illinois.
• The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China is incorporated in London by Scotsman James Wilson, under a Royal Charter from Queen Victoria.
• The Swiss watch company Tissot is founded.
• Ishikawajima Shipyard, as predecessor of IHI Corporation, a shipyard and transport-related machinery manufacturer in Japan, is founded.
• Melbourne Cricket Ground, a well-known sport venue in Australia, officially opens.
• 1853–1873 – More than 130,000 Chinese laborers come to Cuba.

  Births

January–June

• January 1 – Karl von Einem, German general
• January 2 – Packy Dillon, American professional baseball player
• January 10 – John Martin Schaeberle, German-American astronomer
• January 16
• *Johnston Forbes-Robertson, English actor
• *Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton, British general
• January 28
• * José Martí, Cuban revolutionary
• * Vladimir Solovyov, Russian philosopher
• January 29 – Kitasato Shibasaburō, Japanese physician, bacteriologist
• February 3 – Hudson Maxim, American inventor, chemist
• February 4 – Kaneko Kentarō, Japanese politician, diplomat
• February 6 – Ignacij Klemenčič, Slovenian physicist
• February 18 – Ernest Fenollosa, Catalan-American philosopher
• February 22 – Annie Le Porte Diggs, Canadian-born state librarian of Kansas
• March 2 – Ella Loraine Dorsey, American author, journalist, and translator
• March 5 – Howard Pyle, American artist, fiction writer
• March 10 – Thomas Mackenzie, 18th Prime Minister of New Zealand
• March 13 – Robert Felkin, British writer
• March 14
• * Ferdinand Hodler, Swiss painter
• * March 14 – Max Saenger, German obstetrician, gynecologist
• March 25 – Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar, 5th Qajarid Shah of Persia
• March 27 – Yakov Zhilinsky, Russian general
• March 29 – Elihu Thomson, English-American engineer, inventor, co-founder of General Electric
• March 30 – Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter
• April 1 – Marcello Amero D'Aste, Italian admiral, politician
• April 6 – Emil Jellinek, German automobile entrepreneur
• April 7
• * Ella Eaton Kellogg, American pioneer in dietetics
• * Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany
• April 8 – Laura Alberta Linton, American chemist
• April 24 – Alphonse Bertillon, French police officer, forensic scientist
• April 30 – Alexey Abaza, Russian admiral and politician
• May 4 – Marie Robinson Wright, American travel writer
• May 8 – Katharine Lente Stevenson, American reformer, missionary, and editor
• May 20
• *Ella Hoag Brockway Avann, American educator
• *Vladimir Viktorovich Sakharov, Russian general
• May 28 – Carl Larsson, Swedish painter
• June 3 – William Flinders Petrie, English Egyptologist
• June 12 – Chester Adgate Congdon, Minnesota mining magnate

  July–December

• July 4 – Ernst Otto Beckmann, German chemist
• July 5 – Cecil Rhodes, English businessman
• July 10 – Percy Scott, British admiral
• July 18 – Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• July 24 – William Gillette, American actor, playwright and stage-manager
• July 29 – Ioan Culcer, Romanian general and politician
• August 14 – Dominique-Marie Gauchet, French admiral
• August 23 – João Marques de Oliveira, Portuguese painter
• August 28
• * Vladimir Shukhov, Russian engineer, polymath, scientist and architect
• * Franz I, Prince of Liechtenstein
• September 1 – Aleksei Brusilov, Russian general
• September 2 – Wilhelm Ostwald, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• September 6 – Katherine Eleanor Conway, American journalist, editor, poet, and Laetare Medalist
• September 10 – Gertrud Adelborg, Swedish women's rights activist
• September 16 – Albrecht Kossel, German physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• September 17 – Henry Churchill de Mille, American dramatist, playwright; father of film director Cecil B. DeMille
• September 20 – Chulalongkorn, Rama V, King of Siam
• September 21
• * Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• * Edmund Leighton, English painter
• September 23 – Fritz von Below, German general
• October 4 – Jane Maria Read, American poet and teacher
• October 13 – Lillie Langtry, English stage actress
• October 14 – John William Kendrick, American railroad executive
• October 17 – Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, wife of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh
• October 26 – Tokugawa Akitake, Japanese daimyō, the last lord of Mito Domain, younger brother of the last shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu
• October 30 – Louise Abbéma French painter, sculptor, and designer of the Belle Époque
• November 9 – Stanford White, American architect
• November 13 – John Drew, Jr., American stage actor
• November 20 – Oskar Potiorek, Austro-Hungarian general
• December 6 – Haraprasad Shastri, Indian academic, Sanskrit scholar, archivist and historian of Bengali literature
• December 14 – Errico Malatesta, Italian anarchist
• December 17 – Émile Roux, French physician, bacteriologist and immunologist
• December 21 – Noda Utarō, Japanese entrepreneur and politician
• December 21 – Sri Sarada Devi, universally revered saint
• December 22 – Teresa Carreño, Venezuelan pianist, singer, composer, and conductor
• December 23 – William Henry Moody, 35th United States Secretary of the Navy, 45th United States Attorney General, and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• December 31 – Tasker H. Bliss, American general

  Date unknown

• Panagiotis Danglis, Greek general, politician
• William O'Malley, Irish Parliament member

  Deaths

January–June

• January 8 – Mihály Bertalanits, Slovene poet in the Kingdom of Hungary
• January 16
• * Robert Lucas, governor of Ohio, United States
• * Matteo Carcassi, Italian composer
• * Archduke Rainer Joseph of Austria, Archduke of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia
• January 19 – Karl Faber, German historian
• January 22 – Méry von Bruiningk, Estonian democrat
• February 6 – Anastasio Bustamante, 4th President of Mexico
• February 15 – August, Prince of Hohenlohe-Öhringen
• March 30 – Abigail Fillmore, First Lady of the United States
• April 18 – William R. King, 13th Vice President of the United States
• April 28 – Ludwig Tieck, German writer
• May 18 – Lionel Kieseritzky, Baltic-German chess player
• June 2
• * Lucas Alamán, Mexican statesman, historian
• * Henry Trevor, 21st Baron Dacre, British peer, soldier
• June 8 – Richard William Howard Vyse

  July–December

• July 27 – Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 12th shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan
• August 9 – Józef Maria Hoene-Wroński, Polish philosopher
• August 19 – George Cockburn, British naval commander
• August 21 - Maria Quitéria, Brazilian national heroine
• August 23 – Alexander Calder, first mayor of Beaumont, Texas
• August 29 – Charles James Napier, British army general and colonial administrator
• September 3 – Augustin Saint-Hilaire, French botanist, traveller
• September 6 – George Bradshaw, English timetable publisher
• October 2 – François Arago, French Catalan mathematician, physicist, astronomer and politician
• October 3 – George Onslow, French composer
• October 5 – Mahlon Dickerson, American judge, politician
• October 13 – Jan Cock Blomhoff, Dutch director of Dejima, Japan
• October 22 – Juan Antonio Lavalleja, Uruguayan military, political figure )
• October 27 – Maria White Lowell, American abolitionist
• November 15 – Queen Maria II of Portugal
• December 15 – Georg Friedrich Grotefend, German epigraphist, philologist
• December 23 – Juliette Bussière Laforest-Courtois, Haitian journalist

  Date unknown

• Meta Forkel-Liebeskind, German writer and scholar
• Qiu Ersao, Chinese rebel and military commander