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.
- *U.S. President-elect Franklin Pierce's only living child, Benjamin "Benny" Pierce, is killed in a train accident.
- January 8 – Taiping Rebellion: Zeng Guofan is ordered to assist the governor of Hunan in organizing 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 at Teatro Apollo in Rome.
- January 20 – The United Kingdom proclaims its annexation of Lower Burma, ending the Second Anglo-Burmese War.
- February 10 – Taiping Rebellion: Taiping forces assemble at Hanyang, Hankou and Wuchang for the march on Nanjing.
- February 12 – The city of Puerto Montt is founded in the Reloncaví Sound, Chile.
- February 22 – Washington University in St. Louis is founded as Eliot Seminary.
- March 5 – Saint Paul Fire and Marine, as predecessor of The Travelers Companies, a worldwide insurance service, founded in Minnesota, United States.
- March 6 – Giuseppe Verdi's opera La traviata premieres at La Fenice in Venice, but is poorly received at this time.
- 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.
- March – The clothing company Levi Strauss & Co. is founded in San Francisco.
April–June
- April 7 - Prince Leopold, the youngest son and the eighth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, is born in Buckingham Palace; he has inherited haemophilia. During the labour, Victoria chooses to use chloroform, thereby encouraging the use of anesthesia in childbirth.
- April 16 - Indian Railways: The first passenger railway in India opens from Bombay to Thana, Maharashtra,.
- May 5 - Perpetual Maritime Truce comes into force between the United Kingdom and the rulers of the Sheikhdoms of the Lower Gulf, later known as the Trucial States.
- May 12–October 31 - The Great Industrial Exhibition is held in Dublin, Ireland.
- May 23 - The first plat for Seattle, Washington, is laid out.
- May
- * The world's first public aquarium opens, as a feature of the London Zoo.
- * An outbreak of yellow fever kills 7,790 people in New Orleans.
- * Isambard Kingdom Brunel accepts John Scott Russell's tender for construction of the passenger steamer.
- June 22 - Guimarães is elevated to city status by Queen Maria II of Portugal.
- 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 1 – The Swiss watch company Tissot is founded.
- July 8 – U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry arrives in Edo Bay, Japan, with a request for a trade treaty.
- July 14 – Japan allows Commodore Perry to come ashore and begin negotiations.
- 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
- * Potato chips are first prepared, by George Crum at Saratoga Springs, New York, according to popular accounts.
- * The Royal Norwegian Navy Museum is founded at Karljohansvern in Horten, perhaps the world's first naval museum.
- September 19 – English missionary Hudson Taylor first leaves for China.
- September 20 – Otis Elevator, as predecessor of Otis Worldwide, is founded in the 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 25 - In Munich, the art museum Neue Pinakothek opens.
- 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 Sonora.
- 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 as King of Portugal.
- 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 - Compagnie Générale des Eaux, predecessor of Vivendi and Veolia, 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
- French diplomat Arthur de Gobineau begins publication of his An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races, an early example of scientific racism.
- Charles Pravaz and Alexander Wood independently invent a practical hypodermic syringe.
- Wheaton Academy is founded as an evangelical high school 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.
- Melbourne Cricket Ground, the largest sports stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, officially opens.
- 1853–1873 – More than 130,000 Chinese laborers come to Cuba.
Births
January–March
- January 1 – Karl von Einem, German general
- January 9 – Henning von Holtzendorff, German admiral
- January 16
- *Johnston Forbes-Robertson, English actor
- *Sir Ian Hamilton, British general
- January 18 – Eusebio Hernández Pérez, Cuban eugenicist, obstetrician and guerrilla
- January 23 - John Marks Moore, American politician
- January 28
- * José Martí, Cuban revolutionary
- * Vladimir Solovyov, Russian philosopher
- c. February – William O'Malley, Irish politician
- January 29 – Kitasato Shibasaburō, Japanese physician, bacteriologist
- February 4 – Kaneko Kentarō, Japanese politician, diplomat
- 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 William Felkin, British writer
- March 14 – Ferdinand Hodler, Swiss painter
- 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–June
- April 6 – Emil Jellinek, German automobile entrepreneur
- April 7
- * Ella Eaton Kellogg, American pioneer in dietetics
- * Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, member of the British royal family
- April 22 – Alphonse Bertillon, French police officer, forensic scientist
- April 30 – Alexey Abaza, Russian admiral and politician
- May 4 – Marie Robinson Wright, American travel writer
- May 20
- *Ella Hoag Brockway Avann, American educator
- *Vladimir Viktorovich Sakharov, Russian general
- May 26 - Placido Moreira Dias, Brazilian military commander
- May 28 – Carl Larsson, Swedish painter
- June 3 – William Flinders Petrie, English Egyptologist
- June 12 – Chester Adgate Congdon, American mining magnate
July–September
- 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 26 – Philip Cowen, American Jewish publisher and author
- July 29 – Ioan Culcer, Romanian general and politician
- August 23
- * João Marques de Oliveira, Portuguese painter
- * John Thomson, Australian politician
- 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 16 – Albrecht Kossel, German physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- September 20 – Chulalongkorn, Rama V, King of Siam
- September 21 – Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- September 23 – Fritz von Below, German general
October–December
- October 4 – Jane Maria Read, American poet and teacher
- October 13 – Lillie Langtry, Jersey-born stage actress and royal mistress
- October 14 – John William Kendrick, American railroad executive
- October 16 – Thadeus von Sivers, Baltic German-born Russian general
- 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 18 – Leopold Poetsch, Austrian history teacher, high school teacher of Adolf Hitler and Adolf Eichmann
- November 20 – Oskar Potiorek, Austro-Hungarian general
- November 29 – Panagiotis Danglis, Greek general, politician
- December 6 – Hara Prasad 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 22
- * Teresa Carreño, Venezuelan pianist, singer, composer and conductor
- * Sarada Devi, Indian mystic and saint
- 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