- April 29
- Comet C/1853 G1 (Schweizer) approaches within 0.0839 astronomical units (AUs) of Earth. [1]
- May 1
- Argentina adopts its constitution. [1]
- May 6
- First major US rail disaster kills 46 (Norwalk, Connecticut). [1]
- May 14
- Gail Borden patents his process for condensed milk. [1]
- May 17
- Johan Rudolphe Thorbecke's liberals win second Dutch Parliamentary election. [1]
- May 18
- A party of English ship HMS Resolute from the west meets with a party of HMS Investigator from the east in the Arctic, establishing the continuous Barrow Strait and the existence of the Northwest Passage. [695.60]
- May 23
- Buenos Aires gains independence from Argentina (reunited 1859). [1]
- May 31
- Elisha Kane's Arctic expedition leaves New York aboard the Advance ship. [1]
- July 9
- US Admiral Matthew Perry and US Navy visit Japan. [1]
- July 14
- US Commodore Matthew Perry requests trade relations with Japan. [1]
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- US President Franklin Pierce opens first industrial exposition (New York). [1]
- July 18
- First train to cross the US-Canada boundary, from Portland, Maine to Montréal, Quebec. [1]
- Completion of Grand Trunk Line, America's first international railroad. [1]
- August 24
- First potato chips prepared by Chef George Crum (Saratoga Springs, New York, USA). [1] [5]
- September 29
- Emigrant ship Annie Jane sinks off Scotland, drowning 348. [1]
- October 2
- Austrian law forbids Jews from owning land. [1]
- November 9
- Origin of Carrington rotation numbers for rotation of the Sun. [1]
- December 30
- Gadsden Purchase - about 30,000 square miles (77,000 km) by Gila River from México for $10 million; area is now southern Arizona and New Mexico. [1] [444.70]
1854
- January 5
- Steamship San Francisco is wrecked; 300 die. [1]
- January 13
- Anthony Foss patents the accordion. [1]
- January 18
- Filibuster William Walker proclaims Republic of Sonora in Northwest México. [1]
- January 31
- Dutch KNMI is established (Royal Meteorological Institute). [1]
- February 2
- Pope Pius IX publishes encyclical On the persecution of Armenians. [1]
- February 17
- British recognize independence of Orange Free State (South Africa). [1]
- February 23
- Great Britain and Orange Free state sign Convention of Bloemfontein. [1]
- March 1
- SS City of Glasgow leaves Liverpool harbor and is never seen again. [1]
- March 28
- Great Britain and France declare war on Russia (Crimea War). [1]
- March 31
- Treaty of Kanagawa: US Commodore Matthew Perry forces Japan to opens ports to foreign trade. [1]
- April 16
- San Salvador destroyed by earthquake. [1]
- Steamer Long Beach sinks off Long Beach, New York, USA; 311 die. [1]
- April 24
- Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I marries Princess Elizabeth of Wittelsbach. [1] [1077.15]
- May 1
- Amsterdam begins transferring drinking water out of the dunes. [1]
- May 5
- English pirate Plumridge robs along pro-English Finnish coast. [1]
- July 13
- US forces shell and burn San Juan del Norte, Nicaragua. [1]
- August 29
- Self-governing windmill patented (to Daniel Halladay). [1]
- September 20
- British and French defeat Russians at Alma, in the Crimea. [1]
- September 27
- Steamship Arctic sinks with 300 people aboard. [1]
- October 25
- The Light Brigade charges (Battle of Balaklava) (Crimean War). [1]
- November 13
- New Era ship sinks off New Jersey coast with loss of 300. [1]
- November 14
- Vicomte Ferdinand de Lesseps convinces Viceroy Mohammed Said of Egypt that he should build the Suez Canal. [722.52]
- December 5
- Aaron Allen of Boston, Massachusetts, USA patents folding theater chair. [1]
- December 8
- Pope Pius IX proclaims Immaculate Conception, makes Mary free of Original Sin. [1]
- December 9
- Lord Tennyson's poem, Charge of the Light Brigade is published. [1]
- December 19
- Allen Wilson of Connecticut patents sewing machine to sew curving seams. [1]
- December 30
- Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company, first in US, incorporated in New York City, New York. [1]
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