1853

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 (US).

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, 22 miles (35 km).
• 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 SS Great Eastern 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 (department) 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 (the last part of the Edo period in Japan) 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 (Julius Blüthner and Steinway & Sons being the others).
• 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 3 miles (4.8 km) of Tianjin.
• November 3 , Troops of William Walker capture La Paz in Baja California Territory and declare the (short-lived) 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 (November 18 O.S.) , 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 77,000 square kilometres (30,000 sq mi) 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 (Essai sur l'inégalité des races humaines), 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.

January-March

• January 1, Karl von Einem, German general (d. 1934)
• January 9, Henning von Holtzendorff, German admiral (d. 1919)
• January 16
  • Johnston Forbes-Robertson, English actor (d. 1937)
  • Sir Ian Hamilton, British general (d. 1947)
• January 18, Eusebio Hernández Pérez, Cuban eugenicist, obstetrician and guerrilla (d. 1933)
• January 23 , John Marks Moore, American politician (d. 1902)
• January 28
  • José Martí, Cuban revolutionary (d. 1895)
  • Vladimir Solovyov, Russian philosopher (d. 1900)
• c. February, William O'Malley, Irish politician (d. 1939)
• January 29, Kitasato Shibasaburō, Japanese physician, bacteriologist (d. 1931)
• February 4, Kaneko Kentarō, Japanese politician, diplomat (d. 1942)
• February 18, Ernest Fenollosa, Catalan-American philosopher (d. 1908)
• February 22, Annie Le Porte Diggs, Canadian-born state librarian of Kansas (d. 1916)
• March 2, Ella Loraine Dorsey, American author, journalist and translator (d. 1935)
• March 5, Howard Pyle, American artist, fiction writer (d. 1911)
• March 10, Thomas Mackenzie, 18th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1930)
• March 13, Robert William Felkin, British writer (d. 1926)
• March 14, Ferdinand Hodler, Swiss painter (d. 1918)
• March 25, Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar, 5th Qajarid Shah of Persia (d. 1907)
• March 27, Yakov Zhilinsky, Russian general (d. 1918)
• March 29, Elihu Thomson, English-American engineer, inventor, co-founder of General Electric (d. 1937)
• March 30, Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter (d. 1890)

April-June

• April 6, Emil Jellinek, German automobile entrepreneur (d. 1918)
• April 7
  • Ella Eaton Kellogg, American pioneer in dietetics (d. 1920)
  • Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, member of the British royal family (d. 1884)
• April 22, Alphonse Bertillon, French police officer, forensic scientist (d. 1914)
• April 30, Alexey Abaza, Russian admiral and politician (d. 1917)
• May 4, Marie Robinson Wright, American travel writer (d. 1914)
• May 20
  • Ella Hoag Brockway Avann, American educator (d. 1899)
  • Vladimir Viktorovich Sakharov, Russian general (d. 1920)
• May 26 - Placido Moreira Dias, Brazilian military commander (d. ?)
• May 28, Carl Larsson, Swedish painter (d. 1919)
• June 3, William Flinders Petrie, English Egyptologist (d. 1942)
• June 12, Chester Adgate Congdon, American mining magnate (d. 1916)

July-September

• July 4, Ernst Otto Beckmann, German chemist (d. 1923)
• July 5, Cecil Rhodes, English businessman (d. 1902)
• July 10, Percy Scott, British admiral (d. 1924)
• July 18, Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1928)
• July 24, William Gillette, American actor, playwright and stage-manager (d. 1937)
• July 26, Philip Cowen, American Jewish publisher and author (d. 1943)
• July 29, Ioan Culcer, Romanian general and politician (d. 1928)
• August 23
  • João Marques de Oliveira, Portuguese painter (d. 1927)
  • John Thomson, Australian politician (d. 1917)
• August 28
  • Vladimir Shukhov, Russian engineer, polymath, scientist and architect (d. 1939)
  • Franz I, Prince of Liechtenstein (d. 1938)
• September 1, Aleksei Brusilov, Russian general (d. 1926)
• September 2, Wilhelm Ostwald, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1932)
• September 6, Katherine Eleanor Conway, American journalist, editor, poet and Laetare Medalist (d. 1927)
• September 16, Albrecht Kossel, German physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1927)
• September 20, Chulalongkorn, Rama V, King of Siam (d. 1910)
• September 21, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1926)
• September 23, Fritz von Below, German general (d. 1918)

October-December

• October 4, Jane Maria Read, American poet and teacher (unknown year of death)
• October 13, Lillie Langtry, Jersey-born stage actress and royal mistress (d. 1929)
• October 14, John William Kendrick, American railroad executive (d. 1924)
• October 16, Thadeus von Sivers, Baltic German-born Russian general (death date unknown)
• October 17, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, wife of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh (d. 1920)
• October 26, Tokugawa Akitake, Japanese daimyō, the last lord of Mito Domain, younger brother of the last shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu (d. 1910)
• October 30, Louise Abbéma, French painter, sculptor and designer of the Belle Époque (d. 1927)
• November 9, Stanford White, American architect (d. 1906)
• November 13, John Drew, Jr., American stage actor (d. 1927)
• November 18, Leopold Poetsch, Austrian history teacher, high school teacher of Adolf Hitler and Adolf Eichmann (d. 1942)
• November 20, Oskar Potiorek, Austro-Hungarian general (d. 1933)
• November 29, Panagiotis Danglis, Greek general, politician (d. 1924)
• December 6, Hara Prasad Shastri, Indian academic, Sanskrit scholar, archivist and historian of Bengali literature (d. 1931)
• December 14, Errico Malatesta, Italian anarchist (d. 1932)
• December 17, Émile Roux, French physician, bacteriologist and immunologist (d. 1933)
• December 21, Noda Utarō, Japanese entrepreneur and politician (d. 1927)
• December 22
  • Teresa Carreño, Venezuelan pianist, singer, composer and conductor (d. 1917)
  • Sarada Devi, Indian mystic and saint (d. 1920)
• 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 (d. 1917)
• December 31, Tasker H. Bliss, American general (d. 1930)

January-June

• January 8, Mihály Bertalanits, Slovene (Prekmurje Slovene) poet in the Kingdom of Hungary (b. 1788)
• January 16
  • Matteo Carcassi, Italian composer (b. 1792)
  • Archduke Rainer Joseph of Austria, Archduke of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia (b. 1783)
  • Robert Lucas, governor of Ohio, United States (b. 1781)
• January 19, Karl Faber, German historian (b. 1773)
• January 22, Méry von Bruiningk, Estonian democrat (b. 1818)
• February 4, Princess Maria Amélia of Brazil, daughter of Emperor Pedro I of Brazil (b. 1831)
• February 6, Anastasio Bustamante, 4th President of Mexico (b. 1780)
• February 15, August, Prince of Hohenlohe-Öhringen (b. 1784)
• March 17, Christian Doppler, Austrian mathematician (b. 1803)
• March 30, Abigail Fillmore, First Lady of the United States (b. 1798)
• April 18, William R. King, 13th Vice President of the United States (b. 1786)
• April 28, Ludwig Tieck, German writer (b. 1773)
• May 18, Lionel Kieseritzky, Baltic-German chess player (b. 1806)
• June 2
  • Lucas Alamán, Mexican statesman, historian (b. 1792)
  • Henry Trevor, 21st Baron Dacre, British peer, soldier (b. 1777)
• June 7, Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis, Italian opera singer (b. 1800)
• June 8, Howard Vyse, English soldier and Egyptologist (b. 1784)
• June 27, Lewis Brian Adams, English painter (b. 1809)

July-December

• July 27, Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 12th shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan (b. 1793)
• August 9, Józef Maria Hoene-Wroński, Polish philosopher (b. 1776)
• August 19, George Cockburn, British naval commander (b. 1772)
• August 21, Maria Quitéria, Brazilian national heroine (b. 1792)
• August 23, Alexander Calder, first mayor of Beaumont, Texas (b. 1806)
• August 29, Charles James Napier, British army general and colonial administrator (b. 1782)
• September 3, Augustin Saint-Hilaire, French botanist, traveller (b. 1799)
• September 6, George Bradshaw, English timetable publisher (b. 1800)
• October 2, François Arago, French Catalan mathematician, physicist, astronomer and politician (b. 1786)
• October 3, George Onslow, French composer (b. 1784)
• October 5, Mahlon Dickerson, American judge, politician (b. 1770)
• October 13, Jan Cock Blomhoff, Dutch director of Dejima, Japan (b. 1779)
• October 22, Juan Antonio Lavalleja, Uruguayan military, political figure (b. 1784)
• October 27, Maria White Lowell, American abolitionist (b. 1821)
• November 15, Maria II of Portugal, queen regnant (b. 1819)
• December 15, Georg Friedrich Grotefend, German epigraphist, philologist (b. 1775)
• December 23, Juliette Bussière Laforest-Courtois, Haitian journalist (b. 1789)

Date unknown

• Barnard E. Bee, Sr., American attorney and Texan anti-annexation politician (b. 1787)
• Meta Forkel-Liebeskind, German writer and scholar (b. 1765)
• Qiu Ersao, Chinese rebel and military commander, died in action (b. 1822)
• Ferdinando Quaglia, Italian painter of portrait miniatures (b. 1780)