:1853

• 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 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 – 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 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.{{London Gazette|issue=21426|pages=950–951|date=1853-04-01}}
• March – The clothing company Levi Strauss & Co. is founded in the United States.{{cite web|url=http://www.levistrauss.com/sites/default/files/librarydocument/2010/4/History_Levi_Strauss_Biography.pdf |first=Lynn |last=Downey |title=Levi Strauss: a short biography |publisher=Levi Strauss & Co. |year=2008 |access-date=1 January 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723005530/http://www.levistrauss.com/sites/default/files/librarydocument/2010/4/History_Levi_Strauss_Biography.pdf |archive-date=July 23, 2011 }}

• April 7 – Prince Leopold, the youngest son and the eighth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, is born.
• April 16 – Indian Railways: The first passenger railway in India opens from Bombay to Thana, Maharashtra, {{convert|22|mi|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.{{Cite book|last=Lorimer|first=John|title=Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf|publisher=British Government|location=Bombay|year=1915}}
• 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.{{cite journal|last1=Pritchett|first1=Jonathan B.|last2=Tunali|first2=Insan|year=1995|title=Strangers' Disease: Determinants of Yellow Fever Mortality during the New Orleans Epidemic of 1853|journal=Explorations in Economic History|volume=32|issue=4|pages=517–539|doi=10.1006/exeh.1995.1022}}
• 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.{{Cite web |title=Guimarães foi elevada a cidade há 170 anos. Junta realiza sessão solene |url=https://jornaldeguimaraes.pt/noticias/170-anos-de-cidade/#:~:text=A%2022%20de%20junho%20de,S%C3%A3o%20Sebasti%C3%A3o%20assinala%20a%20efem%C3%A9ride. |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=jornaldeguimaraes.pt}}
• 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 1 – The Swiss watch company Tissot is founded.{{Cite web|title=Tissot - The Watch Brand 2020|website = YouTube| date=January 10, 2020 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY5PW_JJQGc#t=50s |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/VY5PW_JJQGc| archive-date=2021-12-11 |url-status=live}}{{cbignore}}
• July 8 – U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry arrives in Edo Bay, Japan, with a request for a trade treaty.
• July 14 – Japan allows U.S. 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 – Hudson Taylor first leaves for China.
• September 20 – Otis Elevator, as predecessor of Otis Worldwide, was founded in the United States.{{Cite web|title=Otis Opened Elevator Factory|url=http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/reform/jb_reform_otis_1.html|access-date=2021-01-18|website=www.americaslibrary.gov}}

• 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 opened.
• 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 {{convert|3|mi|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.
• 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 {{convert|77,000|km2|sqmi}} of land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest.

• The Independent Santa Cruz Maya of Eastern Yucatán is 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 (Essai sur l'inégalité des races humaines).
• 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.standardchartered.com/about-us/history/en/index.html|publisher=Standard Chartered|title=Our History|access-date=2012-08-07}}
• Melbourne Cricket Ground, now the largest sports stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, officially opens.
• 1853–1873 – More than 130,000 Chinese laborers come to Cuba.

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• January 1 – Karl von Einem, German general (d. 1934)
• January 9 – Henning von Holtzendorff, German admiral (d. 1919){{cite book |last1=Tucker |first1=Spencer C. |title=World War I: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection |date=2014 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1851099658 |pages=767–768|author1-link=Spencer C. Tucker }}
• 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){{cite book|last=Daniell|first=Lewis E.|title=Personnel of the Texas State Government with Sketches of Distinguished Texans, Embracing the Executive Staff, Heads of Departments, United States Senators and Representatives, Members of the XXth legislature|date=1887|publisher=Press of the City Printing Company|publication-place=Austin|lccn=19016834|page=19|quote=The Secretary of State, was born in Houston county, Texas, on the twenty-third day of January, 1853.}}
• January 28
• José Martí, Cuban revolutionary (d. 1895)
• Vladimir Solovyov, Russian philosopher (d. 1900)
• 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 6 – Emil Jellinek, German automobile entrepreneur (d. 1918)
• April 7
• Ella Eaton Kellogg, American pioneer in dietetics (d. 1920)
• Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany (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)

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• 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)
• 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 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){{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mgsxDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT79 |title=Kleine Geschichte Griechenlands: Von der Staatsgründung bis heute |first=Ioannis |last=Zelepos |publisher=C.H.Beck |date=29 September 2017 |page=79 |isbn=9783406714825}}
• 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
• Sarada Devi, Indian mystic and saint (d. 1920)
• Teresa Carreño, Venezuelan pianist, singer, composer, and conductor (d. 1917)
• 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)

• William O'Malley, Irish politician (d. 1939)

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• 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)

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• 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 – Queen Maria II of Portugal (b. 1819)
• December 15 – Georg Friedrich Grotefend, German epigraphist, philologist (b. 1775)
• December 23 – Juliette Bussière Laforest-Courtois, Haitian journalist (b. 1789)

• 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 (b. 1822)
• Ferdinando Quaglia, Italian painter of portrait miniatures (b. 1780)

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