World War 1 and 2

Years: 1850 1851 1852 - 1853 - 1854 1855 1856
Decades: 1820s 1830s 1840s - 1850s - 1860s 1870s 1880s
Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century

1853 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar).

Events

January 19 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore premieres in Rome
January 21 - Russell L. Hawes patents the envelope folding machine
January 29 - Napoleon III marries the Spanish Countess Eugènie at the Tuileries
March 4 – Inauguration of US president Franklin Pierce
June 7 - Franklin College of Lancaster, Pennsylvania merges with Marshall College of Mercersburg, Pennsylvania to form Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster
July 8 - U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry arrives in Edo Bay with a request for a trade treaty
July 25 Outlaw and bandit Joaquin Murietta is killed.
August 12 – New Zealand acquires self-government
August 24 - Potato chips first prepared.
November 15 - Maria II of Portugal is succeeded by her son Pedro
November 30 - Crimean War: Battle of Sinope - The Russian fleet destroys the Turkish fleet.
December 30 - Gadsden Purchase: The United States buys land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest

Yellow fever kills 7790 in New Orleans
Alexander Wood invents the hypodermic syringe
Argentina adopts federal constitution - Buenos Aires opposes that
Donald McKay builds the Great Republic , the world's biggest sailing ship, which at 4,500 tons was too large to be successful
Isambard Kingdom Brunel began work on the Great Eastern passenger steamer
Start of Crimean War
Independent Santa Cruz Maya of Eastern Yucatan recognized as an independent nation by British Empire
Iesada succeeds Ieoshi as Japanese Shogun
Beginning of the Late Tokugawa shogunate, the last part of the Edo period in Japan.
Stephen Foster writes "My Old Kentucky Home."