1853

Events in 1853 32

• 1773 – 1853 Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853) Died 28 April 1853, aged 79 Ludwig Tieck was a German poet, translator, and novelist and a central figure of early German Romanticism. His translations of Shakespeare, together with August Wilhelm Schlegel, remain standard in German to this day. He died in Berlin.
• 1786 – 1853 Francois Arago (1786-1853) Died 2 October 1853, aged 67 Francois Arago was a French physicist, astronomer, and statesman who made major contributions to the study of light polarization and electromagnetism, and briefly served as head of the French executive in 1848. As director of the Paris Observatory he championed Fizeau and Foucault's experiments measuring the speed of light. He died in Paris.
• 1803 – 1853 Christian Doppler (1803-1853) Died 17 March 1853, aged 49 Christian Doppler was an Austrian physicist and mathematician best known for describing the frequency shift of waves now called the Doppler effect. He proposed the effect in 1842 to explain the colors of binary stars, and it later became fundamental to astronomy, radar, and medical imaging. He died in Venice of a pulmonary disease.
• 1819 – 1853 Maria II of Portugal (1819-1853) Died 15 November 1853, aged 34 Maria II was Queen of Portugal from 1826 to 1853, ruling through a turbulent period that included a civil war against her uncle Miguel over the throne. She died in Lisbon from complications of childbirth. Her son Pedro V succeeded her as king.
• 1853 – 1902 Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) Died 26 March 1902, aged 48 Rhodes was a British-born businessman and politician who founded the diamond company De Beers and served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony. He was a driving force behind British colonial expansion in southern Africa, and the territories of Rhodesia were named after him.
• 1853 – 1931 David Belasco (1853-1931) Died 14 May 1931, aged 77 American theatrical producer, playwright and impresario, known for lavish, realistic stagecraft. His plays Madame Butterfly and The Girl of the Golden West were adapted by Puccini as operas. He died in New York City.
• 1853 First railway in India Bombay–Thane The Great Indian Peninsula Railway ran 34 kilometres with three locomotives named Sindh, Sultan and Sahib, watched by a public holiday crowd. India would go on to build the largest rail network in Asia.
• 1853 – 1928 Hendrik Lorentz (1853-1928) Died 4 February 1928, aged 74 Dutch physicist who shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics for work on the Zeeman effect. The Lorentz transformation equations became central to Einstein's special relativity. He also led the engineering studies for the Zuiderzee Works.
• 1853 – 1895 Jose Marti (1853-1895) Died 19 May 1895, aged 42 Jose Marti was a Cuban poet, essayist, and revolutionary who organized and helped launch the Cuban War of Independence against Spain. He was killed in action at the Battle of Dos Rios shortly after returning to Cuba to join the fighting. He is celebrated as Cuba's national hero.
• 1853 – 1931 Kitasato Shibasaburō (1853-1931) Died 13 June 1931, aged 78 Japanese bacteriologist who co-discovered the infectious agent of bubonic plague in 1894. He also developed serum therapy for tetanus with Emil von Behring. He founded the Kitasato Institute in Tokyo.
• 1853 – 1929 Lillie Langtry (1853-1929) Died 12 February 1929, aged 75 British-American actress and society beauty, known as "the Jersey Lily". She was a mistress of the future King Edward VII. She died in Monaco.
• 1853 – 2026 Melbourne Cricket Ground Melbourne, Australia The oldest and largest stadium in the southern hemisphere. It has hosted the first Test match, the first one-day international, an Olympic Games and a Cricket World Cup final.
• 1853 Melbourne Cricket Ground opens Melbourne, Australia The oldest and largest stadium in the southern hemisphere, holding 100,024. It has hosted an Olympic Games, two Commonwealth Games, a Cricket World Cup final and the first ever Test match, and stages the AFL Grand Final every year.
• 1853 – 1884 Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany (1853-1884) Died 28 March 1884, aged 30 Prince Leopold was the youngest son of Queen Victoria and suffered from hemophilia throughout his life. He died in Cannes, France, from bleeding after a fall, shortly after the birth of his second child. His descendants include several European royal houses.
• 1853 – 2026 Stadiums of the World Every ground built for 50,000 or more A global timeline of the world's largest stadiums — every ground built to hold 50,000 people or more, plotted by the year it opened. From the Victorian football fields of Britain to the mega-arenas of the 21st century, including the giants that no longer stand.
• 1853 – 1906 Stanford White (1853-1906) Died 25 June 1906, aged 52 The prominent American architect, designer of Madison Square Garden and other New York landmarks, was shot and killed by millionaire Harry Thaw during a rooftop show at the Garden. The killing, driven by Thaw's jealousy over his wife's earlier relationship with White, led to a sensational murder trial later dubbed the Trial of the Century.
• 1853 – 2026 Top 10 Stadiums in the World The ten grounds that matter most The ten most significant stadiums on earth, shown side by side across their working lives. Between them they have hosted four World Cup finals, three Olympic Games, the largest crowd ever recorded at a football match and the largest at a cricket match. The oldest opened in 1853, the newest in 2020.
• 1853 – 1932 Wilhelm Ostwald (1853-1932) Died 4 April 1932, aged 78 The Baltic German chemist was a founder of physical chemistry. He won the 1909 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on catalysis.
• 1853 – 1933 Émile Roux (1853-1933) Died 3 November 1933, aged 79 French physician and colleague of Louis Pasteur who helped develop diphtheria antitoxin treatment. He directed the Pasteur Institute from 1904.
• 1853 Il Trovatore premieres Verdi opera opens in Rome Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore premiered at the Teatro Apollo in Rome on 19 January 1853 to immediate acclaim. It became one of the most frequently performed operas in the repertoire. The opera is known for its dramatic plot of revenge and mistaken identity and for the "Anvil Chorus".
• 1853 Napoleon III marries Eugénie de Montijo French emperor weds Spanish noblewoman Emperor Napoleon III of France married the Spanish-born countess Eugénie de Montijo in a civil ceremony on 29 January 1853 at the Tuileries Palace, followed by a religious ceremony at Notre-Dame. The marriage was controversial among the French elite, who had hoped for a dynastic match. Eugénie became a prominent figure in European court life as Empress of the French.
• 1853 Franklin Pierce inaugurated as US president Fourteenth president takes office Franklin Pierce was sworn in as the 14th President of the United States on 4 March 1853 in Washington, D.C. He took the oath using an affirmation rather than a Bible, reportedly out of grief following the death of his young son in a train accident weeks earlier. His presidency would be marked by deepening sectional tension over slavery.
• 1853 La Traviata premieres Verdi opera opens in Venice Giuseppe Verdi's opera La Traviata premiered at La Fenice in Venice on 6 March 1853 and was initially poorly received. Revised and restaged more successfully the following year, it went on to become one of the most performed operas in the world. It tells the story of a Parisian courtesan and her doomed love affair.
• 1853 Taiping forces capture Nanjing Rebels establish Heavenly Capital Taiping rebel forces captured the city of Nanjing on 19 March 1853 and declared it the Heavenly Capital of their rebel state, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The city would remain the movement's capital for eleven years. The Taiping Rebellion against the Qing dynasty became one of the deadliest conflicts of the 19th century.
• 1853 – 1890 Vincent van Gogh Post-Impressionism · Netherlands Vincent van Gogh (March 30, 1853 – July 29, 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who sold only one painting in his lifetime but created over 2,000 works. The Starry Night, Sunflowers and his self-portraits are among the most recognised in the world.
• 1853 Argentine Constitution of 1853 adopted Framework for a unified Argentine republic A constituent assembly meeting in Santa Fe adopted the Argentine Constitution on 1 May 1853, establishing a federal republic following decades of civil conflict between unitarians and federalists. The province of Buenos Aires initially refused to join, remaining separate until 1861. The constitution, with amendments, remains the basis of Argentina's government.
• 1853 Commodore Perry arrives in Japan US Navy squadron reaches Edo Bay Commodore Matthew Perry led a squadron of US Navy ships into Edo Bay on 8 July 1853, demanding that Japan open itself to trade after more than two centuries of enforced isolation. He delivered a letter from President Fillmore and promised to return the following year for an answer. The visit set in motion the end of Japan's sakoku policy and its rapid opening to the West.
• 1853 New York Crystal Palace Exhibition opens America stages its own world's fair The Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations opened in a purpose-built glass-and-iron Crystal Palace in New York on 14 July 1853, modeled on London's Great Exhibition of 1851. It showcased American and international industrial, agricultural, and artistic products. The building burned down in 1858.
• 1853 Crimean War begins Ottoman Empire declares war on Russia The Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia on 4 October 1853 after a dispute over protection of Christian subjects and holy sites in the Ottoman-controlled Holy Land. Britain and France entered the following year on the Ottoman side, turning a regional dispute into a major European war. The conflict would last until 1856 and claim hundreds of thousands of lives.
• 1853 Livingstone begins trans-Africa expedition Missionary explorer sets out from Linyanti David Livingstone departed from Linyanti in November 1853 on an expedition that would take him across southern Africa to the Atlantic coast at Luanda and then back across the continent to the Indian Ocean. The journey, completed over the following three years, made him the first European to see Victoria Falls. His accounts opened the interior of Africa to wider European attention.
• 1853 Battle of Sinop Russian fleet destroys Ottoman squadron On 30 November 1853 a Russian naval squadron under Pavel Nakhimov destroyed an Ottoman fleet anchored at Sinop on the Black Sea coast. The one-sided defeat, with heavy Ottoman casualties, shocked Britain and France and helped push them toward direct intervention in the Crimean War. Contemporaries in Western Europe dubbed it the "Massacre of Sinop".
• 1853 Gadsden Purchase signed United States buys land from Mexico The United States and Mexico signed the Gadsden Purchase treaty on 30 December 1853, under which the US acquired roughly 30,000 square miles of territory in present-day southern Arizona and New Mexico. The purchase was intended to secure a southern route for a transcontinental railroad. It fixed the modern border between the two countries.