Timeline July 1853

Events in July 1853 2

• 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.