WHAT ALL HAPPENED JANUARY TO DECEMBER 1853
Find out what all happened January to December 1853

Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore receives its premiere performance in Rome. (19. January 1853)

The Russian Army crossed the Pruth river into the Danubian Principalities, Moldavia and Wallachia—providing the spark that set off the Crimean War. (2. July 1853)

Crimean War: The Ottoman Empire declares war on Russia. (4. October 1853)

Crimean War: Battle of Sinop – The Imperial Russian Navy under Pavel Nakhimov destroys the Ottoman fleet under Osman Pasha at Sinop, a sea port in northern Turkey. (30. November 1853)

Opening of the first major US world's fair, the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in New York City. (14. July 1853)

Gadsden Purchase: The United States buys land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest. (30. December 1853)

A dinner party is held inside a life-size model of an Iguanodon created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and Sir Richard Owen in south London, England, United Kingdom (31. December 1853)

Admiral Despointes formally takes possession of New Caledonia in the name of France. (24. September 1853)

Washington University in St. Louis is founded as Eliot Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. (22. February 1853)

The first passenger rail opens in India, from Bori Bunder, Bombay to Thane. (16. April 1853)

President-elect of the United States Franklin Pierce and his family are involved in a train wreck near Andover, Massachusetts. Pierce's 11-year-old son Benjamin is killed in the crash. (6. January 1853)

U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry arrives in Edo bay with a treaty requesting trade. (8. July 1853)

Joaquin Murrieta, the famous Californio bandit known as "Robin Hood of El Dorado", is killed. (25. July 1853)

The Taiping reform movement occupies and makes Nanjing its capital until 1864. (19. March 1853)