WHAT ALL HAPPENED JANUARY TO JULY 1854
Find out what all happened January to July 1854

Charles Dickens' novel Hard Times begins serialisation in his magazine, Household Words. (1. April 1854)

The official independence of the Orange Free State is declared. (23. February 1854)

The first class of United States Naval Academy students graduate. (10. June 1854)

Crimean War: The United Kingdom declares war on Russia. (27. March 1854)

The McDonald Islands are discovered by Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang. (4. January 1854)

Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade. (31. March 1854)

In Jackson, Michigan, the first convention of the United States Republican Party is held. (6. July 1854)

USS Constellation (1854), the last all-sail warship built by the US Navy, is commissioned. (28. July 1854)

The civil death procedure is abolished in France. (31. May 1854)

Crimean War: France and Britain declare war on Russia. (28. March 1854)

The Kansas–Nebraska Act becomes law establishing the US territories of Nebraska and Kansas. (30. May 1854)

The Republican Party of the United States is organized in Ripon, Wisconsin. (20. March 1854)

The first Victoria Cross is awarded during the bombardment of Bomarsund in the Åland Islands. (21. June 1854)

German psychologist Friedrich Eduard Beneke disappears; two years later his remains are found in a canal near Charlottenburg. (1. March 1854)

In Venezuela, slavery was abolished (24. March 1854)

The United Kingdom recognizes the independence of the Orange Free State. (17. February 1854)

In the Battle of Guaymas, Mexico, General José María Yáñez stops the French invasion led by Count Gaston de Raousset-Boulbon. (13. July 1854)