Directory

1854 CE

The Grand Excursion takes prominent Eastern United States inhabitants from Chicago to Rock Island, Illinois, by railroad, then up the Mississippi River to Saint Paul, Minnesota, by steamboat. The Eureka Stockade Miners' Rebellion breaks out in Ballarat, Victoria (Australia). Pope Pius IX in the apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus defines ex Cathedra the dogma of Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived without original sin.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • February 17 – The British recognize the independence of the Orange Free State in Southern Africa; its official independence is declared six days later in the Orange River Convention.source
  • March 24 – Slavery is abolished in Venezuela.source
  • March 31 – United States Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry signs the Convention of Kanagawa with the Japanese government (the Tokugawa shogunate), opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade.source
  • July 13 – Mohamed Sa'id Pasha succeeds his nephew Abbas as the Wāli of Egypt and Sudan, then a province of the Ottoman Empire.source
  • October 9–11 – United States diplomats in Europe meet and draft the Ostend Manifesto, setting out a rationale for the U.S. to acquire Cuba from Spain.source
  • December 10 – Sa'id Pasha officially abolishes slavery in Egypt.source
  • The Republican Party is formed by anti-slavery opponents of the Kansas–Nebraska Act in Ripon, Wisconsin.source

Conflict & Security

  • February 13 – Mexican troops force William Walker and his troops to retreat to Sonora.source
  • February 27 – Britain sends Russia an ultimatum to withdraw from two Romanian provinces it has conquered, Moldavia and Wallachia.source
  • March 20 – In the United States:source
  • March 27 – Crimean War: The United Kingdom declares war on Russia.source
  • March 28 – Crimean War: France declares war on Russia.source
  • May 5–15 – Hokkien–Teochew Riots in Singapore.source
  • May 27 – Taiping Rebellion: United States diplomatic minister Robert McLane arrives at the Heavenly Capital aboard the .source
  • June 21 – Battle of Bomarsund in Åland off the coast of Finland: British Royal Navy seaman's mate Charles Davis Lucas throws a live Russian artillery shell overboard by hand before it explodes, for which he is awarded the first Victoria Cross in 1857.source
  • July 17 – The Bienio progresista revolutionary coup occurs in Spain.source
  • August 16 – Battle of Bomarsund: Russian troops on the island of Bomarsund, in Åland, surrender to French–British troops.source
  • August 19 – John Lawrence Grattan leads 29 United States troops and a civilian interpreter in attack on Lakota village over dispute involving emigrant cow. Grattan's command was annihilated.source
  • September 20 – Crimean War: Battle of Alma – The French–British alliance wins the first major land engagement of the war.source
  • October 25 – Crimean War: Battle of Balaclava – The allies gain an overall victory, except for the disastrous cavalry Charge of the Light Brigade, from which only 200 of 700 men survive.source
  • November 5 – Crimean War: Battle of Inkerman – The Russians are defeated.source
  • December 3 – The Eureka Stockade Miners' Rebellion breaks out in Ballarat, Victoria (Australia).source
  • The Mute Rebellion breaks out in Sweden.source
  • Florence Nightingale and her team of 38 trained volunteer nurses, having set out on October 21 from England, arrive at Selimiye Barracks in Scutari in the Ottoman Empire, to care for British Army troops wounded in the Crimean War.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • January 4 – The McDonald Islands are discovered by Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang.source
  • March 11 – A Royal Navy fleet sails from Britain, under Vice Admiral Sir Charles Napier.source
  • August 27 – English lawyer Alfred Wills and party set out for the first ascent of the Wetterhorn in Switzerland, regarded as the start of the "golden age of alpinism".source
  • The Icelandic trade is opened to merchants other than Danes.source
  • Ignacy Łukasiewicz drills the world's first oil well in Poland, in Bóbrka near Krosno County.source

Religion & Belief

  • December 9 – Pope Pius IX in the apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus defines ex Cathedra the dogma of Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived without original sin.source

Economy & Finance

  • March 1 – The Plan de Ayutla calls for liberal reforms and the ouster of President Antonio López de Santa Anna of Mexico.source
  • March – The British East India Company annexes Jhansi State in India under the doctrine of lapse.source
  • The French fashion label Louis Vuitton is founded.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 20 – The North Carolina General Assembly in the United States charters the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad, to run from Goldsboro through New Bern, to the newly created seaport of Morehead City, near Beaufort.source
  • February 11 – Major streets are lit by coal gas for the first time by the San Francisco Gas Company; 86 such lamps are turned on this evening in San Francisco, California.source
  • February 14 – Texas is linked by telegraph with the rest of the United States, when a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas is completed.source
  • March 1 – German psychologist Friedrich Eduard Beneke disappears; 2 years later his remains are found in the canal near Charlottenburg.source
  • March 3 – Australia's first telegraph line, linking Melbourne and Williamstown, Victoria, opens.source
  • June 10 – The first class of the United States Naval Academy graduates at Annapolis, Maryland.source
  • June – The Grand Excursion takes prominent Eastern United States inhabitants from Chicago to Rock Island, Illinois, by railroad, then up the Mississippi River to Saint Paul, Minnesota, by steamboat.source
  • July 4 – James Ambrose Cutting takes out the first of his three United States patents for improvements to the wet plate collodion process (Ambrotype photography).source
  • July 7 – The Bombay Spinning and Weaving Company is established as the first cotton mill in India by Cowasjee Nanabhoy Davar and associates.source
  • October 1 – The watch company founded in 1850 in Roxbury, Massachusetts, by Aaron Lufkin Dennison, relocates to Waltham, to become the Waltham Watch Company, pioneer in the American system of watch manufacturing.source
  • November 17 – In Egypt, the Suez Canal Company is formed.source
  • The Boston Public Library opens to the public.source
  • The future Waterbury Clock Company (Incorporated on March 27, 1857) is founded as a department within the Benedict and Burnham Manufacturing Company in Waterbury, Connecticut, the predecessor of Timex Group USA in timepiece manufacturing.source
  • A Russian fort is established at the modern-day site of Almaty.source

Science & Discovery

  • Professor Benjamin Silliman of Yale University is the first person to fractionate petroleum into its individual components, by distillation.source

Health & Medicine

  • April 1 – Hard Times begins serialisation in Charles Dickens' magazine, Household Words.source
  • August 31–September 8 – An epidemic of cholera in London kills over 10,000. Dr John Snow traces the source of one outbreak (that killed 500) to a single water pump, validating his theory that cholera is water-borne, and forming the starting point for epidemiology.source

Crime & Justice

  • January 6 – The fictional detective Sherlock Holmes is perhaps born.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • January 21 – The iron clipper runs aground off the east coast of Ireland, on her maiden voyage out of Liverpool, bound for Australia, with the loss of at least 300 out of 650 on board.source
  • April 16 – The United States packet ship Powhattan is wrecked off the New Jersey shore, with more than 200 victims.source
  • September 27 – SS Arctic disaster: The American paddle steamer sinks after a collision with the much smaller French ship , 50 miles (80 km) off the coast of Newfoundland, with approximately 320 deaths.source
  • October 6 – The great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead in England is ignited by a spectacular explosion.source
  • November 14 – Great Storm of 1854 in the Black Sea: 19 British transport and other ships (plus 2 French) supporting the Crimean War are wrecked with the loss of at least 287 men.source

Culture & Society

  • January 9 – The Teutonia Männerchor in Pittsburgh is founded to promote German culture.source
  • May 18 – The Catholic University of Ireland (forerunner of University College Dublin) is founded.source
  • July 6 – In Jackson, Michigan, the first convention of the U.S. Republican Party is held.source
  • July 19 – Wood's despatch is sent by Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax to Lord Dalhousie, Governor General of India, proposing radical improvements to the Indian educational system.source
  • October 17 – The Age newspaper is founded in Melbourne, Australia.source
  • Bryant & Stratton College is founded as a business institute in the United States.source

Births

  • January 1 – James George Frazer, Scottish social anthropologist (d. 1941)source
  • February 9 – Aletta Jacobs, Dutch physician and women's suffrage activist (d. 1929)source
  • February 16 – Charles Webster Leadbeater, British theosophist (d. 1934)source
  • March 14 – Paul Ehrlich, German physician and scientist, recipient of the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1915)source
  • April 28 – Hertha Ayrton, English engineer, mathematician and inventor (d. 1923)source
  • April 29 – Henri Poincaré, French mathematician, physicist (d. 1912)source
  • April 29 – Paul von Rennenkampf, Russian nobleman, statesman, and general (d. 1918)source
  • June 26 – Robert Borden, Canadian lawyer and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Canada, leader in World War I (d. 1937)source
  • July 3 – Leoš Janáček, Czech composer (d. 1928)source
  • July 12 – George Eastman, American photographic inventor (Kodak) (d. 1932)source
  • October 16 – Karl Kautsky, Czech Marxist theoretician (d. 1938)source
  • October 28 – Mary G. Charlton Edholm, American social purity and temperance reformer (d. 1935)source
  • November 5 – Paul Sabatier, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1941)source
  • November 30 – Paul Vinogradoff, born in Russia British legal historian (d. 1925)source

Deaths

  • January 8 – William Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford, British general and politician (b. 1768)source
  • February 17 – John Martin, English painter (b. 1789)source
  • February 25 – Ann Walker, English landowner and philanthropist (b. 1803)source
  • March 6 – Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry (b. 1778)source
  • March 27 – William Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland, English politician (b. 1768)source
  • April 22 – Nicolás Bravo, 3-time President of Mexico (b. 1786)source
  • April 29 – Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, British general (b. 1768)source
  • July 31 – Samuel Wilson, American thought to be the real-life basis for Uncle Sam (b. 1766)source
  • August 9 – Johann succeeds to the throne of Saxony, on the death of his brother.source
  • August 20 – Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, German philosopher (b. 1775)source
  • September 12 – Jarvis W. Pike, former mayor of Columbus, Ohio (b. 1795)source
  • September 29 – Jacques Leroy de Saint-Arnaud, French general, Marshal of France, Minister of War (b. 1798)source
  • October 1 – Martín Perfecto de Cos, General of the Mexican Army (b. 1800)source
  • December 15 – Kamehameha III, King of Hawaii (b. c. 1814)source