1853

January–March

 * January 6 – Florida Governor Thomas Brown signs legislation that provides public support for the new East Florida Seminary, leading to the establishment of the University of Florida.
 * January 8 – Taiping Rebellion: Zeng Guofan is ordered to assist the governor of Hunan in organising a militia force to search for local bandits.
 * January 12 – Taiping Rebellion: The Taiping army occupies Wuchang.
 * January 19 – Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore premieres in performance at Teatro Apollo in Rome.
 * February 10 – Taiping Rebellion: Taiping forces assemble at Hanyang, Hankou, and Wuchang, for the march on Nanjing.
 * February 12 – The city of Puerto Montt is founded in the Reloncaví Sound, Chile.
 * February 22 – Washington University in St. Louis is founded as Eliot Seminary.
 * March – The clothing company Levi Strauss & Co. is founded in the United States.
 * March 4 – Inauguration of Franklin Pierce as 14th President of the United States (his only child was killed in a train accident on January 6).
 * March 5 – Saint Paul Fire and Marine, as predecessor of The Travelers Companies, a worldwide insurance service, founded in Minnesota, United States.
 * March 20 – Taiping Rebellion: A rebel army of around 750,000 seizes Nanjing, killing 30,000 Imperial troops.
 * March 29 – Manchester is granted city status in the United Kingdom.

April–June

 * April 7 – Prince Leopold, the youngest son and the eighth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, is born.
 * April 16 – Indian Railways: The first passenger railway in India opens from Bombay to Thana, Maharashtra, 22 mi.
 * May
 * The world's first public aquarium opens, at the London Zoo.
 * An outbreak of yellow fever kills 7,790 in New Orleans.
 * Isambard Kingdom Brunel accepts John Scott Russell's tender for construction of the SS Great Eastern passenger steamer.
 * May 5 – Perpetual Maritime Truce comes into force between the United Kingdom and the rulers of the Sheikhdoms of the Lower Gulf, later known as the Trucial States.
 * May 12–October 31 – The Great Industrial Exhibition is held in Dublin, Ireland.
 * May 23 – The first plat for Seattle, Washington, is laid out.
 * June 27 – Taiping Rebellion: The Northern Expeditionary Force crosses the Yellow River.
 * June 30 – Georges-Eugène Haussmann is selected as préfect of the Seine (department) to begin the re-planning of Paris.

July–September

 * July 1 – The Swiss watch company Tissot is founded.
 * July 8 – U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry arrives in Edo Bay, Japan, with a request for a trade treaty.
 * July 25 – Outlaw and bandit Joaquin Murrieta is killed in California.
 * July 27 – Iesada succeeds his father Ieyoshi as Japanese shōgun. The Late Tokugawa shogunate (the last part of the Edo period in Japan) begins.
 * August 12 – New Zealand acquires self-government.
 * August 23 – The first true International Meteorological Organization is established in Brussels, Belgium.
 * August 24
 * The Royal Norwegian Navy Museum is founded at Karljohansvern in Horten, perhaps the world's first naval museum.
 * Potato chips are first prepared, by George Crum at Saratoga Springs, New York, according to popular accounts.
 * September 19 – Hudson Taylor first leaves for China.
 * September 20 – Otis Elevator, as predecessor of Otis Worldwide, was founded in the United States.

October–December

 * October 1 – C. Bechstein's piano factory is founded, one of three established in a "golden year" in the history of the piano (Julius Blüthner and Steinway & Sons being the others).
 * October 4–5 – Crimean War: The Ottoman Empire begins war with Russia.
 * October 4 – On the east coast of the United States, Donald McKay launches the Great Republic, the world's biggest sailing ship, which at 4,500 tons is too large to be successful.
 * October 25 – In Munich, the art museum Neue Pinakothek opened.
 * October 28 – Crimean War: The Ottoman army crosses the Danube into Vidin/Calafat, Wallachia.
 * October 30 – Taiping Rebellion: The Taiping Northern Expeditionary Force comes within 3 mi of Tianjin.
 * November 3 – Troops of William Walker capture La Paz in Baja California Territory and declare the (short-lived) Republic of Sonora.
 * November 4 – Crimean War: Battle of Oltenitza – Turkish forces defeat the Russians.
 * November 15 – Maria II of Portugal is succeeded by her son Pedro V.
 * November 30 (November 18 O.S.) – Crimean War: Battle of Sinop – The Russian fleet destroys the Turkish fleet.
 * December 6 – Taiping Rebellion: French minister de Bourboulon arrives at the Heavenly Capital, aboard the Cassini.
 * December 14 – Compagnie Générale des Eaux, predecessor of Vivendi and Veolia, a global media conglomerate, is founded in Paris, France.
 * December 30 – Gadsden Purchase: The United States buys approximately 77,000 km2 of land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest.

Date unknown

 * The Independent Santa Cruz Maya of Eastern Yucatán is recognized as an independent nation by the British Empire.
 * Arthur de Gobineau begins publication of his An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (Essai sur l'inégalité des races humaines).
 * Charles Pravaz and Alexander Wood independently invent a practical hypodermic syringe.
 * Wheaton Academy is founded in West Chicago, Illinois.
 * The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China is incorporated in London by Scotsman James Wilson, under a Royal Charter from Queen Victoria.
 * Melbourne Cricket Ground, now the largest sports stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, officially opens.
 * 1853–1873 – More than 130,000 Chinese laborers come to Cuba.

January–June

 * January 1 – Karl von Einem, German general (d. 1934)
 * January 16
 * Johnston Forbes-Robertson, English actor (d. 1937)
 * Sir Ian Hamilton, British general (d. 1947)
 * January 18 – Eusebio Hernández Pérez, Cuban eugenicist, obstetrician, and guerrilla (d. 1933)
 * January 28
 * José Martí, Cuban revolutionary (d. 1895)
 * Vladimir Solovyov, Russian philosopher (d. 1900)
 * January 29 – Kitasato Shibasaburō, Japanese physician, bacteriologist (d. 1931)
 * February 4 – Kaneko Kentarō, Japanese politician, diplomat (d. 1942)
 * February 18 – Ernest Fenollosa, Catalan-American philosopher (d. 1908)
 * February 22 – Annie Le Porte Diggs, Canadian-born state librarian of Kansas (d. 1916)
 * March 2 – Ella Loraine Dorsey, American author, journalist, and translator (d. 1935)
 * March 5 – Howard Pyle, American artist, fiction writer (d. 1911)
 * March 10 – Thomas Mackenzie, 18th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1930)
 * March 13 – Robert William Felkin, British writer (d. 1926)
 * March 14 – Ferdinand Hodler, Swiss painter (d. 1918)
 * March 25 – Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar, 5th Qajarid Shah of Persia (d. 1907)
 * March 27 – Yakov Zhilinsky, Russian general (d. 1918)
 * March 29 – Elihu Thomson, English-American engineer, inventor, co-founder of General Electric (d. 1937)
 * March 30 – Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter (d. 1890)
 * April 6 – Emil Jellinek, German automobile entrepreneur (d. 1918)
 * April 7
 * Ella Eaton Kellogg, American pioneer in dietetics (d. 1920)
 * Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany (d. 1884)
 * April 22 – Alphonse Bertillon, French police officer, forensic scientist (d. 1914)
 * April 30 – Alexey Abaza, Russian admiral and politician (d. 1917)
 * May 4 – Marie Robinson Wright, American travel writer (d. 1914)
 * May 20
 * Ella Hoag Brockway Avann, American educator (d. 1899)
 * Vladimir Viktorovich Sakharov, Russian general (d. 1920)
 * May 28 – Carl Larsson, Swedish painter (d. 1919)
 * June 3 – William Flinders Petrie, English Egyptologist (d. 1942)
 * June 12 – Chester Adgate Congdon, American mining magnate (d. 1916)

July–December

 * July 4 – Ernst Otto Beckmann, German chemist (d. 1923)
 * July 5 – Cecil Rhodes, English businessman (d. 1902)
 * July 10 – Percy Scott, British admiral (d. 1924)
 * July 18 – Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1928)
 * July 24 – William Gillette, American actor, playwright and stage-manager (d. 1937)
 * July 26 – Philip Cowen, American Jewish publisher and author (d. 1943)
 * July 29 – Ioan Culcer, Romanian general and politician (d. 1928)
 * August 23 – João Marques de Oliveira, Portuguese painter (d. 1927)
 * August 28
 * Vladimir Shukhov, Russian engineer, polymath, scientist and architect (d. 1939)
 * Franz I, Prince of Liechtenstein (d. 1938)
 * September 1 – Aleksei Brusilov, Russian general (d. 1926)
 * September 2 – Wilhelm Ostwald, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1932)
 * September 6 – Katherine Eleanor Conway, American journalist, editor, poet, and Laetare Medalist (d. 1927)
 * September 16 – Albrecht Kossel, German physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1927)
 * September 20 – Chulalongkorn, Rama V, King of Siam (d. 1910)
 * September 21 – Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1926)
 * September 23 – Fritz von Below, German general (d. 1918)
 * October 4 – Jane Maria Read, American poet and teacher (unknown year of death)
 * October 13 – Lillie Langtry, English stage actress (d. 1929)
 * October 14 – John William Kendrick, American railroad executive (d. 1924)
 * October 16 – Thadeus von Sivers, Baltic German-born Russian general (death date unknown)
 * October 17 – Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, wife of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh (d. 1920)
 * October 26 – Tokugawa Akitake, Japanese daimyō, the last lord of Mito Domain, younger brother of the last shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu (d. 1910)
 * October 30 – Louise Abbéma, French painter, sculptor, and designer of the Belle Époque (d. 1927)
 * November 9 – Stanford White, American architect (d. 1906)
 * November 13 – John Drew, Jr., American stage actor (d. 1927)
 * November 18 – Leopold Poetsch, Austrian history teacher, high school teacher of Adolf Hitler and Adolf Eichmann (d. 1942)
 * November 20 – Oskar Potiorek, Austro-Hungarian general (d. 1933)
 * November 29 – Panagiotis Danglis, Greek general, politician (d. 1924)
 * December 6 – Hara Prasad Shastri, Indian academic, Sanskrit scholar, archivist and historian of Bengali literature (d. 1931)
 * December 14 – Errico Malatesta, Italian anarchist (d. 1932)
 * December 17 – Émile Roux, French physician, bacteriologist and immunologist (d. 1933)
 * December 21 – Noda Utarō, Japanese entrepreneur and politician (d. 1927)
 * December 22
 * Sarada Devi, Indian mystic and saint (d. 1920)
 * Teresa Carreño, Venezuelan pianist, singer, composer, and conductor (d. 1917)
 * December 23 – William Henry Moody, 35th United States Secretary of the Navy, 45th United States Attorney General, and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1917)
 * December 31 – Tasker H. Bliss, American general (d. 1930)

Date unknown

 * William O'Malley, Irish politician (d. 1939)

January–June

 * January 8 – Mihály Bertalanits, Slovene (Prekmurje Slovene) poet in the Kingdom of Hungary (b. 1788)
 * January 16
 * Matteo Carcassi, Italian composer (b. 1792)
 * Archduke Rainer Joseph of Austria, Archduke of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia (b. 1783)
 * Robert Lucas, governor of Ohio, United States (b. 1781)
 * January 19 – Karl Faber, German historian (b. 1773)
 * January 22 – Méry von Bruiningk, Estonian democrat (b. 1818)
 * February 4 – Princess Maria Amélia of Brazil, daughter of Emperor Pedro I of Brazil (b. 1831)
 * February 6 – Anastasio Bustamante, 4th President of Mexico (b. 1780)
 * February 15 – August, Prince of Hohenlohe-Öhringen (b. 1784)
 * March 17 – Christian Doppler, Austrian mathematician (b. 1803)
 * March 30 – Abigail Fillmore, First Lady of the United States (b. 1798)
 * April 18 – William R. King, 13th Vice President of the United States (b. 1786)
 * April 28 – Ludwig Tieck, German writer (b. 1773)
 * May 18 – Lionel Kieseritzky, Baltic-German chess player (b. 1806)
 * June 2
 * Lucas Alamán, Mexican statesman, historian (b. 1792)
 * Henry Trevor, 21st Baron Dacre, British peer, soldier (b. 1777)
 * June 7 – Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis, Italian opera singer (b. 1800)
 * June 8 – Howard Vyse, English soldier and Egyptologist (b. 1784)
 * June 27 – Lewis Brian Adams, English painter (b. 1809)

July–December

 * July 27 – Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 12th shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan (b. 1793)
 * August 9 – Józef Maria Hoene-Wroński, Polish philosopher (b. 1776)
 * August 19 – George Cockburn, British naval commander (b. 1772)
 * August 21 – Maria Quitéria, Brazilian national heroine (b. 1792)
 * August 23 – Alexander Calder, first mayor of Beaumont, Texas (b. 1806)
 * August 29 – Charles James Napier, British army general and colonial administrator (b. 1782)
 * September 3 – Augustin Saint-Hilaire, French botanist, traveller (b. 1799)
 * September 6 – George Bradshaw, English timetable publisher (b. 1800)
 * October 2 – François Arago, French Catalan mathematician, physicist, astronomer and politician (b. 1786)
 * October 3 – George Onslow, French composer (b. 1784)
 * October 5 – Mahlon Dickerson, American judge, politician (b. 1770)
 * October 13 – Jan Cock Blomhoff, Dutch director of Dejima, Japan (b. 1779)
 * October 22 – Juan Antonio Lavalleja, Uruguayan military, political figure (b. 1784)
 * October 27 – Maria White Lowell, American abolitionist (b. 1821)
 * November 15 – Queen Maria II of Portugal (b. 1819)
 * December 15 – Georg Friedrich Grotefend, German epigraphist, philologist (b. 1775)
 * December 23 – Juliette Bussière Laforest-Courtois, Haitian journalist (b. 1789)

Date unknown

 * Barnard E. Bee, Sr., American Attorney and Texan Anti-Annexation Politician (b. 1787)
 * Meta Forkel-Liebeskind, German writer and scholar (b. 1765)
 * Qiu Ersao, Chinese rebel and military commander (b. 1822)
 * Ferdinando Quaglia, Italian painter of portrait miniatures (b. 1780)