Explore the major historical events, famous births, and notable deaths that occurred in the year 1854. This year saw 69 significant events. 5 notable figures were born.
Presbyterian minister John Miller Dickey and his wife, Sarah Emlen Cresson, found Ashmun Institute, a historically Black college later known as Lincoln University, in Hinsonville, Pennsylvania
The Republican Party, also known as the Grand Old Party (GOP), is one of the two major political parties in the United States.
The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of…
Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria (23) weds Elisabeth, Duchess of Bavaria (16) at the Augustinerkirche, Vienna
The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of...
Charlotte Nicholls, commonly known by her maiden name Charlotte Brontë (commonly ), was an English novelist and poet, and was the elder sister of Emily, Anne and Branwell Brontë.
A major outbreak of cholera occurs in Soho, London; physician John Snow calls it "the most terrible outbreak of cholera which ever occurred in this kingdom"
Battle of the Alma: British, French, and Ottoman alliance defeats the Russian Empire in the first major battle of the Crimean War
Future railroad magnate Mark Hopkins Jr. marries Mary Sherwood
The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of...
Florence Nightingale (12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing.
Infamous "Charge of the Light Brigade" during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War results in over 100 deaths
Eureka Stockade: In what many claim to be the birth of Australian democracy, more than 20 gold miners at Ballarat, Victoria, are killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licences
The McDonald Islands are discovered by Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang
Steamship San Francisco wrecked off US eastern seaboard, 300 die
The Astor Library was a free public library in the East Village, Manhattan, developed primarily through the collaboration of New York City merchant John Jacob Astor and New England educator and...
Filibuster William Walker proclaims Republic of Sonora in NW Mexico
1st election in Washington Territory; 1,682 votes cast
Dutch KNMI established (Royal Meteorological Institute)
Pope Pius IX encyclical "On persecution of Armenians"
Alvan Bovay proposes name "Republican Party" in Ripon, Wisconsin
For the 1st time coal gas is used to light major streets in San Francisco
The Orange Free State was a landlocked independent Boer republic in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeated and surrendered to the...
The Michigan Republican Party is the state affiliate of the national Republican Party in Michigan, United States, sometimes referred to as MIGOP. Ronna Romney McDaniel was the chairwoman of the...
The Orange Free State was a landlocked independent Boer republic in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeated and surrendered to the...
German psychologist Friedrich Eduard Beneke disappears; two years later his remains are found in a canal near Charlottenburg.
Charles Miller patents 1st US sewing machine to stitch buttonholes
1st park land purchased by a US city in Worcester, Massachusetts
Matthew Calbraith Perry (April 10, 1794 – March 4, 1858) was a United States Navy officer who commanded ships in several wars, including the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American War.
Ashmun Institute (later Lincoln University), in Hinsonville, Pennsylvania, receives its charter from Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, making it the 1st degree-granting Black college in US
British Commodore James Plumridge attacks Finnish settlements in Gulf of Bothnia, killing civilans and destroying British-owned goods.
Anthony Burns (May 31, 1834 – July 17, 1862) was an African-American man who escaped from slavery in Virginia in 1854.
William and Frederick Langenheim take eight sequential photographs of the first total eclipse of the sun visible in North America since the invention of photography [1]
Marine Telegraph from Fort Point to San Francisco completed
The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 (10 Stat. 277) was a territorial organic act that created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. It was drafted by Democratic Senator Stephen A.
German mathematician Bernhard Reiman proposes that space is curved
Anthony Faas, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, patents the 1st US accordion, having made improvements to both the keyboard, and to enhance the sound (Patent No. 11,062)
Roosendaal is a railway station in the city of Roosendaal, Netherlands. The station opened on 3 July 1854 on the Antwerp–Lage Zwaluwe railway and is the beginning of the Roosendaal–Vlissingen...
Netherlands allows corporal punishment
1st Republican state convention held in Jackson, Michigan
In the Battle of Guaymas, Mexico, General Jose Maria Yanez stops the French invasion led by Count Gaston de Raousset Boulbon
The Hinomaru is established as the official flag to be flown from Japanese ships
Smith & Wesson patents metal bullet cartridges
National Emigration Convention meets in Cleveland
Self-governing windmill patented by American inventor Daniel Halladay
English and French lay siege to the eastern Russian city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky during the Crimean War
British and French forces land at Calamita Bay on the Crimean Peninsula, during the Crimean War
Henry Meyer patents sleeping rail car
French fishing vessel SS Vesta collides with American passenger paddle-wheel ship SS Arctic off Newfoundland in heavy fog, sinking the larger passenger ship and killing 322; most of the survivors are crew members
The watch company, founded in 1850 in Roxbury by Aaron Lufkin Dennison, relocates to Waltham, Massachusetts, to become the Waltham Watch Company, a pioneer in the American System of Watch Manufacturing
The Great Fire of Newcastle and Gateshead starts shortly after midnight and leads to 53 deaths and hundreds injured
The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of...
US Assay Office opens in New York City
Lincoln University (LU) is a public state-related historically black university (HBCU) in Lower Oxford Township, Pennsylvania, United States.
The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of...
Chatham Rail disaster: gravel train hit by an express train at Baptiste Creek killing 52 people - then North America's worst rail disaster [1]
Cobblestone paving of Washington St between Dupont and Kearny starts
Alcatraz Island Lighthouse is a lighthouse—the first one built on the U.S. West Coast—located on Alcatraz Island in California's San Francisco Bay.
Crimean War: British & French defeat Russian force of 50,000 at Inkerman
"New Era" sinks off New Jersey coast with loss of 300
In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is given the necessary royal concession.
Dutch army stops Chinese uprising in Borneo
Rebellion of miners at Eureka Stockade in Ballarat, Victoria, who swear allegiance to the Southern Cross Flag, angry at the colonial government; a pivotal event in Australian labor relations [1]
Aaron Allen of Boston patents the folding theater chair
Pope Pius IX (Italian: Pio IX; born Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro Mastai-Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878.
Philadelphia ( FIL-ə-DEL-fee-ə), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.
Allen Wilson of Conn patents sewing machine to sew curving seams
Treaty of Medicine Creek signed by Nisqually, Puyallup and Coast Salish peoples with Isaac Ingalls Stevens, Governor of Washington Territory, giving up 2.5 million acres to preserve fishing and gathering rights [1]
Pennsylvania Rock Oil Co, 1st in US, incorporated in NYC
Alice Mary Robertson, American politician, known for american politician, was born on 1854-01-02.
Robert Borden is born
Leoš Janáček, Czech musician, known for czech composer, was born on 1854-07-03. Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, music theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher.
Oscar Wilde, Irish writer, known for irish writer, was born on 1854-10-16. Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet and playwright.
Arthur Rimbaud, French poet, known for french poet, was born on 1854-10-20. Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on…
Presbyterian minister John Miller Dickey and his wife, Sarah Emlen Cresson, found Ashmun Institute, a historically Black college later known as Lincoln University, in Hinsonville, Pennsylvania
The Republican Party, also known as the Grand Old Party (GOP), is one of the two major political parties in the United States.
The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of…
Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria (23) weds Elisabeth, Duchess of Bavaria (16) at the Augustinerkirche, Vienna
The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of...
Charlotte Nicholls, commonly known by her maiden name Charlotte Brontë (commonly ), was an English novelist and poet, and was the elder sister of Emily, Anne and Branwell Brontë.
A major outbreak of cholera occurs in Soho, London; physician John Snow calls it "the most terrible outbreak of cholera which ever occurred in this kingdom"
Battle of the Alma: British, French, and Ottoman alliance defeats the Russian Empire in the first major battle of the Crimean War
Future railroad magnate Mark Hopkins Jr. marries Mary Sherwood
The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of...
Florence Nightingale (12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing.
Infamous "Charge of the Light Brigade" during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War results in over 100 deaths
Eureka Stockade: In what many claim to be the birth of Australian democracy, more than 20 gold miners at Ballarat, Victoria, are killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licences
The McDonald Islands are discovered by Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang
Steamship San Francisco wrecked off US eastern seaboard, 300 die
The Astor Library was a free public library in the East Village, Manhattan, developed primarily through the collaboration of New York City merchant John Jacob Astor and New England educator and...
Filibuster William Walker proclaims Republic of Sonora in NW Mexico
1st election in Washington Territory; 1,682 votes cast
Dutch KNMI established (Royal Meteorological Institute)
Pope Pius IX encyclical "On persecution of Armenians"
Alvan Bovay proposes name "Republican Party" in Ripon, Wisconsin
For the 1st time coal gas is used to light major streets in San Francisco
The Orange Free State was a landlocked independent Boer republic in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeated and surrendered to the...
The Michigan Republican Party is the state affiliate of the national Republican Party in Michigan, United States, sometimes referred to as MIGOP. Ronna Romney McDaniel was the chairwoman of the...
The Orange Free State was a landlocked independent Boer republic in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeated and surrendered to the...
German psychologist Friedrich Eduard Beneke disappears; two years later his remains are found in a canal near Charlottenburg.
Charles Miller patents 1st US sewing machine to stitch buttonholes
1st park land purchased by a US city in Worcester, Massachusetts
Matthew Calbraith Perry (April 10, 1794 – March 4, 1858) was a United States Navy officer who commanded ships in several wars, including the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American War.
Ashmun Institute (later Lincoln University), in Hinsonville, Pennsylvania, receives its charter from Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, making it the 1st degree-granting Black college in US
British Commodore James Plumridge attacks Finnish settlements in Gulf of Bothnia, killing civilans and destroying British-owned goods.
Anthony Burns (May 31, 1834 – July 17, 1862) was an African-American man who escaped from slavery in Virginia in 1854.
William and Frederick Langenheim take eight sequential photographs of the first total eclipse of the sun visible in North America since the invention of photography [1]
Marine Telegraph from Fort Point to San Francisco completed
The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 (10 Stat. 277) was a territorial organic act that created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. It was drafted by Democratic Senator Stephen A.
German mathematician Bernhard Reiman proposes that space is curved
Anthony Faas, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, patents the 1st US accordion, having made improvements to both the keyboard, and to enhance the sound (Patent No. 11,062)
Roosendaal is a railway station in the city of Roosendaal, Netherlands. The station opened on 3 July 1854 on the Antwerp–Lage Zwaluwe railway and is the beginning of the Roosendaal–Vlissingen...
Netherlands allows corporal punishment
1st Republican state convention held in Jackson, Michigan
In the Battle of Guaymas, Mexico, General Jose Maria Yanez stops the French invasion led by Count Gaston de Raousset Boulbon
The Hinomaru is established as the official flag to be flown from Japanese ships
Smith & Wesson patents metal bullet cartridges
National Emigration Convention meets in Cleveland
Self-governing windmill patented by American inventor Daniel Halladay
English and French lay siege to the eastern Russian city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky during the Crimean War
British and French forces land at Calamita Bay on the Crimean Peninsula, during the Crimean War
Henry Meyer patents sleeping rail car
French fishing vessel SS Vesta collides with American passenger paddle-wheel ship SS Arctic off Newfoundland in heavy fog, sinking the larger passenger ship and killing 322; most of the survivors are crew members
The watch company, founded in 1850 in Roxbury by Aaron Lufkin Dennison, relocates to Waltham, Massachusetts, to become the Waltham Watch Company, a pioneer in the American System of Watch Manufacturing
The Great Fire of Newcastle and Gateshead starts shortly after midnight and leads to 53 deaths and hundreds injured
The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of...
US Assay Office opens in New York City
Lincoln University (LU) is a public state-related historically black university (HBCU) in Lower Oxford Township, Pennsylvania, United States.
The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of...
Chatham Rail disaster: gravel train hit by an express train at Baptiste Creek killing 52 people - then North America's worst rail disaster [1]
Cobblestone paving of Washington St between Dupont and Kearny starts
Alcatraz Island Lighthouse is a lighthouse—the first one built on the U.S. West Coast—located on Alcatraz Island in California's San Francisco Bay.
Crimean War: British & French defeat Russian force of 50,000 at Inkerman
"New Era" sinks off New Jersey coast with loss of 300
In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is given the necessary royal concession.
Dutch army stops Chinese uprising in Borneo
Rebellion of miners at Eureka Stockade in Ballarat, Victoria, who swear allegiance to the Southern Cross Flag, angry at the colonial government; a pivotal event in Australian labor relations [1]
Aaron Allen of Boston patents the folding theater chair
Pope Pius IX (Italian: Pio IX; born Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro Mastai-Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878.
Philadelphia ( FIL-ə-DEL-fee-ə), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.
Allen Wilson of Conn patents sewing machine to sew curving seams
Treaty of Medicine Creek signed by Nisqually, Puyallup and Coast Salish peoples with Isaac Ingalls Stevens, Governor of Washington Territory, giving up 2.5 million acres to preserve fishing and gathering rights [1]
Pennsylvania Rock Oil Co, 1st in US, incorporated in NYC
Alice Mary Robertson, American politician, known for american politician, was born on 1854-01-02.
Robert Borden is born
Leoš Janáček, Czech musician, known for czech composer, was born on 1854-07-03. Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, music theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher.
Oscar Wilde, Irish writer, known for irish writer, was born on 1854-10-16. Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet and playwright.
Arthur Rimbaud, French poet, known for french poet, was born on 1854-10-20. Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on…