Events from the year 1853 in the United States.
Incumbents
:Millard Fillmore (W-New York) (until March 4)
:Franklin Pierce (D-New Hampshire) (starting March 4)
:vacant (until March 4)
:William R. King (D-Alabama) (March 4 â April 18)
:vacant (starting April 18)
State governments
Events
JanuaryâÂÂMarch
- January – Stephen Foster's "My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night", which is later adopted as the state song of Kentucky under the name "My Old Kentucky Home", is published by Firth, Pond, & Company.
- January 6
- President-elect 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.
- East Florida Seminary is established; it is the oldest institution of what later becomes the University of Florida.
- February 22 – Washington University in St. Louis is founded as Eliot Seminary.
- March – Levi Strauss & Co. is founded in San Francisco, California.
- March 2 – Washington Territory is created from Oregon Territory.
- March 4 – Franklin Pierce becomes the 14th president of the United States, affirming the oath of office, and William R. King becomes the 13th vice president.
- March 5 – Steinway & Sons, a piano maker, is founded in Manhattan by the German immigrant Henry E. Steinway (Heinrich E. Steinweg) and his family.
AprilâÂÂJune
- April 4 – Regular operation of the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad begins between Montreal and Portland, Maine.
- April 18 – Vice President William R. King dies of tuberculosis in Selma, Alabama, without having carried out any duties of the office.
- May – The 1853 yellow fever epidemic begins along the Gulf Coast, ultimately killing more than 10,000 people.
- May 6 – Norwalk rail accident: A train runs off an open swing bridge into a river in Norwalk, Connecticut, killing 56.
- May 11 – Shimer College is founded in Mount Carroll, Illinois, with 11 students.
- May 23 – The first plat for Seattle, Washington, is laid out.
JulyâÂÂSeptember
OctoberâÂÂDecember
Undated
Ongoing
Births
- January 1 – Harry A. Richardson, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1907 to 1913 (died 1928)
- January 2 – Packy Dillon, baseball player (died 1902)
- January 6 – Woodbridge N. Ferris, 28th Governor of Michigan from 1913 to 1917 and U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1923 to 1928 (died 1928)
- January 17 – Alva Belmont, multi-millionaire socialite and suffrage activist (died 1933)
- January 19 – Stephen M. White, U.S. Senator from California from 1893 to 1899 (died 1901)
- February 3 – Hudson Maxim, inventor, chemist (died 1927)
- February 16 – Charles J. Hughes, Jr., U.S. Senator from Colorado from 1909 to 1911 (died 1911)
- February 18 – Ernest Fenollosa, Orientalist (died 1908 in the United Kingdom)
- March 4 – Alexander S. Clay, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1897 to 1910 (died 1910)
- March 5 – Howard Pyle, artist and fiction writer (died 1911)
- April 8 – Laura Alberta Linton, chemist (died 1915)
- April 23 – Thomas Nelson Page, writer and lawyer (died 1922)
- May 3 – E. W. Howe, author and editor (died 1937)
- May 8 – Katharine Lente Stevenson, reformer, missionary and editor (died 1919)
- June 12 – Chester Adgate Congdon, Minnesota mining magnate (died 1916)
- July 24 – William Gillette, actor, playwright and stage-manager (died 1937)
- July 27 – Elizabeth Plankinton, Milwaukee philanthropist (died 1923 in Switzerland)
- September 17 – Henry Churchill de Mille, dramatist and playwright (died 1893)
- October 14 – John William Kendrick, railroad executive (died 1924)
- November 9 – Stanford White, architect (murdered 1906)
- November 13 – John Drew, Jr., actor (died 1927)
- November 26 – Bat Masterson, lawman (died 1921)
- 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 (died 1917)
- December 31 – Tasker H. Bliss, general (died 1930)
Deaths
- January 16 – Robert Lucas, governor of Ohio (born 1781)
- January 26 – Sylvester Judd, novelist (born 1813)
- March 30 – Abigail Fillmore, First Lady of the United States and Second Lady of the United States as wife of Millard Fillmore (born 1798)
- April 13 – James Iredell Jr., 23rd governor of North Carolina from 1827 to 1828 (born 1788)
- April 18 – William R. King, 13th vice president of the United States from March to April 1853 (born 1786)
- May 2 – Jesse B. Thomas, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1818 to 1829 (born 1777)
- July 24 – Hezekiah C. Seymour, civil engineer (born 1811)
- August 23 – Alexander Calder, first mayor of Beaumont, Texas (born 1806)
- September 5 – George Poindexter, 2nd governor of Mississippi from 1820 to 1822 and U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1830 to 1835 (born 1779)
- October 5 – Mahlon Dickerson, judge and politician (born 1770)
- October 27 – Maria White Lowell, poet (born 1821)
- November 15 – Charles G. Atherton, U.S. Senator from New Hampshire from 1843 to 1849 and in 1853 (born 1804)
- December 28 – Sarah Goodridge, miniature painter (born 1788)
See also
References
External links