1854

Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century

Decades: 1800s 1810s 1820s 1830s 1840s - 1850s - 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s

Years: 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 - 1854 - 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859

• January 13 - The accordion is patented by Anthony Faas[?].
• February 11 - Major streets lit by coal gas for first time
• February 17 - The British recognize the independence of the Orange Free State
• February 28 - The Republican Party of the United States is organized in Ripon, Wisconsin[?].
• March 28 - Crimean War: United Kingdom and France declare war on Russia
• March 31 - Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade.
• May 30 - The Kansas-Nebraska Act becomes law establishing the US territories[?] of Nebraska and Kansas.
• July 6 - In Jackson, Michigan, the first convention of the U.S. Republican Party is held.
• October 25 - Charge of the Light Brigade

• start of the Crimean war
• Commodore Matthew Perry of the U.S. Navy forced the opening of Japan to the West with the Convention of Kanagawa (See Japan/History)
• Frederick Augustus Albert succeeds to the throne of Saxony
• Stockholm, Wisconsin is founded by immigrants from Karlskoga, Sweden (cf 1252)

Arts, Sciences, Literature and Philosophy

• 1854 in literature:
  • Feuerbach's Essence of Christianity[?]

Births

• January 18 - Thomas Watson[?], telephone pioneer
• February 17 - Friedrich Alfred Krupp[?], industrialist (+ 1902)
• March 14 - Paul Ehrlich, physician, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1908 (+ 1915)
• March 15 - Emil Adolf von Behring, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1901
• July 3 - Leos Janacek, Czech composer
• July 12 - George Eastman, inventor of the Kodak camera
• August 2 - Milan I[?], king of Serbia
• October 16 - Oscar Wilde, Irish writer

Deaths

• April 15 - Arthur Aikin, English chemist and mineralogist