WHAT ALL HAPPENED JANUARY TO AUGUST 1853
Find out what all happened January to August 1853

Opening of the first major US world's fair, the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in New York City. (14. July 1853)

The Taiping reform movement occupies and makes Nanjing its capital until 1864. (19. March 1853)

President-elect of the United States 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. (6. January 1853)

Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore receives its premiere performance in Rome. (19. January 1853)

Washington University in St. Louis is founded as Eliot Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. (22. February 1853)

U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry arrives in Edo bay with a treaty requesting trade. (8. July 1853)

The Russian Army crossed the Pruth river into the Danubian Principalities, Moldavia and Wallachia—providing the spark that set off the Crimean War. (2. July 1853)

Joaquin Murrieta, the famous Californio bandit known as "Robin Hood of El Dorado", is killed. (25. July 1853)

The first passenger rail opens in India, from Bori Bunder, Bombay to Thane. (16. April 1853)