1854

18th century - 19th century - 20th century

Decades: 1790s - 1800s - 1810s - 1820s - 1830s - 1840s - 1850s - 1860s - 1870s - 1880s - 1890s - 1900s

1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859

Events

• February 11 - Major streets lit by coal gas for 1st time
• 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

Births

• 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