1854

Events in 1854 34

• 1775 – 1854 Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775-1854) Died 20 August 1854, aged 79 Schelling was a German philosopher and a central figure of German idealism alongside Fichte and Hegel. His work on nature philosophy and the philosophy of identity influenced later Romantic and existentialist thought.
• 1789 – 1854 Georg Simon Ohm (1789-1854) Died 6 July 1854, aged 65 Ohm was a German physicist best known for formulating Ohm's law, which relates voltage, current, and resistance in an electrical circuit. The SI unit of electrical resistance, the ohm, is named in his honor.
• 1794 – 1854 John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854) Died 25 November 1854, aged 60 Lockhart was a Scottish writer and editor best known for his acclaimed biography of his father-in-law, novelist Sir Walter Scott. He also served for many years as editor of the Quarterly Review.
• 1799 – 1854 Frederick Catherwood (1799-1854) Died 27 September 1854, aged 55 Catherwood was an English architect and artist renowned for his detailed illustrations of ancient Maya ruins made during expeditions with explorer John Lloyd Stephens. He died when the steamship SS Arctic sank after a collision in the North Atlantic.
• 1815 – 1854 Edward Forbes (1815-1854) Died 18 November 1854, aged 39 Forbes was a Manx naturalist and marine biologist whose studies of the distribution of sea life laid groundwork for the field of marine ecology. He held professorships at the Royal School of Mines and, briefly, at the University of Edinburgh.
• 1854 – 1891 Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) Died 10 November 1891, aged 37 French poet whose work, including A Season in Hell and Illuminations, profoundly influenced Symbolist and later modernist literature. He abandoned writing as a young man to travel and trade in Africa and the Middle East. He died in Marseille after his leg was amputated due to illness.
• 1854 – 1935 Edward Carson (1854-1935) Died 22 October 1935, aged 81 Carson was an Irish unionist leader and barrister who led opposition to Irish Home Rule and prosecuted Oscar Wilde's libel case against Queensberry. He was given a state funeral in Belfast.
• 1854 First railway in Egypt Alexandria–Kafr el-Zayat The first railway in Africa and in the Ottoman Empire, engineered by Robert Stephenson and built fifteen years before the Suez Canal opened.
• 1854 – 1932 George Eastman (1854-1932) Died 14 March 1932, aged 77 The founder of Eastman Kodak made photography available to the general public with roll film and the Kodak camera. He was also a major philanthropist.
• 1854 – 1943 Henri La Fontaine (1854-1943) Died 14 May 1943, aged 89 Henri La Fontaine was a Belgian international lawyer and president of the International Peace Bureau. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1913. With Paul Otlet he founded the Mundaneum, a project to catalogue all the world's knowledge.
• 1854 – 1934 Hubert Lyautey (1854-1934) Died 27 July 1934, aged 79 Marshal of France and first Resident-General of the French protectorate in Morocco. He was briefly minister of war in 1916 and 1917.
• 1854 – 1941 James George Frazer (1854-1941) Died 7 May 1941, aged 87 James George Frazer was a Scottish social anthropologist whose study of myth and religion, The Golden Bough, influenced literature and scholarship. He died in Cambridge.
• 1854 – 1932 John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) Died 6 March 1932, aged 77 The American composer and bandmaster was known as the "March King". His works include The Stars and Stripes Forever.
• 1854 – 1928 Leos Janacek (1854-1928) Died 12 August 1928, aged 74 Czech composer whose operas include Jenufa, Katya Kabanova and The Cunning Little Vixen. He based much of his music on the rhythms of Moravian folk song and speech. Most of his best-known works date from his last decade.
• 1854 – 1880 Ned Kelly (1854-1880) Died 11 November 1880, aged 25 Ned Kelly was an Australian bushranger who led a gang blamed for police killings and bank robberies in Victoria. He was captured after a gunfight at Glenrowan in June 1880 and hanged at Melbourne Gaol on 11 November 1880. He remains a folk figure in Australian popular culture.
• 1854 – 1899 Ottmar Mergenthaler (1854-1899) Died 28 October 1899, aged 45 German-born American inventor of the Linotype typesetting machine, patented in 1884. His machine revolutionized newspaper and book printing by mechanizing typesetting. He died of tuberculosis in Baltimore.
• 1854 – 1876 Otto cycle — internal combustion engine Nikolaus Otto's four-stroke cycle powers the automobile age Nikolaus Otto of Germany patented the four-stroke internal combustion cycle in 1876, building on earlier work by Lenoir and others. The Otto cycle — intake, compression, combustion, exhaust — is the operating principle of virtually every petrol and diesel engine ever built. It transformed transport and industry and was the direct precursor of the automobile and the aeroplane.
• 1854 – 1922 Pope Benedict XV (1854-1922) Died 22 January 1922, aged 67 Pope Benedict XV, born Giacomo della Chiesa, died in Rome of pneumonia. His papacy was dominated by efforts to keep the Vatican neutral during the First World War and to provide humanitarian relief. He was succeeded by Pope Pius XI.
• 1854 – 1936 Takahashi Korekiyo (1854-1936) Died 26 February 1936, aged 81 Takahashi Korekiyo was a Japanese prime minister and a long-serving finance minister. His expansionary policies helped Japan recover quickly from the Depression. Rebel officers assassinated him during the February 26 Incident.
• 1854 Orange Free State established Britain grants independence to Boer republic Under the Bloemfontein Convention, Britain recognized the independence of the Boer settlers north of the Orange River, establishing the Orange Free State. The republic existed until its annexation by Britain during the Second Boer War.
• 1854 Britain and France declare war on Russia Start of direct Crimean War involvement Britain and France declared war on Russia in support of the Ottoman Empire, formally widening the Crimean War. The alliance committed troops to the Black Sea theatre, including the eventual invasion of Crimea.
• 1854 Treaty of Kanagawa signed Commodore Perry opens Japan to US trade The United States and Japan signed the Treaty of Kanagawa, ending over two centuries of Japanese isolation policy. It was negotiated by Commodore Matthew Perry after his naval squadron pressured the Tokugawa shogunate to open two ports to American ships.
• 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act signed US law allows popular sovereignty on slavery President Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, letting settlers in the new territories decide by popular vote whether to permit slavery. The act repealed the Missouri Compromise line and intensified sectional conflict that led toward the American Civil War.
• 1854 Gadsden Purchase finalized US acquires southern Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico The United States and Mexico completed the Gadsden Purchase, transferring a strip of territory in present-day southern Arizona and New Mexico to the US for $10 million. The land was sought chiefly for a southern transcontinental railroad route.
• 1854 Republican Party founded New US party formed in opposition to slavery's expansion Opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act met in Jackson, Michigan, and formally organized the Republican Party. The new party united former Whigs, Free Soilers, and anti-slavery Democrats and would elect Abraham Lincoln president six years later.
• 1854 – 1900 Oscar Wilde Irish playwright and writer Wilde wrote witty plays and The Picture of Dorian Gray, critiquing Victorian morality and aesthetics.
• 1854 Walden published Thoreau's account of life at Walden Pond Henry David Thoreau published Walden, a reflective account of two years he spent living simply in a cabin near Walden Pond, Massachusetts. The book became a foundational text of American transcendentalism and later environmental thought.
• 1854 John Snow traces Broad Street cholera outbreak Pioneering epidemiological investigation in London Physician John Snow mapped cholera deaths around a Soho water pump and persuaded local officials to remove its handle, halting the outbreak. His investigation is regarded as a founding achievement of modern epidemiology, showing cholera spread through contaminated water rather than bad air.
• 1854 Battle of the Alma Allied victory opens the road to Sevastopol Anglo-French and Ottoman forces defeated the Russian army on the Alma River, their first major engagement after landing in Crimea. The victory opened the route south toward the Russian naval base at Sevastopol.
• 1854 Siege of Sevastopol begins Allied forces besiege the Russian Black Sea fleet base Allied armies began besieging the fortified Russian naval port of Sevastopol in Crimea. The siege would become the central and longest operation of the Crimean War.
• 1854 Florence Nightingale departs for the Crimean War Nursing reform begins at Scutari military hospital Florence Nightingale left London with a team of nurses to care for wounded British soldiers at the military hospital in Scutari, near Constantinople. Her work improving sanitation and nursing care sharply reduced mortality and established modern nursing practice.
• 1854 Battle of Balaclava Charge of the Light Brigade A Russian attempt to break the Allied siege lines at Balaclava led to heavy fighting, including the disastrous Charge of the Light Brigade into well-defended Russian artillery. The charge became one of the most famous episodes of the Crimean War after it was immortalised in verse by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
• 1854 Battle of Inkerman Russian assault on Allied siege lines repulsed Russian forces launched a major attack on Allied positions besieging Sevastopol but were repulsed after fierce close-quarters fighting in thick fog. The battle inflicted heavy casualties on both sides and ended Russian attempts to lift the siege by direct assault.
• 1854 Eureka Stockade uprising Gold miners clash with colonial troops in Ballarat Gold miners protesting licensing fees and lack of political representation built a stockade at Eureka near Ballarat and clashed with colonial police and soldiers. The brief but bloody uprising is widely seen as a formative episode in Australian democratic tradition.