| 1810–1859 | USA [agriculture] | US cotton production, the vast majority of which is grown in the southern states, rises from 171,000 bales in 1810 to just under 5.4 million in 1859. |
| 1840–1860 | world [plagues and epidemics] | A cholera pandemic kills millions of people worldwide. |
| 1845–1958 | Germany [earth sciences] | German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt lays the basis of modern geography with the publication of Kosmos/Cosmos, in which he arranges geographic knowledge in a systematic fashion. |
| 1851–1860 | world [photography] | Photographic exposure times become short enough to capture movement. |
| 1851–1860 | USA, UK [statistics and demography] | Emigration to the USA from Britain is 423,964, and from Ireland, 914,119. |
| 1853 | France [town planning] | The French architect Georges-Eugène, Baron Haussmann becomes Prefect of the Seine Department and begins reconstruction of Paris, France, using long wide avenues that converge on focal points. He begins with the Bois de Boulogne. |
| 1853 | USA [railways] | There are 48,000 km/30,000 mi of railroad track in the USA, up from 14,400 km/9,000 mi in 1850. |
| 1853 | England [poetry] | The English writer Matthew Arnold publishes Poems: A New Edition. It contains ‘The Scholar Gipsy’ and ‘Sohrab and Rustum’. |
| 1853 | UK [popular culture] | Tighter licensing laws in Scotland make pubs close at 11 p.m. and all day on Sunday. Illicit stills proliferate as a result. |
| 1853 | USA [communications] | The US inventor Richard Hoe improves his rotary press, developing the web press which can print 18,000 sheets per hour on both sides. |
| 1853 | UK [food and drink] | The British confectionery company Fry's produces the chocolate bar Fry's Chocolate Stick, later renamed Fry's Chocolate Cream. |
| 1853 | USA [food and drink] | The US chef George Crum creates potato crisps in Saratoga Springs, New York. The product is so popular that general commercial production begins almost immediately. |
| 1853 | Italy, UK, USA [opera] | The opera Il trovatore/The Troubadour by the Italian composer Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi is first performed, in Rome, Italy. It is first performed in both Britain and the USA in 1855 (in London, England, and New York City). His opera La traviata/The Fallen Woman is also first performed, in Venice, Italy. It is based on the novel The Lady of the Camelias, published in 1848 by Alexandre Dumas fils. It is first performed in both Britain and the USA in 1856 (in London, England, and New York City). |
| 30 March 1853 | Netherlands [births and deaths] | Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter whose work inspires the expressionists, born in Zundert, the Netherlands (–1890). |
| 14 July 1853 | USA [fairs and festivals] | The first World's Fair, modelled on the Great Exhibition of London, England, in 1851, opens in New York. |
| 15 November 1853 | Portugal [political events] | Queen Maria II of Portugal (known as Maria da Glória dies and is succeeded by her young son Pedro V, who initially rules under a regency. |
