What Happened in 1854 — Events, Births & Deaths
1854 brings together 18 events, 0 birthdays and 0 deaths recorded across history.
January 2
- January 4
The McDonald Islands are discovered by Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang.
- January 21
The RMS Tayleur sinks off Lambay Island on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Australia with great loss of life.
February 2
- February 7
A law is approved to found the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Lectures started October 16, 1855.
- February 17
The United Kingdom recognizes the independence of the Orange Free State.
March 3
July 3
- July 6
The Republican Party of the United States held its first convention in Jackson, Michigan.
- July 13
In the Battle of Guaymas, Mexico, General José María Yáñez stops the French invasion led by Count Gaston de Raousset-Boulbon.
- July 28
USS Constellation (1854), the last all-sail warship built by the United States Navy and current museum ship in Baltimore Harbor, is commissioned.
August 2
September 2
- September 20
Crimean War: British and French troops defeat Russians at the Battle of Alma.
- September 27
The paddle steamer SS Arctic, owned by the Collins Line of New York, sinks off the coast of Newfoundland, following a collision with a smaller vessel, the SS Vesta. Only 88 of over 300 people on board survive. About a dozen of the occupants of the Vesta are killed when their lifeboat is hit by the Arctic.
October 2
- October 6
In England the great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead leads to 53 deaths and hundreds injured.
- October 25
The Battle of Balaclava takes place during the Crimean War. It is soon memorialized in verse as The Charge of the Light Brigade.
December 2
- December 8
In his Apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX proclaims the dogmatic definition of Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived free of Original Sin.
- December 18
The Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada abolishes the seigneurial system.