- Apr 1 Cincinnati becomes 1st US city to employ fulltime professional firefighters
Queen Victoria's Use of Chloroform
Apr 7 Queen Victoria asks John Snow to administer chloroform during the delivery of her eighth child, Leopold, leads to wider acceptance of obstetrical anesthesia
- Apr 11 Steamboat ferry 'Jenny Lind' boiler explosion kills at least 31 passengers in San Francisco Bay, California
- Apr 15 Dutch Protestant church petition King Willem III against re-establishment of Roman Catholic bishops in the Netherlands, he does so anyway
- Apr 16 1st passenger railway opens in India, from Bori Bunder (Bombay) to Thane (34 km)
- Apr 17 Johan Rudolf Thorbecke's government in the Netherlands resigns
- Apr 17 US Marine Hospital at Presidio, San Francisco forms
- Apr 19 Netherlands Van Hall government forms
- Apr 26 Dutch King William III disbands 2nd Chamber
- Apr 29 Comet C/1853 G1 (Schweizer) approaches within 0.0839 AUs of Earth
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists