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Dashed edge = started before, or continues beyond, this day
Events on Friday 4 March 1853 3
1850 – 1853Fillmore presidency13th President — 1850 to 1853Millard Fillmore assumed the presidency on July 9, 1850 following Taylor's death, serving until March 4, 1853. He signed the Compromise of 1850 and opened Japan to US trade via Commodore Perry's expedition.
1853Franklin Pierce inaugurated as US presidentFourteenth president takes officeFranklin Pierce was sworn in as the 14th President of the United States on 4 March 1853 in Washington, D.C. He took the oath using an affirmation rather than a Bible, reportedly out of grief following the death of his young son in a train accident weeks earlier. His presidency would be marked by deepening sectional tension over slavery.
1853 – 1857Pierce presidency14th President — 1853 to 1857Franklin Pierce served as the 14th President from March 4, 1853 to March 4, 1857. His Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise and inflamed sectional tensions over slavery.