Year 1353 (MCCCLIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.
Events
January–December
- March 3 – Bern signs an alliance with the Old Swiss Confederacy.
- August 27 – War of the Straits and Sardinian–Aragonese war – Battle of Alghero: The allied Aragonese and Venetian fleets crush the Genoese fleet, most of which is captured.
Date unknown
- The Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta makes the first recorded visit to Timbuktu and Kabara, when returning from a stay in the capital of the Mali Empire.
- The Decameron is finished by Giovanni Boccaccio.
- The Black Death (1331) subsides.
- The Lao kingdom of Lan Xang is founded by Fa Ngum.
Births
- March – Margaret I of Denmark, queen of Haakon VI of Norway (d. 1412)
- July 15 – Vladimir the Bold, Russian prince (d. 1410)
- date unknown
- Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1414)
- Helvis of Brunswick-Grubenhagen, queen consort of Armenia and Cyprus (d. 1421)
- John Purvey, English scholar and Bible translator (d. 1428)
Deaths
- February 2 – Anne of Bavaria, queen consort of Bohemia (b. 1329)
- March 6 – Roger Grey, 1st Baron Grey de Ruthyn
- March 11 – Theognostus, metropolitan of Kiev and Moscow
- April 27 – Simeon of Russia, Grand Prince of Moscow and Vladimir
- October 4 – Rudolf II, Duke of Bavaria (b. 1306)
- November or December – Togha Temür, claimant to the throne of the Mongol Il-Khanate in Persia (assassinated)
- date unknown
- Matilda, daughter of King Robert the Bruce of Scotland
- Elisabeth of Austria, Duchess of Lorraine, regent of Lorraine
- Sir Ulick Burke, Irish nobleman
