1954

Years: 1951 1952 1953 - 1954 - 1955 1956 1957
Decades: 1920s 1930s 1940s - 1950s - 1960s 1970s 1980s
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

1954 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January events

January 14 - The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator forming the American Motors Corporation
January 14 - Marilyn Monroe weds Joe DiMaggio.
January 15 - Mau Mau leader Waruhiu Itote is captured in Kenya
January 20 - The National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member radio stations
January 21 - The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in Groton, Connecticut, by Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower.
January 25 - The foreign ministers of the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union meet at the Berlin Conference.

February events

February 3 - Queen Elizabeth II is the first reigning monarch to visit Australia
February 10 - President Dwight Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam
February 23 - The first mass vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
February 25 - Lt. Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser is made premier of Egypt.

March events

March 1 - Nuclear testing: Officials announce that an American hydrogen bomb test had been conducted on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
March 8 - PR Newswire founded in New York by Herb Muschel.
March 19 - Joey Giardello knocks out Willie Tory in round seven at Madison Square Garden in the first televised prize boxing fight shown in color.
March 22 - The London gold market reopens (it was closed in 1939).
March 23 - Vietminh capture the main airstrip of Dien Bien Phu - French forces are partially isolated
March 29 - C-47 with Genevieve de Galard on board is incapacitated on Dien Bien Phu runway
March 30 - Canada's first subway opens in Toronto.

April events

April 1 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado
April 3 Vladimir Petrov defects from the soviet union and asks to seek asylum in Australia
April 7 - Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech during a news conference
April 14 – Aneurin Bevan resigns from the Labour shadow cabinet
April 22 - Senator Joseph McCarthy begins hearings investigating the United States Army for being "soft" on Communism.

May events

May 1 - Taku (city in Japan) founded
May 6 - Roger Bannister runs the first four minute mile
May 7 - Construction started on Michigan's Mackinac Bridge.
May 7 - Vietnam War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat (the battle began on March 13).
May 14 - Boeing 707 released after about two years of development.
May 17 - US Supreme Court hands down its decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas 347 US 483 1954
[May 17]- Petrov Royal Commision begains it's inqury
May 20 - Chiang Kai-shek is reelected president of the Republic of China by the National Assembly.
May 20 - Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty launches Belarusian language programming (see also Piotra Sych).
May 29 - Menzies Government Re-elected for 4th Term

June events

June 9 - McCarthyism: Joseph Welch, special counsel for the United States Army, lashes out at Senator Joseph McCarthy during hearings on whether Communism has infiltrated the Army
June 14- Flag day, the words "under god" added to the pledge of allegiance
June 15 - UEFA (the Union des Associations Européennes de Football) is formed in Basle, Switzerland.
June 18 - Pierre Mendes-France becomes prime minister of France
June 19 - The last regular-service streetcar operated by Twin City Rapid Transit runs in Minneapolis.
June 27 - Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán steps down in a CIA-sponsored military coup–Operation PBSUCCESS–triggering a bloody civil war that would continue for more than 35 years.
June 27 - The world's first atomic power station opened at Obnisnsk , near Moscow.

July events

July 3 - End of rationing of meat ends all the food rationing in Britain
July 7 - In Memphis, Tennessee, WHBQ becomes the first radio station to air an Elvis Presley record
July 21 - First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam
July 28 - Foundation of the Situationist International.
July 31 - First ascent of K2, by an Italian expedition.

August events

August - First flight of a B-52 Stratofortress.
August 6 - Emilie Dionne, one of the Dionne Quintuplets, dies of asphyxiation following a epileptic seizure at Sainte Agathe, Quebec.
August 16 - Volume 1, Issue 1 of Sports Illustrated is published
August 24 - President of Brazil, Getulio Vargas, commits suicide; he's been accused of conspiracy to murder an air force officer.

September events

September 3 - The last new episode of the Lone Ranger is aired on radio after 2,956 episodes over a period of 21 years
September 8 - The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) is established in Bangkok, Thailand
September 9 - An earthquake centered on the city of Oleansville in Algeria - 1500 dead and thousands homeless
September 11 - First Miss America Pageant broadcast on television
September 14 - USSR tests nuclear weapon
September 30 - USS Nautilus, 1st atomic-powered vessel (submarine), commissioned by the US Navy

October events

October 11 - Vietnam War: The Viet Minh takes control of North Vietnam.
October 18 - Texas Instruments announces the worldwide first Transistor radio.
October 26 – Member of Muslim Brotherhood Abdul Munim Abdul Rauf tries to kill Gamal Abdal Nasser
October 31 - Algerian War of Independence: The Algerian National Liberation Front begins a revolt against French rule.

November events

November - The main immigration port-of-entry in New York Harbor at Ellis Island closes.
November 3 - The first in the Godzilla series of films is released in Japan.
November 10 - US President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicates the USMC War Memorial (Iwo Jima memorial) in Arlington National Cemetery
November 30 - In Sylacauga, Alabama, a 4 kg sulfide meteorite crashes through a roof and hits Ann Hodges in her living room after bouncing off her radio, giving her a bad bruise (this is the first known modern case of a human being hit by a space rock).

December events

December 2 - Red Scare: The United States Senate votes 67 to 22 to condemn Joseph McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute."
December 24 - Laos becomes independent.

Undated

Battle of Dien Bien Phu between French and Viet Minh forces in Indochina
Boy Scouts of America desegregates on the basis of race
Stop signs are changed from black-on-yellow to white-on-red
Gerbils (Meriones Unguiculatus), brought to the United States by Dr. Victor Schwentker.

Births

January-February

January 2 - Henry Bonilla, American politician
January 6 - Anthony Minghella, director
January 12 - Howard Stern, radio host
January 22 - Peter Pilz, Austrian politician
January 29 - Oprah Winfrey, American actress, talk show host, producer, and publisher
January 29 - Yukinobu Hoshino, Japanese mangaka
February 1 - Bill Mumy, actor, musician
February 2 - Christie Brinkley, model
February 6 - Argusto Emfazie, occultist, author
February 12 - Philip Zimmermann, American cryptographer
February 15 - Matt Groening, cartoonist
February 18 - John Travolta, actor
February 19 - Socrates, football player
February 20 - Anthony Stewart Head, actor
February 20 - Patty Hearst, socialite
February 25 - John Doe, musician
February 26 - Michael Bolton, singer

March-May

March 1 - Ron Howard, actor, director, producer
March 4 - Catherine O'Hara, actress
March 13 - The Baroness Amos, British politician, first black woman in the UK Cabinet
March 16 - Nancy Wilson (guitarist), band founder, singer, actress
March 17 - Lesley-Anne Down, actress
March 24 - Robert Carradine, actor
April 7 - Jackie Chan, actor
April 7 - Tony Dorsett, American football star
April 9 - Dennis Quaid, actor
April 10 - Peter MacNicol, actor
April 15 - Seka, actress
April 17 - Riccardo Patrese, Italian racing driver
April 18 - Rick Moranis, actor, comedian
April 29 - Jerry Seinfeld, comedian
May 7 - Amy Heckerling, director
May 8 - David Keith, actor

June-August

June 9 - John Hagelin, physicist and U.S. Presidential candidates
June 22 - Freddie Prinze, actor and comedian (d. 1977)
June 26 - Steve Barton, actor
June 27 - Ron Kirk, mayor of Dallas, Texas
July 10 - Neil Tennant, British musician
August 1 - Michael J. Badnarik, software engineer and U.S. Presidential candidates
August 11 - Joe Jackson, British singer
August 14 - Mark Fidrych, baseball player
August 16 - James Cameron, film director
August 20 - Al Roker, television broadcaster
August 25 - Elvis Costello, singer
August 26 - Pauline Hanson, politician

September-December

September 13 - Steve Kilbey, Australian musician
September 23 - Cherie Booth, wife of Tony Blair
September 26 - Kevin Kennedy, baseball manager and television host
September 30 - Barry Williams, actor
October 1 - Martin Strel, Slovenian swimmer
October 3 - Dennis Eckersley, baseball player
October 9 - Scott Bakula, American television actor
October 13 - Mordechai Vanunu, Israeli nuclear technician imprisoned for revealing Israeli secrets
November 14 - Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State
November 15 - Aleksander Kwasniewski, President of Poland
December 2 - Dan Butler, American actor
December 14 - Ib Andersen, dancer
December 14 - Alan Kulwicki, race car driver (d. 1993)
December 20 - Michael Badalucco, actor
December 26 - Susan Butcher, American dog-sled racing champion

Deaths

January 18 - Sydney Greenstreet, English actor (b. 1879)
February 12 - Dziga Vertov, Russian filmmaker (b. 1896)
March 31 - Edwin Howard Armstrong, electrical engineer and inventor
May 6 - B.C. Forbes, financial publisher
May 19 - Charles Ives, American composer
June 7 - Alan Turing, mathematician
July 11 - Henry Valentine Knaggs, physician and author
July 13 - Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter
July 14 - Jacinto Benavente, Spanish writer (b. 1866)
July 29 - Coen de Koning, Dutch speed skater
August 24 - Getúlio Vargas, President of Brazil
September 21 - Kokichi Mikimoto, pearl farm pioneer
November 3 - Henri Matisse, painter
November 29 - Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist
November 29 - Dink Johnson, jazz musician (b. 1892)
November 30 - Wilhelm Furtwängler, conductor
December 8 - Claude Cahun, surrealist photographer and writer

Nobel Prizes

Physics - Max Born, - Walther Bothe
Chemistry - Linus Carl Pauling
Medicine - John Franklin Enders, Thomas Huckle Weller, Frederick Chapman Robbins
Literature - Ernest Miller Hemingway
Peace - The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Fields Medalists

Kunihiko Kodaira, Jean-Pierre Serre

Heads of state in 1954

President Juan Peron - Argentina
President Getúlio Vargas - Brazil
Prime Minister Louis Saint-Laurent - Canada
Mao Tse-Tung - People's Republic of China
Chiang Kai-shek - Republic of China
Lt. Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser - Egypt
Presidents Vincent Auriol and René Coty - France
Chancellor Konrad Adenauer - Germany
President Luigi Einaudi - Italy
Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru - Japan
General Francisco Franco - Spain
Prime Minister Winston Churchill - United Kingdom
President Dwight Eisenhower - United States

Categories: 1954