1954

Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s - 1950s - 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s

Years: 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 - 1954 - 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959

Events

• January 7 - The first public demonstration of a machine translation system was held in New York at the head office of IBM.
• January 14 - The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator forming the American Motors Corporation
• 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.
• 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 1 - Nuclear testing: Officials announce that an American hydrogen bomb test had been conducted on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
• March 1 - Puerto Rican nationalists attack the United States Capitol building, injuring five Representatives.
• March 4 - Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston announces the first successful kidney transplant.
• March 9 - McCarthyism: CBS broadcasts the See It Now episode, "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy," produced by Edward R. Murrow.
• March 13 - Battle of Dien Bien Phu: Viet Minh forces attack French
• 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).
• April 1 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado.
• April 7 - Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his"domino theory" speech during a news conference.
• April 22 - Senator Joseph McCarthy begins hearings investigating the United States Army for being "soft" on Communism.
• May 1 - Taku (city in Japan) founded
• 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 17 - US Supreme Court hands down its decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas 347 US 483 1954
• May 20 - Chiang Kai-shek is reelected president of the Republic of China by the National Assembly
• June 19 - The last streetcar operated by Twin City Rapid Transit runs in Minneapolis
• June 27 - Guatemalan Pres.Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán resigns in favour of a millitary junta, headed by Col.Carlos Enrique Díaz de León, putting an end to democracy in that country.
• June 28 - Col. Carlos Enrique Díaz de León is deposed as head of the ruling junta of Guatemala.
• 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 29 - First ascent of K2, by an Italian expedition.
• 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.
• 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.
• October 11 - Vietnam War: The Viet Minh take control of North Vietnam.
• October 31 - Algerian War of Independence: The Algerian National Liberation Front begins a revolt against French rule.
• November 10 - US President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicates the USMC War Memorial (Iwo Jima memorial} in Arlington National Cemetery.
• November 29 - The main immigration port-of-entry in New York Harbor at Ellis Island closes (the facility processed more than 20 million immigrants from 1892 to this day).
• November 30 - In Sylacauga, Alabama, an 8.5 pound sulfide meteorite crashes through a roof and hits a Mrs. Elizabeth 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 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.

• August - First flight of a B-52 Stratofortress.
• Battle of Dien Bien Phu between French and Viet Minh forces in Indochina
• The foreign ministers of the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union meet at the Berlin Conference
• Boy Scouts of America desegregates on the basis of race

Births

• January 6 - Anthony Minghella, director
• January 12 - Howard Stern, "shock-jock" radio host
• January 22 - Peter Pilz, Austrian politician
• January 29 - Oprah Winfrey, actress, talk show host, producer, publisher
• 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 17 - Damon Anderson, engineer extrordinaire
• February 18 - John Travolta, actor
• February 19 - Socrates, football player
• February 20 - Patty Hearst, socialite
• February 20 - Anthony Stewart Head, actor
• February 25 - John Doe, musician
• February 26 - Michael Bolton, singer
• March 1 - Ron Howard, actor, director, producer
• March 4 - Catherine O'Hara, actress
• March 13 - Baroness Amos, British politician, first black woman in the UK Cabinet
• March 16 - Nancy Wilson, guitarist, singer, actress
• March 17 - Lesley-Anne Down, actress
• April 7 - Jackie Chan, actor
• April 7 - Tony Dorsett, American football star
• April 17 - Riccardo Patrese, Italian racing driver
• May 7 - Amy Heckerling, director
• May 8 - David Keith, actor
• June 22 - Freddie Prinze, actor/comedian (d. 1977)
• July 10 - Neil Tennant, British musician
• August 11 - Joe Jackson, British singer
• September 23- Cherie Booth QC, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
• October 1 - Martin Strel, Slovene ultra marathon swimmer
• October 9 - Scott Bakula, American television actor
• November 15 - Aleksander Kwasniewski, President of Poland
• December 26 - Susan Butcher, American dog-sled racing champion

Deaths

• January 18 - Sydney Greenstreet, actor
• February 12 - Dziga Vertov, filmmaker
• May 19 - Charles Ives, American composer
• July 13 - Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter
• July 29 - Coen de Koning, Dutch speed skater
• September 21 - Kokichi Mikimoto, pearl farm pioneer
• November 3 - Henri Matisse, painter
• November 29 - Enrico Fermi, physicist
• November 30 - Wilhelm Furtwängler, conductor

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.

Heads of state in 1954

Referenced By