1954

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

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

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

See also:

Table of contents

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths
4 Nobel Prizes
5 Heads of state in 1954

Events

January - Playboy magazine issue features Margie Harrison, the first playmate.
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).
March 30 - Canada's first subway opens in Toronto.
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 President Jacobo Arbenz GuzmÃÂÃÂ¡n steps down in a CIA-sponsored military coup–Operation PBSUCCESS–triggering a bloody civil war that would continue for more than 35 years.
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.
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 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
Stop signs are changed from black-on-yellow to white-on-red

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 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
April 18 - Rick Moranis, actor, comedian
May 7 - Amy Heckerling, director
May 8 - David Keith, actor
June 22 - Freddie Prinze, actor/comedian (d. 1977)
June 27 - Ron Kirk, former mayor of Dallas, Texas
July 10 - Neil Tennant, British musician
August 11 - Joe Jackson, British singer
August 14 - James Cameron, film director
September 23 - Cherie Booth QC, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
September 30 - Barry Williams, actor, The Brady Bunch
October 1 - Martin Strel, Slovene ultra marathon swimmer
October 9 - Scott Bakula, American television actor
November 14 - Condoleezza Rice, US National Security Advisor (2001-present)
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 6 - B.C. Forbes, financial publisher
May 19 - Charles Ives, American composer
June 7 - Alan Turing, mathematician
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 29 - Dink Johnson, jazz musician (b. 1892)
November 30 - Wilhelm FurtwÃÂÃÂ¤ngler, 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.