1954

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

1954 by topic: Subject: Archaeology- Architecture- Art Aviation- Film- Literature(Poetry)
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Year 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1954 Gregorian calendar).

Contents:

Events of 1954
- - Jan. . Feb. . March . April
- - May . June . July . Aug.
- - Sept. . Oct. . Nov. . Dec.
- - Undated . Ongoing .
Births
Deaths - Ship events
Nobel Prizes - Fields Medalists
See also - Notes - External links

Events of 1954

January

January 14: Marilyn weds DiMaggio.

January 1 - The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from East Germany.
January 12 - Avalanches in Austria kill more than 20.
January 15 - Mau Mau leader Waruhiu Itote is captured in Kenya.
January 17 - In Yugoslavia, Milovan Djilas, one of the leading members of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, is relieved of his duties.
January 20 - The US-based 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 First Lady of the United States Mamie Eisenhower.
January 25 - The foreign ministers of the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union meet at the Berlin Conference.

February

February 3 - Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first reigning monarch to visit Australia.
February 10 - After authorizing $385 million over the $400 million already budgeted for military aid to Vietnam, US President Dwight Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam.
February 23 - The first mass vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.
February 25 - Lt. Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser becomes premier of Egypt.

March

March 1 - Officials announce that an American hydrogen bomb test has been conducted on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
March 1 - U.S. Capitol shooting incident: Four Puerto Rican nationalists open fire in the United States House of Representatives chamber and wound five; they are apprehended by security guards.
March 9 - American journalists Edward Murrow and Fred W. Friendly produce a 30-minute See It Now documentary titled A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy.
March 12 - Finland and Germany officially end the state of war.
March 13 - French troops begin battle against Vietminh in Dien Bien Phu.
March 19 - Joey Giardello knocks out Willie Tory at Madison Square Garden in the first televised prize boxing fight shown in color.
March 23 - In Vietnam, the Viet Minh capture the main airstrip of Dien Bien Phu - French forces are partially isolated.
March 25 - The 26th Academy Awards ceremony is held.
March 25 - RCA manufactures the first color TV set (12" screen; price: $1,000).
March 25 - Soviet Union recognizes sovereignty of East Germany but Soviet troops remain in the country.
March 28 - Puerto Rico's first television station, WKAQ-TV, goes on the air.
March 29 - C-47 with French nurse Genevieve de Galard on board is incapacitated on Dien Bien Phu runway.
March 30 - Canada's first subway opens in Toronto.

April

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 political asylum in Australia.
April 4 - Legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini experiences a lapse of memory during a concert. At concert's end, his retirement is announced, and Toscanini never conducts in public again.
April 7 - Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech during a news conference.
April 14 - Aneurin Bevan resigns from the UK Labour shadow cabinet.
April 16 - Vice President Richard Nixon announces that the United States may be “putting our own boys in Indochina regardless of Allied support.”
April 22 - Senator Joseph McCarthy begins hearings investigating the United States Army for being "soft" on Communism.

May

May 6 - Roger Bannister runs the first four minute mile.
May 7 - Vietnam War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat (the battle began on March 13).
May 14 - The Boeing 707 is released after about two years of development.
May 17 - United States Supreme Court hands down its decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas 347 US 483 1954.
May 17 - The Petrov Royal Commission in Australia begins its inquiry.
May 20 - Chiang Kai-shek is reelected president of the Republic of China by the National Assembly.
May 22 - The common Nordic Labour Market act is signed.
May 29 - Robert Menzies's government is re-elected for a 4th term in Australia.

June

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 - The words "under God" are added to the United States Pledge of Allegiance.
June 15 - UEFA (the Union of European Football Associations) is formed in Basel, Switzerland.
June 17 - A military coup occurs in Guatemala.
June 18 - Pierre Mendès-France becomes prime minister of France.
June 27 - Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán steps down in a CIA-sponsored military coup, triggering a bloody civil war that would continue for more than 35 years.
June 27 - The world's first atomic power station opens at Obninsk, near Moscow.

July

July 1 - The common Nordic Labour Market act comes into power.
July 4 - End of rationing of meat - the last form of food rationing in Britain.
July 4 - West Germany beats Hungary 3-2 to win the 1954 FIFA World Cup.
July 5 - The Andhra Pradesh High Court is established.
July 15 - The maiden flight of Boeing 707 occurs.
July 21 - First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
July 28 - The Situationist International is founded.

August

August - First flight of a B-52 Stratofortress.
August 6 - Emilie Dionne, one of the Dionne Quintuplets, dies of asphyxiation following an 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

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 6 - SEATO treaty signed in Manila, Philippines KOVR went on the air.
September 8 - The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) is established in Bangkok, Thailand.
September 9 - An earthquake centered on the city of Orleansville in Algeria: 1500 dead and thousands homeless.
September 11 - First Miss America Pageant broadcast on television.
September 14 - USSR tests nuclear weapon.
September 24 - Edward Pilgrim commits suicide hastened by bureaucracy.
September 25 - Footscray Football Club wins their first Grand Final.
September 26 - Japanese ferry Toya Maru sinks during a typhoon in the Tsugaru Strait killing more than 1,100.
September 30 - USS Nautilus, 1st atomic-powered vessel (submarine), commissioned by the US Navy.

October

October 11 - Vietnam War: The Viet Minh takes control of North Vietnam.
October 11 - Hurricane Hazel crosses over Haiti, killing 1,000.
October 15 - Hurricane Hazel makes U.S. landfall - it is the only recorded Category 4 hurricane to strike as far north as North Carolina.
October 18 - Texas Instruments announces the development of the first Transistor radio.
October 20 - Dock workers' strike expands in England.
October 23 - West Germany joins NATO.
October 25 - Landslides caused by heavy rains hit Salerno, Italy, killing about 300.
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

November 1 - The FLN attacks Representative and public buildings of the France colonial power.
November 2 - Dock workers' strike in England ends.
November 5 - Japan and Burma sign in Rangoon a separate treaty of peace to end the formal state of war.
November 10 - US President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicates the USMC War Memorial (Iwo Jima memorial) in Arlington National Cemetery.
November 12 - The main immigration port-of-entry in New York Harbor at Ellis Island closes.
November 14 - Egyptian president Mohammed Naguib is deposed - Gamal Abdel Nasser replaces him.
November 23 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average rises 3.27 points, or 0.86%, closing at an all-time high of 382.74. More significantly, this is the first time the Dow has surpassed its 1929 peak level reached just before that year's crash.
November 30 - In Sylacauga, Alabama, a 4 kg piece of the Hodges Meteorite crashes through the roof of a house and badly bruises a napping woman, in the first documented case of an object from outer space hitting a person.

December

December 1 The first Hyatt Hotel, The Hyatt House Los Angeles, opens. It is the first hotel in the world built outside of an airport.

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."
- Taiwan-United States Mutual Defense Treaty. [1]
December 24 - Laos gains full independence from France.

Undated

New Zealand inventor, Sir William Hamilton invented the worlds first water pump-jet engine, later named the "Hamilton Jet".
The first kidney transplants are done in Boston and Paris.
The Boy Scouts of America desegregates on the basis of race.
Gerbils (Meriones Unguiculatus) are brought to the United States by Dr. Victor Schwentker.
Unification Church is founded.
Case of Lothar Malskat, who had admitted that he had painted the frescoes in Marienkirche himself, goes into trial.
The TV Dinner is introduced by American, Gerry Thomas.
Choreographer George Balanchine's production of The Nutcracker is staged for the first time in New York, becoming an annual tradition there, and still being revived as of 2007.
Korea use of Gimpo International Airport possible.