1954

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Millennium:	2nd millennium
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
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Sports - Television
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Leaders: Sovereign states - State leaders
Religious leaders - Law
Categories: Births - Deaths - Works - Introductions
Establishments - Disestablishments - Awards v • d • e

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

[edit] Events of 1954

[edit] 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 14 - Marilyn Monroe marries baseball player Joe DiMaggio.
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 U.S.-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.

[edit] 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, U.S. 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.

[edit] March

March 1 - U.S. officials announce that a 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 5; they are apprehended by security guards.
March 9 - American journalists Edward Murrow and Fred W. Friendly produce a 30-minute See It Now documentary, entitled A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy.
March 12 - Finland and Germany officially end their state of war.
March 13 - French troops begin the battle against the 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 - The Soviet Union recognizes the sovereignty of East Germany but Soviet troops remain in the country.
March 27 - The Castle Romeo nuclear test explosion is executed.
March 28 - Puerto Rico's first television station, WKAQ-TV, goes on the air.
March 29 - A C-47 with French nurse Genevieve de Galard on board is incapacitated on the Dien Bien Phu runway.
March 30 - Canada's first subway line opens in Toronto.

[edit] 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 for 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.

[edit] 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 - Brown v. Board of Education (347 US 483 1954): The United States Supreme Court rules that segregated schools are unconstitutional.
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.

[edit] 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, saying, 'Have you, at long last, no decency?'.
June 14 - The words "under God" are added to the United States Pledge of Allegiance.
June 15 - The UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) is formed in Basel, Switzerland.
June 17 - A CIA-engineered 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 continues for more than 35 years.
June 27 - The world's first atomic power station opens at Obninsk, near Moscow.

[edit] July–August

July 1 - The common Nordic Labour Market act comes into power.
July 1 The United States officially begins using the international unit of the nautical mile, equal to 6,076.11549 ft. or 1,852 meters.
July 4 - Meat, the last form of food rationing in Britain, ends.
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 the 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 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 - Brazilian president Getulio Vargas commits suicide, after being accused of conspiracy to murder an air force officer.

[edit] 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 - The SEATO treaty is signed in Manila, Philippines.
September 8 - The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) is established in Bangkok, Thailand.
September 9 - An earthquake centered on the city of Orleansville, Algeria kills 1,500 and leaves thousands homeless.
September 11 - The Miss America Pageant is broadcast on television for the first time.
September 14 - The USSR tests a nuclear weapon.
September 25 - The Footscray Football Club wins their first Grand Final.
September 26 - The Japanese ferry Toya Maru sinks during a typhoon in the Tsugaru Strait; more than 1,100 die.
September 30 - The USS Nautilus, 1st atomic-powered submarine, is commissioned by the US Navy.

[edit] 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 - A 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 - Muslim Brotherhood member Mahmoud Abdul Latif tries to kill Gamal Abdal Nasser.
October 31 - Algerian War of Independence: The Algerian National Liberation Front begins a revolt against French rule.

[edit] November

November 1 - The FLN attacks representative and public buildings of the French colonial power.
November 2 - The dock workers' strike in England ends.
November 5 - Japan and Burma sign a separate peace treaty in Rangoon, to end their formal state of war.
November 10 - U.S. 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.

[edit] 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 67-22 to condemn Joseph McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute."
December 2 - The Taiwan-United States Mutual Defense Treaty is signed. [1]
December 4 - The first Burger King opens in Miami, Florida, USA
December 24 - Laos gains full independence from France.

[edit] Undated

New Zealand inventor Sir William Hamilton invents the world's first water pump-jet engine, later named the "Hamilton Jet".
The first kidney transplants are done in Boston, Massachusetts 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.
The Unification Church is founded in South Korea.
The case of Lothar Malskat, who had admitted that he had painted the frescoes in Marienkirche himself, goes to trial.
The TV dinner is introduced by American entrepreneur Gerry Thomas.
New York City Ballet co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine's production of The Nutcracker is staged for the first time in New York, becoming an annual tradition there, still being performed as of 2008.
Korea opens Gimpo International Airport.
Lord of the Flies is first published.

[edit] Ongoing

Marshall Plan

[edit] Fictional

The following are references to year 1954 in fiction: Robert A. Heinlein's short story, The Year of the Jackpot takes place in 1954.

[edit] Births

**1954 in other calendars**
Gregorian calendar	1954 MCMLIV
Ab urbe condita	2707
Armenian calendar	1403 ԹՎ ՌՆԳ
Bahá'í calendar	110 – 111
Berber calendar	2904
Buddhist calendar	2498
Burmese calendar	1316
Byzantine calendar	7462 – 7463
Chinese calendar	癸巳年十一月廿七日 (4590/4650-11-27) — to — 甲午年十二月初七日 (4591/4651-12-7)
Coptic calendar	1670 – 1671
Ethiopian calendar	1946 – 1947
Hebrew calendar	5714 – 5715
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	2009 – 2010
- Shaka Samvat	1876 – 1877
- Kali Yuga	5055 – 5056
Holocene calendar	11954
Iranian calendar	1332 – 1333
Islamic calendar	1373 – 1374
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 29 (昭和29年)
Korean calendar	4287
Thai solar calendar	2497
v • d • e