1954

1954 was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar.

Events

January-February

• 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.
• January 26 - Milpitas, California was incorporated as a city.
• 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-April

• 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 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

• 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 Commission 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-July

• 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 4 - 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-October

• 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 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 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-December

• 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 13 - Don Estes invents the disrupter (a part to help combines work)
• November 30 - In Sylacauga, Alabama, a 4 kg meteorite crashes through the roof of a house and hits Ann Hodges, badly bruising her, in the first documented case of an object from outer space hitting a person.
• 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.
• Unification Church founded.

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 23 - Franco De Vita, Venezuelan singer/songwriter
• 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-July

• 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
  • Tony Dorsett, American football player
• 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 1 - Archie Norman, politician and business man
• May 7 - Amy Heckerling, director
• May 8 - David Keith, actor
• 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
• July 25 - Walter Payton, American football player (d. 1999)

August-December

• 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 21 - Ivan Stang, author and publisher of the first screed of the Church of the SubGenius.
• August 25 - Elvis Costello, singer
• August 26 - Pauline Hanson, politician
• 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 - Stevie Ray Vaughan, musician
• 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
• October 24 - Mike Rounds, Governor of South Dakota
• November 14 - Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State
• November 14 - Willie Hernández, baseball pitcher
• November 15 - Aleksander Kwasniewski, President of Poland
• November 16 - Bruce Edwards, golf caddy, (d. 2004)
• November 27 - Patricia McPherson, American actress
• 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

Unknown dates

• Nenad Prokic - playwright

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
• April 10 - Auguste Lumière, one of the inventors of cinema (b. 1862)
• June 7 - Alan Turing, mathematician
• July 11 - Henry Valentine Knaggs, physician and author
• July 13 - Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter (b. 1907)
• 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 28 - Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)
• November 29 - Dink Johnson, jazz musician (b. 1892)
• November 30 - Wilhelm Furtwängler, conductor
• December 8 - Claude Cahun, 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