1954

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

1954 by topic:
Arts
Architecture - Art - Film - Literature - Music - Television
Science and technology
Archaeology - Aviation - Meteorology - Rail transport - Radio - Science
By country
Australia - Canada - India - Ireland - Mexico - South Africa
Other topics
Awards - Sport - Law - State leaders - Religious leaders Video gaming
Birth and death categories
Births - Deaths

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

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Events

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January

January 1 - Soviet Union no longer demands war reparations from East Germany
January 12 - Large-scale avalanches in Austria - over 20 dead
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 17 - In Yugoslavia, Milovan Djilas, Tito's second-in-command, is relieved of his duties
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 First Lady of the United States 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.

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February

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 18 - The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles, California.
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.

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March

March 1 - Nuclear testing: Officials announce that an American hydrogen bomb test had been conducted on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
March 1 - Four Puerto Ricans open fire on United States House of Representatives and wound five. Security guards apprehend them.
March 8 - PR Newswire founded in New York by Herb Muschel.
March 9 - Edward Murrow and Fred W. Friendly produce a 30-minute See It Now special entitled "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 in round seven at Madison Square Garden in the first televised prize boxing fight shown in color.
March 22 - The London bullion market reopens (it was closed in 1939).
March 22 - London gold exchange opens for the first time since the war.
March 23 - Viet Minh capture the main airstrip of Dien Bien Phu - French forces are partially isolated.
March 25 - RCA manufactures 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 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.

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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 7 - Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech during a news conference.
April 12 - Original recording of "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and the Comets.
April 14 - – Aneurin Bevan resigns from the UK Labour shadow cabinet.
April 22 - Senator Joseph McCarthy begins hearings investigating the United States Army for being "soft" on Communism.

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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 - United States Supreme Court hands down its decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas 347 US 483 1954
May 17 - Petrov Royal Commission in Australia 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 - Robert Menzies Government re-elected for 4th term in Australia.

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June

June 1 - Radio station Sender Freies Berlin begins broadcasting
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 - On United States Flag Day, the words "under God" added to the Pledge of Allegiance
June 15 - UEFA (the Union of European Football Associations) is formed in Basel, Switzerland
June 17 - Military coup in Guatemala
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 Obninsk, near Moscow.

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July

July 3 - Food rationing ends in Britain
July 4 - End of rationing of meat ends all the food rationing in Britain
July 4 - West Germany beat Hungary 3-2 to win the 1954 World Cup
July 5 - Andhra Pradesh High Court is established.
July 7 - In Memphis, Tennessee, WHBQ becomes the first radio station to air an Elvis Presley record
July 15 - Maiden flight of Boeing 707
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.

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August

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.

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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 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

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October

October 11 - Vietnam War: The Viet Minh takes control of North Vietnam.
October 18 - Texas Instruments announces the worldwide first Transistor radio.
October 20 - Dock workers' strike expands in England
October 23 - West Germany joins NATO
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.

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November

November - The main immigration port-of-entry in New York Harbor at Ellis Island closes.
November 2 - Dock workers' strike in England ends
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 14 - Egyptian president Mohammed Naguib is deposed - Gamal Abdel Nasser replaces him
November 23 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes 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 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.

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December

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.

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unknown dates

The first organ transplants are done in Boston and Paris.
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.
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.