1954

1954 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January events

• 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 events

• 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 events

• 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 events

• 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 events

• 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 Commision 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 events

• 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 events

• July 3 – 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 events

• 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 events

• 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 events

• 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 events

• 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 events

• 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 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-May

• 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
• April 7  – Tony Dorsett, American football star
• 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 7 – Amy Heckerling, director
• May 8 – David Keith, actor

June-August

• 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
• 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 25 – Elvis Costello, singer
• August 26 – Pauline Hanson, politician

September-December

• 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 – Dennis Eckersley, baseball player
• October 9 – Scott Bakula, American television actor
• October 13 – Mordechai Vanunu, Israeli nuclear technician imprisoned for revealing Israeli secrets
• 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)
• 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
• 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
• 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 29 – Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist
• November 29  – Dink Johnson, jazz musician (b. 1892)
• November 30 – Wilhelm Furtwängler, conductor
• December 8 – Claude Cahun, surrealist 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