What Happened in 1954 — Events, Births & Deaths

India establishes its highest civilian awards, the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan.

Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York at the head office of IBM.

BOAC Flight 781, a de Havilland DH.106 Comet 1, explodes and falls into the Tyrrhenian Sea, killing 35 people.

The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation forming the American Motors Corporation.

In the United States, the National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member radio stations.

The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in Groton, Connecticut by Mamie Eisenhower, the First Lady of the United States.

The Detroit Red Wings played in the first outdoor hockey game by any NHL team in an exhibition against the Marquette Branch Prison Pirates in Marquette, Michigan.

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam.

Frank Selvy becomes the only NCAA Division I basketball player ever to score 100 points in a single game.

First Indochina War - small French garrison at Đắk Đoa is overrun by the Viet Minh after a week's siege.

Canada and the United States agree to construct the Distant Early Warning Line, a system of radar stations in the far northern Arctic regions of Canada and Alaska.

The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles.

Transfer of Crimea: The Soviet Politburo of the Soviet Union orders the transfer of the Crimean Oblast from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR.

The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine begins in Pittsburgh.

Nuclear weapons testing: The Castle Bravo, a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb, is detonated on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in the worst radioactive contamination ever caused by the United States.

Armed Puerto Rican nationalists attack the United States Capitol building, injuring five Representatives.

McCarthyism: CBS television broadcasts the See It Now episode, "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy", produced by Fred Friendly.

The Battle of Điện Biên Phủ begins with an artillery barrage by Viet Minh forces under Võ Nguyên Giáp; Viet Minh victory led to the end of the First Indochina War and French withdrawal from Vietnam.

Nuclear weapons testing: The Romeo shot of Operation Castle is detonated at Bikini Atoll. Yield: 11 megatons.

United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech during a news conference.

A Royal Canadian Air Force Canadair Harvard collides with a Trans-Canada Airlines Canadair North Star over Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, killing 37 people.

South African Airways Flight 201: A de Havilland DH.106 Comet 1 crashes into the sea during night killing 21 people.

Gamal Abdel Nasser seizes power in Egypt.

Red Scare: Witnesses begin testifying and live television coverage of the Army–McCarthy hearings begins.

The first practical solar cell is publicly demonstrated by Bell Telephone Laboratories.

The Geneva Conference, an effort to restore peace in Indochina and Korea, begins.

The first clinical trials of Jonas Salk's polio vaccine begin in Fairfax County, Virginia.

Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.

Indochina War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat and a Viet Minh victory (the battle began on March 13).

The anti-National Service Riots, by Chinese middle school students in Singapore, take place.

Beginning of the Kengir uprising in the Gulag.

The United States Supreme Court hands down a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, outlawing racial segregation in public schools.

Joseph N. Welch, special counsel for the United States Army, lashes out at Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Army–McCarthy hearings, giving McCarthy the famous rebuke, "You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"

Pope Pius XII canonises Dominic Savio, who was 14 years old at the time of his death, as a saint, making him at the time the youngest unmartyred saint in the Roman Catholic Church. In 2017, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, aged ten and nine at the time of their deaths, are declared as saints.

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a bill into law that places the words "under God" into the United States Pledge of Allegiance.

Carlos Castillo Armas leads an invasion force across the Guatemalan border, setting in motion the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état.

First Indochina War: Battle of Mang Yang Pass: Viet Minh troops belonging to the 803rd Regiment ambush G.M. 100 of France in An Khê.

The Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant, the Soviet Union's first nuclear power station, opens in Obninsk, near Moscow.

The FIFA World Cup quarterfinal match between Hungary and Brazil, highly anticipated to be exciting, instead turns violent, with three players ejected and further fighting continuing after the game.

Food rationing in Great Britain ends, with the lifting of restrictions on sale and purchase of meat, 14 years after it began early in World War II, and nearly a decade after the war's end.

The BBC broadcasts its first daily television news bulletin.

Elvis Presley records his first single, "That's All Right", at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee.

The Boeing 367-80, the prototype for both the Boeing 707 and C-135 series, takes its first flight.

First Indochina War: Viet Minh troops successfully ambush the armoured French column 'G.M. 42' in the Battle of Chu Dreh Pass in the Central Highlands. It is the last battle of the war.

Germany: Otto John, head of West Germany's secret service, defects to East Germany.

First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.

At Massena, New York, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Saint Lawrence Seaway is held.

Radio Pakistan broadcasts the "Qaumī Tarāna", the national anthem of Pakistan for the first time.

Alfredo Stroessner begins his dictatorship in Paraguay.

The first issue of Sports Illustrated is published.

The first flight of the Lockheed C-130 multi-role aircraft takes place.

The Cruise of the Kings, a royal cruise organised by the Queen Consort of Greece, Frederica of Hanover, departs from Marseille, France.

The Communist Control Act goes into effect, outlawing the Communist Party in the United States.

Vice president João Café Filho takes office as president of Brazil, following the suicide of Getúlio Vargas.

The People's Liberation Army begins shelling the Republic of China-controlled islands of Quemoy, starting the First Taiwan Strait Crisis.

KLM Flight 633 crashes into the River Shannon in Shannon, County Clare, Ireland, killing 28.

The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) is established.

The 6.7 Mw Chlef earthquake shakes northern Algeria with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). At least 1,243 people were killed and 5,000 were injured.

Hurricane Edna hits New England (United States) as a Category 2 hurricane, causing significant damage and 29 deaths.

In a top secret nuclear test, a Soviet Tu-4 bomber drops a 40 kiloton atomic weapon just north of Totskoye village.

Marilyn Monroe's iconic skirt scene is shot during filming for The Seven Year Itch.

Finnish president J. K. Paasikivi becomes the first Western head of state to be awarded the highest honor of the Soviet Union, the Order of Lenin.

The Moomin comics, created by Tove Jansson and Lars Jansson, is published internationally in the London newspaper The Evening News.

AEC Routemaster, the iconic London bus was introduced.

The Cochabamba–Santa Cruz highway connecting western and eastern Bolivia is inaugurated.

The Japanese rail ferry Tōya Maru sinks during a typhoon in the Tsugaru Strait, Japan, killing 1,172.

The convention establishing CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) is signed.

The U.S. Navy submarine USS Nautilus is commissioned as the world's first nuclear-powered vessel.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Sultanate of Muscat, Neil Innes, sends a signal to the Sultanate's forces, accompanied with oil explorers, to penetrate Fahud, marking the beginning of Jebel Akhdar War.

In accord with the 1954 Geneva Conference, French troops complete their withdrawal from North Vietnam.

Hurricane Hazel devastates the eastern seaboard of North America, killing 95 and causing massive floods as far north as Toronto.

Texas Instruments announces the Regency TR-1, the first mass-produced transistor radio.

US President Dwight D. Eisenhower pledges United States support to South Vietnam.

Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. becomes the first African-American general in the United States Air Force.

Aeroflot Flight 136 crashes near Krasnoyarsk, killing 19.

The Front de Libération Nationale fires the first shots of the Algerian War of Independence.

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicates the USMC War Memorial (Iwo Jima memorial) in Arlington Ridge Park in Arlington County, Virginia.

Ellis Island ceases operations.

Great Britain defeats France to capture the first ever Rugby League World Cup in Paris in front of around 30,000 spectators.

Télé Monte Carlo, Europe's oldest private television channel, is launched by Prince Rainier III.

Alger Hiss is released from prison after serving 44 months for perjury.

In Sylacauga, Alabama, United States, the Hodges meteorite crashes through a roof and hits a woman taking an afternoon nap; this is the only documented case in the Western Hemisphere of a human being hit by a rock from space.

Cold War: The United States Senate votes 65 to 22 to censure Joseph McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute".

The Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, between the United States and Taiwan, is signed in Washington, D.C.

Väinö Linna's war novel The Unknown Soldier (Tuntematon sotilas) is published.

First successful kidney transplant is performed by J. Hartwell Harrison and Joseph Murray.

The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation is established to consolidate criminal investigation and intelligence into a single agency.

Jacinto Benavente, Spanish author and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1866)